People won't use your web site if they can't find their way around it. Whether you call it usability, ease-of-use, or just good design, companies staking their fortunes and their futures on their Web sites are starting to recognize that it's a bottom-line issue. In Don't Make Me Think, usability expert Steve Krug distills his years of experience and observation into clear, practical--and often amusing--common sense advice for the people in the trenches (the designers, programmers, writers, editors, and Webmasters), the people who tell them what to do (project managers, business planners, and marketing people), and even the people who sign the checks.
Krug's clearly explained, easily absorbed principles will help you sleep better at night knowing that all the hard work going into your site is producing something that people will actually want to use.
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
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Usabilty and talked about by synapse communications:
Until very recently, the subject of `usability' remained arguably as one of the `most' talked-after and yet `least' understood topic in the field of web designing. Till Steve Krug came with his book `Don't Make Me Think'. He made it clear from the title of a book that essays on the importance of offering a web user with the opportunity of easy navigation. And he shows us the way to negate every chance where subjugating a visitor to ponder on the points of `what' and `how' is no less than a crime in the... more info
This book I consider "best in class" on subject of usability design:
Simply put, this book is as entertaining as it is easy to read. It delivers highly useful, critical information about web design best practices, calling attention to the fact that great design keeps its user in mind at all times. The principles he outlines are well-articulated, as he continuously reminds designers that well thought-out functionality and intuitive navigation ultimately is, the basis of the best site designs.
HUGE waste of time and money:
If you have been on the internet several times over the past few years, you do not need to read this book. The content is very basic and examples are outdated. You can spend $3K for a website and you will still have a much superior website than the examples in this book. I recommend browsing the web for the websites of topbrands and also cool new start ups. The book is pretty, but is a total waste of time even though it takes only a few hrs at most to finish it.
Don't Make Me Think:
Don't Make Me Think is easy to read, but loaded with practical information about website design - organization, display, navigation, user-testing, etc. High quality, full-color illustrations, too. Well done. Thanks for the extra efforts in writing and publishing.
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