CS474: Human Computer Interaction - Leveraging Habits for Intuition
Activity Goals
The goals of this activity are:- To design a system for social benefit that leverages human habits to build intuition in the user experience
Supplemental Reading
Feel free to visit these resources for supplemental background reading material.The Activity
Directions
Consider the activity models and answer the questions provided. First reflect on these questions on your own briefly, before discussing and comparing your thoughts with your group. Appoint one member of your group to discuss your findings with the class, and the rest of the group should help that member prepare their response. Answer each question individually from the activity, and compare with your group to prepare for our whole-class discussion. After class, think about the questions in the reflective prompt and respond to those individually in your notebook. Report out on areas of disagreement or items for which you and your group identified alternative approaches. Write down and report out questions you encountered along the way for group discussion.Model 1: Case Study - Building Intuitive Habits
Questions
- Design an intuitive platform to slowly introduce concepts to a user, and then build upon them for more complex tasks.
Try It: Learning Curves and the Power Law of Practice
Interfaces feel “intuitive” when practiced actions become automatic — and that speedup follows a predictable pattern, the power law of practice. This notebook simulates a user practicing a UI task, fits the law to recover the learning rate, and models what happens when a redesign breaks a learned habit (Gourville’s “curse of innovation” in miniature). It pairs naturally with the World 1-1 case study above.
Click the badge to run the notebook in your browser with Google Colab (no installation required), or download the notebook to run it locally with Jupyter.
Explore Further
- Laws of UX - Jakob’s Law — “users spend most of their time on other sites”: a one-page, beautifully illustrated statement of why matching existing habits makes designs feel intuitive.
- Game Maker’s Toolkit - Super Mario 3D World’s 4 Step Level Design (video, ~12 min) — how Nintendo introduces a mechanic safely, develops it, twists it, and lets players demonstrate mastery. Written summary: each level teaches by structured, low-stakes repetition — exactly the habit-building scaffold this activity asks you to design.