Mental Models and Predictive Behaviour

Of particular interest are those assumptions which users make about a system based on their experience with other products and technologies. IT literate personnel may have already clocked up thousands of hours operating any number of other disparate applications, websites and mobile apps. 

Users become familiar with certain customs. For example, an individual would probably expect a frame containing an X in the top comer to close the window. There is no law which states that this rule must be obeyed by software designers but over time users we have developed conscious and subconscious behavioural expectations of the user interface. Break those unwritten rules and users describe the system as clunky or unintuitive. These assumptions and expectations can be entrenched and hinder transition to an unfamiliar technology. Designers face the difficult dilemma of whether to revise the user interface to fit with a user s mental model or to improve their models by providing additional user training. 

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