Learnability

**Learnability**
Learnability refers to how easily a system can be understood and used by a user. Factors such as familiarity, consistency, generalizability, predictability, and simplicity facilitate learnability (Louis).

//Familiarity// refers to what users expect from a given system and are based on what they already know and have experienced in the past (Louis). For example, in website, users expect page navigation, a loading graphic, images, text, and links. On the other hand, unfamiliarity creates confusion, and unsettles the user, creating a barrier to understanding since it causes them to doubt the rest of the components of the system.

//Consistency// refers to a level of expectation that comes from repetition. Users will learn a system more easily if it reacts in a consist fashion, and when it looks stylistically unified (Louis). A consistent interface creates familiarity. For example, an element may always load on the top right, or icons used in a system may have a similar look.

//Generalizability// expands on consistency to include other similar applications, and allows the user to transfer and utilize their knowledge from one system to another, which aids in the learning process of the new system (Louis). For example, tabs are used in webrowsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari.

//Predictability// entails building the application so that it will react in a way that is expected by the user (Louis). It involves new tasks that have to be created in such a way that a user can easily guess where and how they may access it.

//Simplicity// allows the user to quickly absorb stimuli and interpret it in order to understand it (Louis). A common way to create simplicity without sacrificing the features of the system is to create both basic and advanced user settings (Louis). This allows for the system to be initially simplified in a basic setting so that users can quickly learn the fundamental aspects, while leaving the option to unlock its full power in the future.


 * References**

Louis, Tristan. "Usability 101: Learnability." 17 June 2003. __Tristan Louis.__ 10 January 2008 <[|http://www.tnl.net/blog/2003/06/17/usability-101-learnability/>.]