unity-design team mailing list archive

[Joe Lanman <joe@xxxxxxxxx>]

These are all good but I don't think any cover the concept of being
extremely quick to learn

A UI can be very unfamiliar, but draw on many well-understood concepts to
create something completely new yet easily understood.

Language is a flexible thing, often changed over time by usage, and I think
in this case people often look a good design and call it 'intuitive',
meaning they quickly grasped it without much effort. I think to have a new
interface 'not require learning' isn't helpful - there will be learning, but
I don't mind the use of 'intuitive'.



On 14 May 2010 17:13, Thorsten Wilms <t_w_@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 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/
>
>
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