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Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd Edition)
Paperback – 224 pages
ISBN-10: 0321344758
ISBN-13: 9780321344755
Amazon.com
Usability design is one of the most important--yet often least attractive--tasks for a Web developer. In Don't Make Me Think, author Steve Krug lightens up the subject with good humor and excellent, to-the-point examples.The title of the book is its chief personal design premise. All of the tips, techniques, and examples presented revolve around users being able to surf merrily through a well-designed site with minimal cognitive strain. Readers will quickly come to agree with many of the book's assumptions, such as "We don't read pages--we scan them" and "We don't figure out how things work--we muddle through." Coming to grips with such hard facts sets the stage for Web design that then produces topnotch sites.
Using an attractive mix of full-color screen shots, cute cartoons and diagrams, and informative sidebars, the book keeps your attention and drives home some crucial points. Much of the content is devoted to proper use of conventions and content layout, and the "before and after" examples are superb. Topics such as the wise use of rollovers and usability testing are covered using a consistently practical approach.
This is the type of book you can blow through in a couple of evenings. But despite its conciseness, it will give you an expert's ability to judge Web design. You'll never form a first impression of a site in the same way again. --Stephen W. Plain
Topics covered:
- User patterns
- Designing for scanning
- Wise use of copy
- Navigation design
- Home page layout
- Usability testing
Book Description
Yesterday's Web looked far different from today's Web, and tomorrow's Web will look more different still. Amidst all of this change, however, one aspect of Web use remains the same: The sites that offer the best, easiest, most intuitive experience are the ones people visit again and again. To ensure that your sites provide that experience, you need this essential guide from usability guru Steve Krug that distills his years of on-the-job experience into a practical primer on the do's and don'ts of good Web design.In this second edition, Steve adds three new chapters--in the same wry and entertaining style as the original--that explain why people really leave Web sites (Usability as Common Courtesy), how to make sites usable and accessible (Web Accessibility, CSS, and You), and the art of surviving executive design whims (Help! My Boss Wants Me to ____), plus a new preface and updated recommended reading.
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Book Reviews
Appropriately for a web usability book, this book was really well laid-out and reading and absorbing it took no time at all. Basically Steve Krug's advice is to eliminate any and all question marks a user may have when trying to navigate/use your website, often by following existing web conventions and cutting down on extraneous text, etc.
Besides explaining his theories he also gives a few case studies of how he would change a website to make it more usable. Those were quite interesting - somewhat amusingly, many of the websites were changed while he was writing the book (though not necessarily to something up to his standard).
His favourite usable site, btw, is Amazon, and I have to agree - although looking back, the design is very different now than whenever I started using it, I've never really consciously noticed the changes. I've even ordered from amazon.cn without really reading the text, because even with Chinese text there's not much of a question in my mind what the next step should be at any given time. So yeah, Amazon really doesn't make me think. (read less)
Appropriately for a web usability book, this book was really well laid-out and reading and absorbing it took no time at all. Basically Steve Krug's advice is to eliminate any and all question marks a user may have when trying to navigate/use your website, often by following existing web conventions and cutting down on extraneous text, etc.
Besides explaining his theories he also gives a few case studies of how he would change a website to make it more usable. Those were quite interesting - somewhat amusingly, many of the websites were changed while he was writing the book (though not necessarily to something up to his standard).
His favourite usable site, btw, is Amazon, a... (read more)
Recommended by Jeff Atwood.
Web usability is all about common sense which makes it seems so easy. But the reality, many of us do not have common sense. So it's good to read a book like this.
I like it because it's compact and concise, and it has lots of comical illustrations which makes it more fun to read. I especially like the case study part where Steve walks through with you on how he would have re-design some sites to make it more usable, it's like instead of giving you a fish, he teaches you how to fish.
The catch is, some of the sample website designs look a bit outdated, but considering it was published in 2005, it can be easily forgiven, so long we understand what Steve was trying to say.
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