When Jacob and I first brainstormed what Fellowstream should look like several months ago, we started the old fashioned way – by sitting down at a table, sketching on blank pieces of paper, and arguing until 1 in the morning.  The word “intuitive” came up several times, almost like a mantra.  “It’s gotta be intuitive…People need to intuitively move from their workspace to the project stream…What if putting that button in the right sidebar isn’t intuitive enough?

But what does “intuitive” mean?

“Intuitive” is one of those catchy biz phrases people cling to because it sounds good, like “company culture.”  We like to blame ideas and reasons on them.  Employees won’t ever use that process because of our company culture.  I don’t find that particular workflow intuitive enough.  These words hold back discussion.  They tell you what not to do, but not what you should be doing instead.

So eventually, we moved away from “intuitive” and thought instead about familiarity.  There are a billion great online tools out there (and growing every second).  What layouts are they using that work?  Can we adapt their ideas into something that will make sense to users right away?  If we decide to go the individualistic route and create a brand new type of pageflow, does the cost of having something unfamiliar on our site outweigh our innovation?  Asking these questions made our conversations more fruitful because instead of arguing about something abstract, we could discuss concrete and defensible positions.  Our original mock-ups improved because of it.  And now when our designers give suggestions, we have a solid framework to judge whether their idea is better than ours (or not).

We really do take our language for granted when we discuss ideas in a creative setting.  Just remember – if a discussion isn’t moving forward, take a step back and ask yourself, “Is our terminology creating excuses or creating opportunities?”  If it’s the former, you might want to reconsider looking at the problem without using the “blocker” language that’s holding you back.

-Deborah Fike

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