Intuitive Interaktion/ Intuitive Interaction

Intuitive interaction has gained increasing interest among researchers and practitioners in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). This is not surprising, given the many benefits of uncovering the secret of intuitive interaction: Designing systems that are immediately usable, even without any prior experience or instructions, by almost each and every person. Instead of frustration (about the producer’s or one’s own incompetence) intuitive interaction goes along with feelings of ease and competence, possibly even fun, and, eventually, happy users.

Many research approaches build on the development of a definition and clear-cut criteria of intuitive interaction. We suggest an alternative, more phenomenological approach. In line with the User Experience (UX) perspective, we focus on the experiential phenomenon and subjective feelings related to intuitive interaction. Our analysis makes use of insights from psychological research on intuitive decision making and user research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). As a result, we suggest four components of intuitive interaction (Gut Feeling, Verbalizability, Effortlessness, Magical Experience) and a research framework of relevant influencing factors. Given that intuitive interaction relies on the transfer of previously acquired knowledge, one relevant influencing factor is the domain transfer distance, i.e., the distance between application domain and the source domain of transferred prior knowledge. Current research explores the relevance of transfer distance of different ways of distributing prior knowledge (e.g., videos, manuals) and the resulting experience of intuitive interaction.

Further reading

• Blackler, A., Desai, S., McEwan, M., Popovic, V., & Diefenbach, S. (2018). Perspectives on the nature of intuitive interaction. In A. Blackler (Ed.) Intuitive Interaction: Research and Application, (pp. 19-40). CRC Press, Taylor & Francis. [Link]
• Tretter, S., Diefenbach, S., & Ullrich, D. (2018). Intuitive Interaction From An Experiential Perspective: The Intuitivity Illusion And Other Phenomena. In A. Blackler (Ed.) Intuitive Interaction: Research and Application, (pp. 151-172). CRC Press, Taylor & Francis. [Link]
• Diefenbach, S., & Ullrich, D. (2015). An experience perspective on intuitive interaction: central components and the special effect of domain transfer distance. Interacting with Computers. Interacting with Computers, 27(3), 210-234. [Link]
• Ullrich, D. & Diefenbach, S. (2010). INTUI. Exploring the Facets of Intuitive Interaction. In J. Ziegler & A. Schmidt (Eds.) Mensch & Computer 2010 (pp. 251-260). München: Oldenbourg. [Link]
• Ullrich, D. & Diefenbach, S. (2010). From Magical Experience To Effortlessness: An Exploration of the Components of Intuitive Interaction. In Proceedings of the NordiCHI 2010 Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 801-804). New York: ACM Press. [Link]