One of the core goals of UX design is to make websites as intuitive as possible. We accomplish this by following web conventions that users are accustomed to experiencing. For example, to let users know about a required field on a form, many sites place a red asterisk (*) next to the required form field. Users instantly know what that (*) means even without seeing the words ‘required field’ because that same convention exists on so many sites.
But what happens when there are no standard conventions? This is when user experience designers must step beyond intuitive design, into what I call instinctive design. While intuitive design appeals to users’ past experiences, instinctive design appeals to users’ base impulses. I recently saw a great example of instinctive design in the design of a public urinal (sorry, female readers may not fully understand this example as well as male readers). Basically, to combat the chronic problem public bathrooms have with mess and spillage around urinals, a urinal manufacturer designed a urinal with an image of a fake fly in an optimal target area of the urinal (see photo above). The strategy behind this urinal design was to cleverly appeals man’s core instinctive nature to…well, aim for the fly. Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but effective nonetheless. The resulting study showed 80% less spillage around the urinal, and it seems that many high traffic public bathrooms are now adopting this clever strategy.
In the world of web design, where we see much technological innovation, there may be some scenarios where a convention does not exist. In these instances, it may be beneficial to apply instinctive design into providing a great user experience.
