When faced with a design decision in which one option is more intuitive, and the other is more efficient, what guideline should be used to prioritize one desideratum over the other?
Answer
Which is more important depends on what you are designing. My general guidelines would be:
Intuitive matters mast when you're designing an app that people aren't going to invest time into learning. It's important that they get a win as soon as possible, and that means that they need to be able to use the product with little or no time learning it. Think of a small mobile app. Instagram is a great example.
Efficiency matters when people are likely to use the app a lot and they are prepared to spend time learning it. This applies when the perceived value in learning to use the application is greater than the perceived initial learning barrier. Note, perception matters a lot here. Think of an app which a programmer will use all day. VIM / VI / EMACS are good examples.
That said it is hardly ever such a clear decision between one or the other. It's a compromise between the two. Sometimes you can make something a little less efficient and a lot more intuitive and the other way around.
Spend some time thinking through what really matters to your target audience or, even better, ask them and do some early stage usability testing with them. You may just be surprised what you learn!
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