Mental models are internal representations that help individuals predict outcomes based on prior experiences and knowledge. Everyone uses mental models, often forming analogies to understand new concepts, which can evolve through experience and subconscious reasoning known as intuition. Intuition empowers people to make predictions about the future and is crucial for designing intuitive interfaces that align with users' mental models.

1. Mental Models and
Intuition
Ajay Ganapathy
Tuesday, January 22, 13

2. What is a mental
model?
• A sense of how something works
• the ability to predict an output for an
untested input
Tuesday, January 22, 13

3. Who uses mental
models?
• Everyone uses mental models.
• Studies strongly suggest that people
instinctively create mental models in order
to explain the world around them.
Tuesday, January 22, 13

4. Why use mental
models?
• Mental models simplify the task of
remembering input-output pairs.
• for example, instead of memorizing every
multiplication table, you can simply make
a mental model for multiplication, and use
that logic to solve any multiplication table
on the fly
Tuesday, January 22, 13

5. Analogies
• Mental models are often incomplete.
• Mental models are often based on weak
analogies between the new and familiar.
• According to Schema Theory, people try
to understand the new and unfamiliar in
terms of the old and familiar. Hence, they
form tenuous analogies.
Tuesday, January 22, 13

6. Learning
• As people familiarize themselves with a
new concept/technology/idea they begin to
understand it without the crutch of an
analogy.
• According to Agency Theory, this occurs
because with each interaction they hone
their mental model to more precisely and
accurately describe their experiences.
Tuesday, January 22, 13

7. Subconscious reasoning
• People are often not aware that they create
mental models until they are asked to
observe them.
• Mental models are a form of subconscious
reasoning.
• Subconscious reasoning is known as
intuition.
Tuesday, January 22, 13

8. intuition |ˌint(y)o͞oˈiSHəәn|
noun
the ability to understand something immediately, without the
need for conscious reasoning: we shall allow our intuition to guide us.
• a thing that one knows or considers likely from instinctive
feeling rather than conscious reasoning: your insights and intuitions
as a native speaker are positively sought.
DERIVATIVES
intuitional |-ˈiSHəәnl|adjective,
intuitionally |-ˈiSHəәnl-ē|adverb
ORIGIN late Middle English (denoting spiritual insight or
immediate spiritual communication): from late Latin
intuitio(n-), from Latin intueri ‘consider’ (see intuit) .
Tuesday, January 22, 13

9. Intuition = Power
• Intuition is the closest thing most of us
have to clairvoyance.
• Intuition, and more broadly, all types of
reasoning give humans the unique ability to
predict the future.
• This ability is also known as foresight.
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10. Intuitive interfaces
• An interface is considered intuitive when a
user’s incomplete mental model is capable
of predicting the behaviors of said interface.
Tuesday, January 22, 13

11. Making intuitive
interfaces:
• Piggyback off of existing visual vocabulary
• use conventional symbols to convey
functionality
• use skeuomorphs where appropriate
• Use a just one single consistent metaphor
throughout the entirety of your interface.
• ie: layers in photoshop or AE
Tuesday, January 22, 13