Book Review
Don't
Make Me Think is a great new book that is a great introduction to
making web sites that are easy to use. The author, Steve Krug, has put
together a book that's easy and entertaining to read while it introduces
the most important ideas in web usability.
If you haven't read this book yet, get it now. It's not an expensive book, as computer books go, and you will quickly recover the cost if you apply the ideas in the book to your web site. Krug's techniques for making your site user friendly can help increase your traffic and keep visitors coming back.
The book is short and to the point. Krug takes the most basic concepts of creating good web pages and distills them down into their essentials. If you're like me, you'll read through the book in one or two sittings. Krug makes his points, but doesn't belabor them, or get bogged down in mindless details. Krug's witty style and the book's design make the book fun to read.
His title states his approach to building web pages: don't make your visitors think. If they have to look for the information that they want, they'll probably look elsewhere. His book is written and designed with the same idea in mind. If you are ever in the position of trying to convince someone of the importance of make web pages that work, don't try to convince them. Just give them this book instead.
Krug also demystifies usability and the process of making good web pages. He argues that you can get good feedback on your web site just by getting together an informal group of four or five people and asking them to try the site out.
Here are some other points that he makes in his book:
- People scan pages instead of reading them. Pages should be then be designed for scanning instead of reading.
- The art of writing for the web is knowing what to cut.
- People don't figure out how websites work; they muddle through. They don't care how your site works. They just want to get what their looking for.
- Web testing should be kept simple and inexpensive so that you can do a lot of it.
Don't Make Me Think is not a comprehensive introduction to usability or designing user-friendly web sites. It is, however, the best
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