The Truth About Intuitiveness (part 1)

[adamz]

Saying that something is more intuitive than something else is all the rage right now. Apple and Apple fans like to use this word a lot. Are Apple products really more intuitive just because they say they are?
First off, what does it actually mean to have an intuitive interface? It means that you can use it by intuition. You don't need to learn how to do it. Now, all humans are born with certain instincts that are built-in to their brain functions. Interacting with a computer is not one of them.

Humans do learn things however. They learn to read words, recognize shapes, move objects, type words on a keyboard, etc. These things can be translated to human-computer interfaces in order to make the computer (and other electronic devices) easier to learn. In other words, we can base learning new things on things we have already learned in order to make them seem inuitive.

Now, easy to learn and easy to use are often two entirely different things. Making something easy to learn may mean simplifying the interface so that you don't have to see a bunch of potentially confusing things at the same time. It may also mean, creating multiple levels of navigation screens which explain to the user each step or creating a hardware interface that gives tactile/audible/visual feedback. And most importantly, it means basing the design on previously learned and widely accepted concepts such as language.

"Easy to use" is another animal. If you want it to be easy to use, you're looking for user interface efficiency. You want to be able to accomplish the tasks you've set out to do with as few steps as possible. This is very important for productivity.

Take a look at the interface for Windows. Up until Windows 2000, if you open a menu you'll notice that certain letters are underlined (they can be turned back on in the Display Properties). Once you understand that typing those letters on the keyboard will activate those commands without you having to move the mouse and point to them, you'll see how much more efficient this interface can be. This same user interface convention has been brought to Windows Mobile. If you open a menu on a Windows Mobile device (and your device has a keyboard or number pad), you'll see either underlined letters corresponding to each command, or numbers for each command. Pressing the corresponding button is much easier and faster than using the directional pad or stylus to select the command you want. If you already know about this user interface convention in Windows, you'll quickly recognize it on Windows Mobile. You’ll also quickly realize how much easier-to-use it is since your eyes and hands have much less work to do.

Does the Apple Macintosh OS have an equivalent for such an efficient user interface convention? Not at all. On all Apple OSes, you actually have to use the mouse to activate commands. While this is easy to learn, it's not easy to use when it comes to productivity and efficiency. Moving the mouse and following it with your eyes takes a lot more time than pressing a key on that keyboard. Sure, most programs implement keyboard shortcuts that are combined with modifier keys, but these are not nearly as discoverable as the underlined letter in the menu on Windows.

Even the desktop on Windows is easier to learn than the Mac OS. Imagine you've forgotten everything you know about Windows and Mac OS X and you looked at each of their desktop screens for the first time. On Windows, you'd see some icons that have labels which you can read. You'll see a clock, and maybe a speaker icon. You'd also see a button that says "Start" (on Windows 95-XP). It's pretty obvious that this is where you should begin. After you click on that, you'll see some more commands that are clearly labeled in plain text that you can read. On the Mac OS, you see a bar at the top with a fruit-shaped icon, and some words in a row that don't form a sentence and really don't make any sense. You'll also see a clock and icons on the desktop with labels. Then you'll see a whole series of icons at the bottom. They don't have labels and there's no way for you to know what they do or why they're there (until you learn how to use the mouse and put the cursor over them). Do they represent programs that are running? Are these the only programs on the computer? Is this where I launch programs? It's extremely confusing.

Those are some of the reasons that Microsoft Windows is exponentially more popular with businesses where worker efficiency and a reduced learning curve is important.

Of course, Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, Office 2007, and Windows Vista have changed all that and actually made these programs a bit more difficult to use and learn. No longer are there the familiar and standard user interface conventions that we've spent decades learning. No longer are there text labels for important menus and commands. What happened to the Start button? Where is File>Save As? Such drastic changes are horrible for usability. I guess by now people are supposed to recognize the Windows Logo as being a menu button. I’ve been using Office 2007 since long before it was released, and I still don’t think it’s at all easier to learn or use. The broken consistency is enough to annoy the heck out of me. The reviewers out there were all looking for something different though, right? But I digress.

Now let's look at the interface for driving a car. There's a wheel that you hold with your hands and you turn it to change directions. There are pedals that you feel with your feet. Varying degrees of pressure on those pedals change the amount of acceleration or deceleration. Is this an intuitive interface? Not at all. An intuitive interface for a mode of transportation for humans would be more like a treadmill that you walk on. The interface for driving a car, on the other hand, is much more efficient and you had to learn how to use it. All car manufacturers implement the same interface for a reason.

The point I'm trying to make is:
1. There's no such thing as an inuitive computer interface
2. An easy to learn interface is based on things you already know
3. An efficient user interface is worth learning if it makes tasks easier to perform.

[Brandon Miniman]

Interesting article.

I've had the experience of teaching some senior citizens how to use a computer from the ground up both on a Mac and a PC. It seems that those who use the Mac are able to find things on the screen easier, and navigate without asking too many questions. A companion to intuitiveness is consistency. A Mac user knows to always look at the top of the screen for the context-sensitive menu bar. It's in exactly the same spot. A Windows User may not got a menu bar at all (like in IE7) which is confusing.

[adamz]

Yeah, I hate that the menu bar is gone in some Windows applications these days. In many cases, you can bring it back by typing the Alt key, which is the shortcut for accessing menus.

One thing I do like about Vista is the new "Start" menu. At first glance, it doesn't look very user friendly at all since the Programs menu is no longer cascading. But then I learned the new way of accessing programs:
- Press the Windows icon key on the keyboard to bring up the menu
- Type the name of the application you want to launch
- The application appears in the list above. Type Enter to launch it.

This new way of launching programs is extremely efficient! I don't even have to organize my Programs menu into a less-cluttered directory structure anymore. I don't have to look and search for what folder I put the program I want into. That search integration makes launching programs much much easier.

My Mac has the Spotlight thing in the upper right, but it's so slow and I never discovered a shortcut key for it.

The Mac's interface and Finder are definitely more simplified than Windows. Anything that has less options immediately available to the user is going to be easier to learn. But that reduces discoverability of the hidden features (if they do exist).

[Rainman]

You can actually get the menu bar back in Vista. It's a setting under tools for most applications. There are some apps that don't have that ability (like Live Messenger), but on the whole, I have been able to bring my menu bar back.

[akac]

Every Windows user I have converted over the to the Mac has told me how *so* much easier the Mac is to use than Windows. I find it true myself. I feel most of the points in your article are actually untrue. Clutter, Start, letters under menus, etc..do not make you more productive or faster. I've almost never seen experienced Win users - even developers - use those underlined shortcuts. Most new users to Windows just stare at it not knowing what to do next.

As for Spotlight - there is a shortcut. CMD-SPACE. Its in the Spotlight prefs. Also, if you used Spotlight in Tiger - it was uselessly slow. In Leopard its dramatically faster and more useful.

[Brandon Miniman]

Every Windows user I have converted over the to the Mac has told me how *so* much easier the Mac is to use than Windows. I find it true myself. I feel most of the points in your article are actually untrue. Clutter, Start, letters under menus, etc..do not make you more productive or faster. I've almost never seen experienced Win users - even developers - use those underlined shortcuts. Most new users to Windows just stare at it not knowing what to do next.

As for Spotlight - there is a shortcut. CMD-SPACE. Its in the Spotlight prefs. Also, if you used Spotlight in Tiger - it was uselessly slow. In Leopard its dramatically faster and more useful.

It also matters what you are used to. Adam liked the keyboard shortcuts probably because of the years, he's programmed his brain to use them. For a newbie, these shortcuts would be completely NOT intuitive (why should I memorize a separate command system?).

[ajwalker]

Adam, I figured you'd be going out on a limb with this article (which was a great read by the way) since, once Mac users discovered it, you'd come into their crosshairs for even remotely suggesting the Windows way of doing things (until some of the recent changes at least) is better.

For the record, I've used both extensively (Mac, Windows) and do find Windows is more "intuitive" FOR ME, but not so for others. Some people find Windows works, some people find Macs work.

Yes, it is/was confusing with the whole ribbon thing in Office (which I'm getting used to) and even using Messenger sometimes I have to stop and think (where is how I do "X" again?). But it doesn't derail my whole life to want to leave Windows.

[adamz]

Every Windows user I have converted over the to the Mac has told me how *so* much easier the Mac is to use than Windows. I find it true myself.

Easier to learn or easier to use? I'll agree that it's easier to learn. Every Mac user I have converted over to Windows has told me how *so* much easier and faster and cheaper it is to do things that aren't possible on the Mac.

I feel most of the points in your article are actually untrue. Clutter, Start, letters under menus, etc..do not make you more productive or faster.

Do you have any quantitative examples to support your opinion?

Try this on Windows:
-Open any application
-Type Alt, Spacebar, "X" consecutively as fast as you can.
-Type Alt, Spacebar, "R" consecutively as fast as you can.
-Type Alt, Spacebar, "N" consecutively as fast as you can.

Assuming you're a touch-typist and know where those keys are on the keyboard, you just maximized, restored, and minimized that window in less time than it would take for you to even look at the minimize button in a Mac OS window.

Don't believe me? Lets list the steps it would take to do the same thing on a Mac or even Windows using a mouse.
-Open any application
-look with your eyes on the desk and find your mouse
-Remove one hand from the keyboard and reach over to your mouse
-Put your eyes back on the screen and find the mouse pointer
-Move your mouse to the 3 unlabeled circles in the upper corner of your application window
-Place mouse pointer over the minimize window button
-Click the mouse button to activate the minimize button

Look how long that took! That's a huge difference.

Okay, how about another example.
Say I want to apply a filter in Photoshop but don't really know which one. Type: Alt, T. Bam! There's the list! Now combine that with mouse movement... with my left hand, I can be opening the menu while my right hand is moving my mouse pointer over to that menu. That's a double boost in efficiency. Instead of moving my mouse all the way up to that top-level menu, I just move it to the menu's general vicinity so that I can choose a command as soon as the menu appears.
With Photoshop on the Mac, your left hand is going to be sitting there doing nothing while your right hand moves ALL THE WAY over to that Filter menu, clicks it, moves all the way down, etc.

The difference in productivity is blatantly obvious.

[adamz]

Adam liked the keyboard shortcuts probably because of the years, he's programmed his brain to use them. For a newbie, these shortcuts would be completely NOT intuitive (why should I memorize a separate command system?).

I was taught to use the keyboard shortcuts at my first job 18 years ago as a sales prospect and marketing manager for an insurance company. I was told that it was faster and it genuinely is.

Once you learn how the keyboard commands are organized, it's extremely easy to figure out what keys carry out what commands. Then you can build motor memory for the ones you use most often. This type of efficiency is not possible when you navigate the user interface with only a mouse.

I know a number of computer instructors who either turn over or unplug the mice on student computers because it can be such a horribly inefficient interface.

My mouse has been replaced by a Wacom tablet since you can actually build motor memory with that type of pointing device. In other words, if I place the stylus in the bottom left corner of the tablet, my pointer is instantly over the Start menu.

Anyway, if your Windows Mobile device has a keyboard, use it to navigate the device. You'll see how much faster and easier it is.

[Pony99CA]

Take a look at the interface for Windows. Up until Windows 2000, if you open a menu you'll notice that certain letters are underlined (they can be turned back on in the Display Properties). Once you understand that typing those letters on the keyboard will activate those commands without you having to move the mouse and point to them, you'll see how much more efficient this interface can be. This same user interface convention has been brought to Windows Mobile. If you open a menu on a Windows Mobile device (and your device has a keyboard or number pad), you'll see either underlined letters corresponding to each command, or numbers for each command. Pressing the corresponding button is much easier and faster than using the directional pad or stylus to select the command you want. If you already know about this user interface convention in Windows, you'll quickly recognize it on Windows Mobile. You’ll also quickly realize how much easier-to-use it is since your eyes and hands have much less work to do.

Does the Apple Macintosh OS have an equivalent for such an efficient user interface convention? Not at all. On all Apple OSes, you actually have to use the mouse to activate commands. While this is easy to learn, it's not easy to use when it comes to productivity and efficiency. Moving the mouse and following it with your eyes takes a lot more time than pressing a key on that keyboard. Sure, most programs implement keyboard shortcuts that are combined with modifier keys, but these are not nearly as discoverable as the underlined letter in the menu on Windows.
Aren't the Mac's command shortcuts displayed in the menu, just like Windows' command shortcuts are? If they are, I'd say they're equally discoverable.

In fact, until you mentioned Windows 2000, I had never even noticed that the keyboard accelerator underlines were gone in XP!

Even the desktop on Windows is easier to learn than the Mac OS. Imagine you've forgotten everything you know about Windows and Mac OS X and you looked at each of their desktop screens for the first time. On Windows, you'd see some icons that have labels which you can read. You'll see a clock, and maybe a speaker icon. You'd also see a button that says "Start" (on Windows 95-XP). It's pretty obvious that this is where you should begin.
But how logical is it that you use Start to shut down your PC? :p

The point I'm trying to make is:
1. There's no such thing as an inuitive computer interface
2. An easy to learn interface is based on things you already know
3. An efficient user interface is worth learning if it makes tasks easier to perform.
While you can argue that there's no such things as an intuitive computer interface, I think an interface can be more intuitive. The Xerox PARC desktop model (used in Windows and Macs) is more intuitive because it relied on interactions that modeled the real world.

To put a document into a folder, you dropped it there. To delete a file, you dropped it in the wastebasket. That was a lot easier to learn than command line programs or even menu-driven operating systems.

Intuitive interfaces can be built on top of what you have learned, I think, not just on what you instinctually know. You can argue that's "easily learned", not "intuitive", but Merriam-Webster (http://m-w.com/dictionary/intuitive) says they're (partly) synonymous.

readily learned or understood (software with an intuitive interface)
You can argue that it's just semantics (and it is), but I think using "intuitive" to mean only things that can be done by a newborn is going too far. :)

Steve

[Jaime Rivera]

I guess intuitiveness has a lot to do with avoiding a learning curve or keeping the KISS principle for user friendliness.

In my opinion, nothing is intuitive if it falls under the sense of something you'll figure out naturally. Nothing in our current computer world is intuitive, you had to learn it somehow. It took me three months to learn how to type quickly and a week to memorize all the Excel keyboard commands. What fell in after this was the law of primacy: "What you learn first, you learn the best and retain the longest". As an example, since I learned how to operate Excel with keys first, even though I now have a more visual interface, I thank Microsoft for keeping the old key commands because I keep using them. But, I bet for a new Excel user, there would be no point in memorizing key commands if he's got visual Icons that can help him find things easier. I could probably differ on a new user's point of view, but it's only because I learned it differently and obviously have gotten good at it. Keyboard commands may be quicker, but try not using the application for a year or two and that knowledge without practice may fade a bit. A visual approach to interaction doesn't have that disadvantage.

The only cases where I've seen the law of primacy to not apply is when something is so revolutionary and simple that you don't care about what you learned in the past; your excitement and spirit of discovery will get you to learn and pay attention to all the new stuff a lot easier. Take the old days when Motorola had 1bit graphics for their old StarTACs and Nokia implemented the Soft key interaction (I think it started with Nokia); I don't see many people preffering to use the FCN 1 as a better user interface than simply clicking the Menu softkey.

I've never been a Mac user, I've used Windows ever since version 3.1. I honestly can't say if one is better than the other, but looking at Windows' evolution, I do consider things to be slowly evolving to something better. I may find myself more productive with XP because it's faster and I've been using it for 4 years, but once Vista gets faster, I'll bet things will change because I can do more things with it.

[Pony99CA]

My mouse has been replaced by a Wacom tablet since you can actually build motor memory with that type of pointing device. In other words, if I place the stylus in the bottom left corner of the tablet, my pointer is instantly over the Start menu.
I beleive in muscle memory, but your example isn't well chosen. I can just jerk my mouse down and to the left and the pointer is over the Start menu, too.

By your argument, the Mac interface would be more productive, wouldn't it? You put your stylus at the top of the screen and you're at the menu bar. With Windows, unless your window is maximized, you have to move around to get to the menu bar.

Personally, I don't like mice at all due to the excessive movements required. I use a trackball.

Steve

[adamz]

Aren't the Mac's command shortcuts displayed in the menu, just like Windows' command shortcuts are? If they are, I'd say they're equally discoverable.

They are, but they're not assigned to each menu command. Furthermore, this is what you have to do to learn them:
- Move mouse to top of screen
- Click menu
- Read menu
- Memorize keyboard modifier and shortcut key combination

With Windows, you only have to remember which letter is assigned to each main menu. So if I can't remember that the Save command has the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut, but I do remember that it's in the File menu, I just type Alt+F, see the menu command starts with the letter S... type S and I'm done.
Also, all menu items can be accessed this way, not just the ones that have been assigned keyboard shortcuts.



But how logical is it that you use Start to shut down your PC? :p


Well, you have to start shutting it down. Makes sense to me. I might be finished using the computer, but I still have to start shutting it off. Maybe a picture of a fruit would make more sense?




While you can argue that there's no such things as an intuitive computer interface, I think an interface can be more intuitive. The Xerox PARC desktop model (used in Windows and Macs) is more intuitive because it relied on interactions that modeled the real world.

To put a document into a folder, you dropped it there. To delete a file, you dropped it in the wastebasket. That was a lot easier to learn than command line programs or even menu-driven operating systems.

Intuitive interfaces can be built on top of what you have learned, I think, not just on what you instinctually know. You can argue that's "easily learned", not "intuitive", but Merriam-Webster (http://m-w.com/dictionary/intuitive) says they're (partly) synonymous.


You can argue that it's just semantics (and it is), but I think using "intuitive" to mean only things that can be done by a newborn is going too far. :)

Steve

Yes, that was mostly the point I was trying to make. It has to be built on top of what you already have learned, in order for it to be easy to learn... BUT, sometimes a more efficient interface is worth learning in order to make the tasks faster... AND some people have already learned things others have not.

Using the keyboard to access commands and menus in Windows or Windows Mobile may not be easy to learn, but the huge gains in efficiency of not having to take your hands off the keyboard is definitely worth it.

[adamz]

I beleive in muscle memory, but your example isn't well chosen. I can just jerk my mouse down and to the left and the pointer is over the Start menu, too.


But that only works for the corners of the screen. With my tablet, I can put the stylus down anywhere in relation to it's boundaries and the mouse pointer is going to be there instantly.


By your argument, the Mac interface would be more productive, wouldn't it? You put your stylus at the top of the screen and you're at the menu bar. With Windows, unless your window is maximized, you have to move around to get to the menu bar.


Except you don't have to move around to get to the menu bar in Windows. The Mac interface would be more productive if I only had a mouse and one hand and one button. However, I have two hands and 10 fingers. With Windows, I can open menus with my keyboard before I even have to look for them. And in the case of Windows Vista (which hides the menus), I don't have to see them at all... they'll appear as soon as I hit Alt+F, or Alt+E, or whatever letter begins the menu I want to open.

[Pony99CA]

But that only works for the corners of the screen. With my tablet, I can put the stylus down anywhere in relation to it's boundaries and the mouse pointer is going to be there instantly.
Well, you only mentioned the Start menu, so that's why I said the example wasn't well chosen. :)

However, you can do that with a tablet because the tablet area can be mapped 1-to-1 (absolutely) to the screen area. (And a touchscreen would be even better because there's no indirection.)

If you wanted the mouse to behave like that, it seems like it would be fairly easy to map the mouse pad area to your screen so you could have absolute positioning.

Except you don't have to move around to get to the menu bar in Windows. The Mac interface would be more productive if I only had a mouse and one hand and one button. However, I have two hands and 10 fingers. With Windows, I can open menus with my keyboard before I even have to look for them. And in the case of Windows Vista (which hides the menus), I don't have to see them at all... they'll appear as soon as I hit Alt+F, or Alt+E, or whatever letter begins the menu I want to open.
If you're using a graphics tablet, you don't have two hands on the keyboard, that's for sure. :) You can use the keyboard, but then you'll have to move a hand back to the tablet once you've done your menu work. Moving your hands from one device to another was something you counted as a negative with the mouse, but the tablet seems to have that same problem.

I'm not saying a tablet is bad, just that your argument isn't consistent here. If I did a lot of drawing, a tablet would be great, of course. I don't, though, so to me it's worse than a mouse because of its space requirements.

Different strokes.... :)

By the way, I don't know if you've ever programmed in Windows, but those mnenomics have to be programmed (usually in your resource file). (In other words, Windows doesn't somehow automatically assign them.) Windows provides support for them, but a programmer has to actually implement them.

I wonder if the Mac APIs support mnenoics, but nobody uses them....

Steve

[cgavula]

An interesting note to this discussion is that Apple was the first commercial use of the keyboard mnenomics for cut, copy and paste (invented at Xerox Parc in the mid-70s, of course, and based on printing/publishing concepts) in 1981 (Lisa) then in 1983 (Macintosh) and Apple was the first to assign them to the X, C, and V keys along with using Z for undo (all of these requiring a modifier key, of course). MS didn't adopt it until later (1985).

Doesn't that also make it kind of ironic that the iphone doesn't support those functions (yet)?!

--Chris

[Pony99CA]

An interesting note to this discussion is that Apple was the first commercial use of the keyboard mnenomics for cut, copy and paste (invented at Xerox Parc in the mid-70s, of course, and based on printing/publishing concepts) in 1981 (Lisa) then in 1983 (Macintosh) and Apple was the first to assign them to the X, C, and V keys along with using Z for undo (all of these requiring a modifier key, of course). MS didn't adopt it until later (1985).

Doesn't that also make it kind of ironic that the iphone doesn't support those functions (yet)?!
:eek: :D :cool:

Good point. But we all knew that the iPhone wasn't perfect, right? ;)

Steve

[kdarling]

You definitely need to remove the bit about Tap-n-Hold being intuitive. It usually has to be taught (although it can also be discovered accidentally, like many iPhone actions).

I've railed since day one about Apple not including contextual help like WM, or at least the iPhone manual on the device itself. Certainly there's room for it.

It's very sad to see all the questions on forums about basic operations. It's ridiculous that people have to discover things like the Home button double-click on their own or read about it in a forum. Think of the millions who never figure some of this out!

There have been pieces written about iPhones being given to very educated people, who couldn't even unlock it without help, despite the instructions on the slider screen.

Bruce Tognazzini, the world renowned former Apple UI designer, wrote an article about the iPhone UI (http://www.asktog.com/columns/070iPhoneFirstLook.html) when it first came out.

My favorite phrase in his article is "putting lipstick on a pig", referring to anyone adding glitzy effects to cover up a lack of hardware or software capablity.