Empirical investigations into intuitive interaction: a summary

Abstract

Intuition is a type of cognitive processing that is often non-conscious and utilises stored experiential knowledge. Intuitive interaction involves the use of knowledge gained from other products and/or experiences. We have developed novel approaches and techniques for studying intuitive use of interfaces, and shown that intuitive interaction is based on past experience with similar things (Blackler, Popovic, and Mahar, 2003a, b, 2004a, b, 2005). Two initial experimental studies revealed that prior exposure to products employing similar features helped participants to complete set tasks more quickly and intuitively, and that familiar features were intuitively used more often than unfamiliar ones. A third experiment revealed that appearance of features seems to be the variable that most affects time spent on a task and intuitive uses. Based on our empirical work, we have developed principles and tools for designers to assist them in making interfaces more intuitive.