Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Author: Steve Krug List Price: $35.00 Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price ISBN: 0789723107 Publisher: New Riders (13 October, 2000) Edition: Paperback Sales Rank: 368 Average Customer Rating: 4.68 out of 5

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Customer Reviews

Mr. Krug has a writing style that matches my own: logical, easy to follow, and full of humor. Once I started reading, I simply couldn't put the book down.

This book gives a copious amount of information about the right ways and wrong ways to design a web site. Mr. Krug easily pairs this information with live examples of sites that are online, or intranet sites in which he played a part. Interjected in this valuable information are some of the funniest barbs, observations, and comments I've heard in quite some time.

Most of the concepts in this book are straight common sense. So common, in fact, that we tend to overlook them, and consequently violate the rules. Don't worry, Mr. Krug gently points them out to you with vivid pictures and diagrams, and has you laughing while he does it. He even has a name for his business that ties in to this common sense mentality. Read the book - you'll understand...and smile.

Want to know what billboards and roadsigns in Los Angeles and Boston have to do with web design? Read the book. You'll soon discover yourself critiqing road signs and such in the area of town you live. Department stores will become a library of examples on how to organize and display information. And you'll always, ALWAYS find yourself analyzing web sites that you already frequent, and pointing out what works and what could be improved upon.

One question: are you a scanner or reader? You'll find out once you read this book. And then you'll be amazed at the accuracy of what Mr. Krug has said and what you actually do when you're on the web.

Couple of great points--
We don't read pages. We scan them.
Sad but true...(sad for those who labor hours over graphics and sadder for those bustin' their nut to write web friendly and readable copy)

The exception as Krug points out are news stories, reports, or product descriptions. "But even then, if the document is longer than a few paragraphs, we're likely to print it out because it's easier and faster to read on paper than on a screen." I found that out when my magazine -AboutBizz Magazine decided to put our print magazine online. We spent months redesigning www.AboutBizz.com (I wish I would've found Steve's book two years ago when we started the redesigns -- it would've saved us hours and hours of waste!) We find that our printer friendly pages are always the most accessed pages.

He states that we scan because we're usually in a hurry and we're really only interested in a fraction of what's on the webpage. We only look for what matches our interests and the rest of it is ignored. He does a great job of proving this by showing HOW the eye scans your webpage --(If you don't have your logo in the top right corner after reading this then you must pass go and cannot collect your $200.)

Krug has another "Fact of Life" where he states We don't figure out how things work. We muddle through it.
I wholeheartedly agree. I for years have referred to this as the "scrunch factor". We've all done it...it's when you see or read something, and if you don't quit "get it" or understand what they message conveyed is or can't connect the dots in your minds eye, then you scrunch -- your forehead wrinkles, eyebrows drop, eye's look critical -if you're married then you've possibly seen this look from your spouse ;)

Of the most value is where Steve describes how you can run your own cheap and inexpensive focus study group using a few people, a number of choice questions, and a simple camcorder. After reading this, you will walk away realizing that ANYONE can do their own research and have real answers to how people their website.

It reminded me of a passage out of the classic book, TESTED ADVERTISING METHODS by John Caples. Early on in the book Caples talks about how in years to come who more advertisers will use more scientific methods to get better results with their ads. He talks about how every person had an opinion on what works...long copy, short copy, headlines, no headlines, sketches, etc..
Let me quote the book,

"Not long after that I began to work on mail order advertising. Each advertisement was tested. Results were tabulated. Each advertisement and each publication had to prove itself in actual sales.
I know now that much of the talk (of other people) I heard was just talk. Too often, the ad men were stating opinions, not facts. And in many cases, the opinions were not even the boiled-down opinions of a large group of people. They were personal opinions.
If the real foundation of those opinions could be discovered by psychoanalysis, it would be laughable in many cases. An artist might favor blue backgrounds in advertisements because blue was his mothers favorite color. A copywriter might recommend short copy because his wife once said, 'I would never read all that small print, and I don't think anybody else would, either.'..."

If you are in the midst of designing your website, or trying to get someone to pay attention to it, you will find plenty of "experts" telling you what works. Remember what Caples says, keep my words in mind, do yourself a large favor, go out and buy "Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" by Steve Krug and find out YOURSELF what works. It's a no-brainer.

Pros:
You'll never find in another book this great inexpensive method to do focus study research
Cons:
Wish he would have given examples how the eye scans applies to HTML email

The Bottom Line:
Use the information found on creating your own focus study -- & you may change the way your site looks...Why? Because the USER will tell you what really is working.

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