Let’s imagine that you are on vacation and someone asks you to describe your residence. You would be able to precisely talk about what is located in where because you have been living in your home for such a long time, so you have spatial memories of everything inside your lovely house.
Spacial memory works the same for a user interface. When your users are accustomed to your interface, they will have spatial and muscle memories of it.
For example, you don’t have to open Instagram to know that Instagram stories are those circle bubbles on the top of your screen, and you might need to click the bottom right corner if you want to change your profile picture. Spatial memories are essential because they help the interface navigation process be smooth and seamless.
As a designer, you are advised against performing a substantial modification to your interface frequently because that would provoke an unnecessary learning curve for your customers. Second, it is noteworthy that spatial memories are often vague and inaccurate, so you might need to incorporate landmarks and guiding symbols in the interface to inspire and calibrate users’ spatial memories.
Another good idea to strengthen spatial memory is to make your icons smaller and aligned to increase readability. Sometimes, users find it easier to remember when your app is more readable and user-friendly.
