Intuition and Web Usability

With both girlfriends having a Masters in Education and eager to learn about brain development...It is highly likely that I will read any link or article of any new research on the brain, how it functions and develops.

The tweet this morning from Guy Kawasaki was particularly interesting and indeed helpful as an online marketer as well as a soon-to-be mommy.

The study 'The neurological basis on intuition' "suggests that visual information can be encoded accurately even when one is not paying attention to it - something which has been demonstrated before - and also leads to the counterintuitive conclusion that retrieval of a memory is actually enhanced one's attention is diverted during encoding of that memory."

The connection to online marketing:
One may think that the act of navigation and decision making is based on the users 'intuition'. This is because a person may have never visited the site before, but are able to navigate and find things on the site easily. However, this study suggests that it may be based on being in that situation prior and knowing what to do - even if they have never been there or thought to have been there before.

This is directly linked to web usability and the importance of it. If you are building a website or a simple campaign page - as much as you want to be off the wall, if you want your user to accomplish a particular task (which in marketing terms, is equal to CTA's and $), it is best to stick with navigation, wording and design that is consistent, orderly and logical. Allow the user to use their 'intuition' on where to go, although this can be based on past sites, your main site and best practices.

Building a site using a style or concept that is not familiar with what the user may have experienced in the past may negatively affect the user's experience. Alternatively, even if you show the person how to use the new style or concept, it may still prove difficult to learn due to lack of familiarily and what we deem as 'intuition.'

NOTE: I am so not educated in this field but read such articles and studies and try to adapt it to my personal and work life.