The Myth of Intuitive Design
We had high hopes for my Grandpa Ben’s new phone. My mother and I decided the Samsung Galaxy was right for him because of its screen size and Android’s level of customization. He was so excited! Finally, he was going to be able to listen to his voicemail. Make calls. Text. Even check the weather! Except, there was one, small issue: he couldn’t do any of those things.
We tried our hardest, finding the most basic launcher possible, simplifying his home screen, using 32pt system fonts, etc. But as hard as we tried, it never worked. He could barely wake up the device let alone do anything productive on it. That’s when I had a revelation: Intuition is a myth in UX design.
INTUITION DEFINED
Perhaps no word is more commonly used in connection with a digital interface than “intuitive.” I hear a lot of things like, “this design is all wrong. It’s just not intuitive,” or “this new version of our app is great. It’s so intuitive!” Like a host of other words, it’s become one of those ubiquitous, meaningless buzzwords that we rarely define. What does it actually mean?
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