unity-design team mailing list archive

[Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2010-05-14 at 08:25 -0700, Tyler Brainerd wrote:
> I actually agree. Which word ought we to use instead, to describe the
> ease of understanding that a user has when interacting in a way that
> is familiar through learned experience? 

As mentioned, that is the benefit of Familiarity. This term reminds you
to think of who does and doesn't share the specific experience that is
the base of familiarity.

Other factors that likely come into play are:
 * Predictability
 * Consistency
 * Conceptual Simplicity

There's also ease of learning or Learnability, but I'd be careful there,
as that has to be the result of several factors and one might want to
include how much a users recalls after a period of abstinence.

Also, there's another issue with the word intuitive, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usability#Intuitive_interfaces:
---
Bruce Tognazzini even denies the existence of "intuitive" interfaces,
since such interfaces must be able to intuit, i.e. "perceive the
patterns of the user's behavior and draw inferences."[5] Instead, he
advocates the term "intuitable", i.e. "that users could intuit the
workings of an application by seeing it and using it." He continues,
however, "But even that is a less than useful goal since only 25 percent
of the population depends on intuition to perceive anything."
---


-- 
Thorsten Wilms

thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/