Metaphor mental model approach to intuitive graphical user interface design

Computer User Interface Design has evolved from Command Line Systems to Virtual Reality systems. These changes have been driven primarily by technological advancements. However, as Horton (1996) notes: "as computers have shrunk from house-sized behemoths to palm-sized appliances, the typical user has gone from a superbly educated scientist to a harried driver of a delivery van." Consequently, today's user interface designs must be made intuitive for product acceptability. In order to accomplish this, designers must understand the users better, and design to their needs. This research addresses the issue of Intuitive Graphical User Interface Design. We define an intuitive user interface as one that provides first-time (novice) users of an application, the ease of use and learning, ease of retention over time, and overall subjective satisfaction. This study draws from research in both metaphoric interface design and mental model. It is known (Borgman, 1995) that users generally employ some form of mental model of a system in their attempt to understand it. It is also known that metaphor is a type of mental model users have. The concept of intuitive metaphor mental model interface design proposes building into the interface some metaphor that would cause the user to evoke a "specific" metaphor mental model in his or her head. Once this model is evoked, and the system is designed to be consistent with the behavior of the model, the understanding of the system becomes automatic or intuitive. Based on this analysis, the following principles are proposed for the design of an intuitive system: (1) Use of metaphors that are from the users' sphere of knowledge; (2) use of metaphors that are consistent with the expected behavior of the system; and (3) use of metaphors that have well defined meaning to the user. An experiment to validate the principles of intuition was conducted with thirty senior citizens. The data gathered from this experiment was used to test the three hypothesis proposed for intuitive interface. Results from the data analysis support the fact that an interface designed with the proposed principles is intuitive.