Recommendation: Don’t Make Me Think!
Although Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability has been around for years, its not one all website owners are aware of. This is an outstanding book that doesn’t require technical know-how.
Who is this book for? EVERYONE involved in the creation of a website. That includes you website owners, project managers, and any of the other non-techies and non-artists who will be involved on the project. This information can save you a lot of headache and learning things the hard way. It will also save you arguing with your experienced web designer who already knows the principles this book covers.
The author helps you understand how to make your website more attractive to customers and potential customers by focusing on the average web surfer’s attitude to “Don’t Make Me Think!”. This is not meant to be insulting, but a simple statement of fact: when we’re surfing the web, we want our information fast and easy. We don’t want to hunt for what we want on a website. We don’t want to think. This is certainly my focus on every site I create.
A well-designed website is intuitive in terms of navigation and ease of finding information. Steve Krug helps you understand the principles that will allow you to give your site visitors more of what they want.
Definitely read the introduction: Read Me First when you open this book. (How’s that for great usability? You can’t miss the introduction with a title like that!) It gives you a bit of background on the author and his philosophy on web design, and explains that “yes, its’s a thin book”.
That’s right, this is a fairly fast read. Not only is it light on the technical end, but its a thin book. Krug gets to the point quickly and clearly, without a lot of fluff. His conversational tone makes the book even easier on our poor, overworked brains. We also get full color samples of websites and other information so we can easily visualize just what he’s talking about. The book works well as a quick reference too.
So here it is: a helpful book on web usability that is jargon-free that you can zip through it in a fairly short time. Perfect for all the overworked website owners out there who barely have time to gather content for their web designers, much less wade through the mountains of material on the subject both offline and in print form.
I can’t say it enough: buy this book! Everyone should have a copy of Don’t Make Me Think.
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