Intuitive Interaction with Complex Artefacts

This book describes empirical research undertaken into intuitive inter­action. This research is significant because it impacts on everyday use of everyday devices by everyday people and has the potential to affect the ways in which products are designed and more importantly the ways in which they are understood by their users. Intuitive interaction involves the use of knowledge gained from other products and/or experiences. It is fast and generally non-conscious. 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. Three principles of intuitive interaction have been developed. A con­ceptual tool has also been devised to guide designers in their planning for intuitive interaction. Ongoing work involves further refining this tool and investigating intuitive interaction for older people.