Concept of Intuitive Interaction

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 artifacts. Based on our empirical work we have developed principles and tools for designers to assist them in making interfaces more intuitive. These principles are discussed in this paper. 1 Theoretical foundation Our theoretical approach to the concept of intuitive interaction is grounded in literature and several years of careful empirical research All those who have seriously researched intuition have agreed that it is based on experience [Ag86; Bs03; BRBP90; DDA86; Fs87; KC02; Kl98; Lg97; NS84]. Tools, artefacts and other life experiences all contribute to the store of information on which intuition can draw. Intuition is generally non-conscious and so is not verbalisable or recallable, and can influence people’s actions without their conscious knowledge [Ag86; Bs03; BRBP90; DDA86; Fs87; KC02; Lg97; NS84]. Because it is efficient, intuition is also generally faster than conscious forms of cognitive processing [ Bs03; Sl83] and researchers agree that it is often correct but not infallible [Bs03]. From this understanding, we formulated a definition of intuition: Intuition is a type of cognitive processing that utilises knowledge gained through prior experience...It is a process that is often fast and is nonconscious, or at least not recallable or verbalisable [Bl08; BPM02]. Based on our definition of intuition and the very limited literature on intuitive interaction at the time, our definition of intuitive interaction was: Intuitive use of products involves utilising knowledge gained through other experience(s). Therefore, products that people use intuitively are those with features they have encountered before. Intuitive interaction is