Download link for the book:
Steve Krug - Don't make me think (Free download)
Ch. 1.Don't make me think
*Krug's first law of usability
Don't make me think.
Imagine you're using a site and think the following to yourself:
that's there, so this is that, here it is *click
That is what an ideal web experience should sound like
But web experience comes with questions. So, it is the designer's job to remove the questions.
Imagine thinking to yourself:
Where should I start? Why did they call it that? Are these two things the same? Can I click on that?
It is our job as designers to remove these questions.
Here are some solutions to remove some of these questions:
1.If there are doubts naming things, it is better to lean towards the more obvious, even if it is cliche. Imagine yourself searching for jobs online and find the following:
Jobs *yes, click
Employment opportunities *Hmm, jobs. Click
Job-O-Rama *Is it jobs or something else?
2.A user should never have to spend an extra millisecond thinking if some link or button is meant to be clicked or not. Consider the following:
A button that has gradients on the borders and reads 'Results' *Click
A button with no gradients that reads 'Results' *Hmm, click
An unordered list link that reads 'Results' *Is this meant to be clicked?
Also, it goes without saying that an arrow should turn into a pointing finger when hovering over clickable items. In CSS this can be done by a single line of code:
cursor:pointer;
3.Spend on parsing whenever feasible. A user should have to worry about framing their questions as less as possible. On some bookstore sites, you need to select from a drop-down 'title', 'keywords', 'author' or 'ISBN' and then enter the query. Amazon on the other hand just lets you type whatever you like and does the figuring out on its own.
4.Just like a good song, a self-evident page passes by quickly. Users spend effort on finding your web page. Users on the web are always on the go, they don't like to stop. But if a page is not self-evident, they still try to break their heads over finding what they are looking for in your page. This implies a good, optimistic leap of faith a designer must take, making the design of a page more self-evident.
Ch. 2.How we really use the web
There is a difference between how we think users read web pages and how they really read them. Mostly, they just glance over the page to find out if the page contains something interesting and clickable.
3 Facts of reading/glancing
1.We don't read web pages, we scan them.
We scan for phrases that match with our intention.
2.We don't make optimal choices
On the web, we often make decisions like we are in a hurry so we suffice with the first reasonable match we find.
3.We don't figure out how things work, we just muddle through.
An example is just how many people exist who try to enter URLs into Google's search box because they think Google is the internet.
Conclusion:
We thus learn the most important thing; it is not necessary to carefully craft exquisite literature inside a bulky web page, because users scan, not read.
A final quote,
"If your audience likes to treat web pages like billboards, design great billboards"
Steve Krug - Don't make me think (Free download)
Ch. 1.Don't make me think
*Krug's first law of usability
Don't make me think.
Imagine you're using a site and think the following to yourself:
that's there, so this is that, here it is *click
That is what an ideal web experience should sound like
But web experience comes with questions. So, it is the designer's job to remove the questions.
Imagine thinking to yourself:
Where should I start? Why did they call it that? Are these two things the same? Can I click on that?
It is our job as designers to remove these questions.
Here are some solutions to remove some of these questions:
1.If there are doubts naming things, it is better to lean towards the more obvious, even if it is cliche. Imagine yourself searching for jobs online and find the following:
Jobs *yes, click
Employment opportunities *Hmm, jobs. Click
Job-O-Rama *Is it jobs or something else?
2.A user should never have to spend an extra millisecond thinking if some link or button is meant to be clicked or not. Consider the following:
A button that has gradients on the borders and reads 'Results' *Click
A button with no gradients that reads 'Results' *Hmm, click
An unordered list link that reads 'Results' *Is this meant to be clicked?
Also, it goes without saying that an arrow should turn into a pointing finger when hovering over clickable items. In CSS this can be done by a single line of code:
cursor:pointer;
3.Spend on parsing whenever feasible. A user should have to worry about framing their questions as less as possible. On some bookstore sites, you need to select from a drop-down 'title', 'keywords', 'author' or 'ISBN' and then enter the query. Amazon on the other hand just lets you type whatever you like and does the figuring out on its own.
4.Just like a good song, a self-evident page passes by quickly. Users spend effort on finding your web page. Users on the web are always on the go, they don't like to stop. But if a page is not self-evident, they still try to break their heads over finding what they are looking for in your page. This implies a good, optimistic leap of faith a designer must take, making the design of a page more self-evident.
Ch. 2.How we really use the web
There is a difference between how we think users read web pages and how they really read them. Mostly, they just glance over the page to find out if the page contains something interesting and clickable.
3 Facts of reading/glancing
1.We don't read web pages, we scan them.
We scan for phrases that match with our intention.
2.We don't make optimal choices
On the web, we often make decisions like we are in a hurry so we suffice with the first reasonable match we find.
3.We don't figure out how things work, we just muddle through.
An example is just how many people exist who try to enter URLs into Google's search box because they think Google is the internet.
Conclusion:
We thus learn the most important thing; it is not necessary to carefully craft exquisite literature inside a bulky web page, because users scan, not read.
A final quote,
"If your audience likes to treat web pages like billboards, design great billboards"
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