All UX laws

Calibrated Trust

Show users when to trust, verify, and override AI output.

How to apply it

Always: cite sources, expose confidence honestly, give a quick override path.

Practise it on a real challenge

AI Summaries — the ones that quietly hallucinate

An AI feature generates summaries, and users occasionally get a confident, wrong one with no way to tell — design the loop that catches it before they trust it.

AI Travel Assistant — Wrong Train Booking

An assistant booked a non-refundable 06:12 train after an ambiguous request for a 'flexible morning trip'.

Health Assistant — Unsafe Advice

A health assistant gives overly confident advice without explaining limits or directing the user to professional help.

Recruitment Copilot — Biased Shortlist

An AI tool silently filters candidates using unclear criteria.

Smart Calendar — Unexpected Auto-Reschedule

A calendar agent moves an important meeting based on incomplete context.

Email Assistant — One-Tap Reply, Wrong Tone

A one-tap smart reply sends instantly, in a tone that doesn't fit the thread.

Chat App — Your Messages Train the Model by Default

A new AI feature is on by default and trains on private messages; opt-out is buried.

Research Assistant — A Confident, Fake Citation

An AI answer includes a specific-looking source that doesn't exist.

Support Bot — No Way to Reach a Human

A support bot loops the user through canned answers with no path to a human.

Marketplace — AI Quietly Sets a Different Price for You

An AI raises a user's price based on their behaviour, with no disclosure.

Coding Assistant — Auto-Accepts Its Own Suggestions

A coding assistant auto-applies its completions, so the developer stops reviewing what lands in the file.

Photo App — AI 'Cleanup' Deletes the Wrong Shots

An AI 'cleanup' permanently removes photos it judges duplicate or blurry — some the user wanted.

Content Moderation — Removed With No Reason

An AI removes a user's post and gives no specific reason and no way to appeal.

More UX laws

  • 60-30-10 Rule
  • 8-pt Spacing Scale
  • Accessible contrast
  • Aesthetic-Usability Effect
  • Alignment Principle
  • Density Matches Context
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