How to Design an Intuitive Website
21/08/2024
What is an Intuitive Website?
Simply put, an intuitive website, is one you can use without needing to consciously think about how to do it. The more intuitive a design is the easier it is to navigate and this ensures people come back time and time again to use it.
How Does a User's Past Experience Affect Intuition?
Intuition doesn't come from nothing, it relies on someone's past experiences. From the moment we're born we start to interact with both physical and cultural environments, learning how objects behave, absorbing languages, and symbols. These environments shape our understanding and expectations of the world. It can be argued that everything we know is learned, with repeated actions becoming intuitive over time. Interface design leverages this very theory. Users' past experiences can enable them to intuitively understand and interact with objects, icons, and text and they will expect certain actions to produce certain results based on their prior knowledge.
Use Easily Recognisable Icons
Icons are a great way to quickly communicate different actions. They're small and space saving, which is essential for a mobile design, but they can also communicate ideas quickly and effectively. However this only works if they are easily recognisable. There are many icons that are common and widely understood, for example; three horizontal lines for a burger menu, a magnifying glass for search, a heart to favourite an item and a bin for delete. You will sometimes come across websites that try to be quirky and change these common icons to something different, while this might help to distinguish your brand, ultimately you risk sacrificing the intuitiveness of your UI.
Consistency in Design Elements is Key
Consistency is key for an intuitive design. Your users, in paticular your repeat users appreciate consistency across the different elements of your website. This helps to build familiarity and trust, making users feel comfortable and confident as they interact with your design. One way to achieve this is uniform text styles, so font styles, headings and sizes are consistent. This helps users comprehnd your content and quickly find what they're looking for, not to mention it contributing to a more cohesive and professional look.
Keep it Simple
Simplicity is at the heart of intuitive design. When a website is cluttered a user will feel unfocused and overwhelmed. Whereas reducing your content down to only what is necessary will reduce your users cognitive load, making it easier for them to navigate, make decisions and complete tasks. A really effective way to achieve this is through clear visual hierarchy. The most important information is prioritised so users intuitevly know where to look first. This is possible through strategic use of size, colour, and space (see our previous article on white space to find out more about this).