Ordinarily I like words. I’m a wordy person, one of those Scrabble playing and crossword puzzle obsessed weirdoes. But there is one exception, and that is the word “Intuitive” – I have learned to hate it.

It keeps coming up in meetings, both with clients and with my colleagues: “We need to make this application intuitive.” “I looked at it and I didn’t find it intuitive.”

Every time I hear it I want to quote Inigo Montoya from “The Princess Bride” – “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Intuitive means that something is perceived through intuition, that it is fully understood upon first viewing, without analysis or thinking. The most common synonym for “intuitive” is “instinctive”. A snowball is pretty darned intuitive: you see it and you just know that the universe wants you to throw it (preferably at your little brother); even toddlers can get the basic concept. Frisbees are less intuitive; they’re not complicated objects, but they require some observation and practice before you can use them without thinking about it.

So why does this little word make me so crazy when it’s used to describe a software interface? Because it’s the wrong word to use.

You may not be able to tell if it is “intuitive”. If you’ve already peeked behind the curtain of a system – if you know the details of its purpose, function, and intent – you can’t tell if the system is intuitive or not. In this situation you do not meet the “upon first viewing” criteria of intuitiveness. It is the wrong word.

Moreover, a lot of great applications are not intuitive, and that’s OK – they shouldn’t be. If the system deals with complex activity or information, if it requires training, it will never be immediately instinctive because it will never meet the “without analysis or thinking” criteria. Intuitive is the wrong word to use.

Finally, not everything that is “intuitive” works well. Perhaps it made perfect sense to you the first time you saw it, but it got more confusing and less useful as you got deeper into the details. Well then, in this case it just might actually be somewhat intuitive. But that doesn’t mean that it’s what your business needs in the long run. I mean, is this really a system that is going to be used only once by each user? Again, “intuitive” is the wrong word.

This leaves us one question. If we can’t use “intuitive”, what are the right words to describe what we might be looking for? Allow me to suggest a few alternatives:

Familiar – A lot of us in the business world use Microsoft Excel and use it often. We may not love it, but we know how to use it. Excel is not intuitive; it’s familiar to the point where it feels intuitive.

Logical – A simple word, but so underused. Does the system follow a logic pattern known to its target user-base? This, unlike “intuitive”, takes into account prior knowledge and training.

Usable – Best judged by people with the knowledge and experience of the actual users, the “usability” of a system can defy the best guesses of the development team. Sometimes users go for things that are illogical, unfamiliar, and downright “unintuitive”… to anyone but them.

These are three great words and they communicate good ideas. Not everything must, or even should, be “intuitive” – it is not the only word we should use to define success. “Unintuitive” is not always a bad thing. If we all choose our words carefully and make sure that they mean what we think they mean, then we will be able to communicate well enough to really succeed.

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