What makes a design ‘intuitive’?

Jared Spool writes about the current vs the target knowledge point. That is to say, how much the user knows about the design vs how much the user needs to know to accomplish their objectives, yields the “Knowledge Gap.”  The Knowledge Gap is where design happens. Good design both trains the users through explanatory text while reducing complexity.

Spool’s research shows that one or both conditions must be met to be considered ‘intuitive’ by most of his test subjects:

Condition #1:
Both the current knowledge point and the target knowledge point are identical. When the user walks up to the design, they know everything they need to operate it and complete their objective.

Condition #2:
The current knowledge point and the target knowledge point are separate, but the user is completely unaware the design is helping them bridge the gap. The user is being trained in a way that seems completely natural.

What’s a good example of leveraging intuition? Dialing “9″ to call to an outside line or hitting “0″ for an operator. Alternatively, one can close the knowledge gap but simply putting a sticker on the phone receiver if this standard is deviated from.

Abhijit Nadgouda notes, “designs are simple when they play to the user’s perception and knowledge. Designs are intuitive when they help users learn and get more knowledge.”

Sources

http://blog.vkistudios.com/index.cfm/2008/6/10/What-Makes-a-Design-Intuitive

http://ifacethoughts.net/2007/07/28/intuitive-design/

http://www.intuitive.com/articles/design-guide.html

Doesn’t matter if you are a lion or a gazelle

An ancient African proverb goes like this:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.

We all agree that there is no such thing as risk-free, only risk mitigation.

Subliminal advertising, does it work?

James Vicary pioneered the idea of subliminal advertising in 1957 where he quickly flashed messages on a movie screen to influence people to purchase more food and drinks.  He projected the words “Drink Coca Cola” and “Hungry? Eat popcorn” for 1/3000 of a second at five-second intervals which resulted in increased sales of 18% and 58%.

The next year, the CIA banned subliminal cuts in the US noting, “certain individuals can at certain times and under certain circumstances be influenced to act abnormally without awareness of the influence.” The only problem is that many believe the study was “a gimmick” and James disappeared from the market business after his disclosure.

Source