Lesson from Don't Make Me Think

If you have not had a chance to read any of Steve Krugg's Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, you should as it contains important lessons about design.

In chapter 2, Krugg (2006) discusses how readers tend to scan pages as opposed to reading them. He writes:

One of the very few well-documented facts about Web use is that people tend to spend very little time reading most Web pages. Instead, we scan (or skim) them, looking for words or phrases that catch our eye.

The exception, of course, is pages that contain documents like news stories, reports, or product descriptions. But even then, if the doucment is longer than a few paragraphs, we're likely to print it out because it easier and faster to read on paper than on a screen. (p. 22)

Krug’s book focuses on design principles with an emphasis on the how and why. Furthermore, he is more concerned with explaining the core components of usability rather than the actual technology. An experienced web technology consultant, Krug includes several real world examples for readers to understand and relate to.

Krug takes an entertaining, yet enlightening approach to teaching web usability. Readers do not have to be website design specialists to grasp and apply the procedures within the text.

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Krug, S. (2006). Don’t make me think! A common sense approach to web usability (2nd ed.). Berkeley, CA: New Riders.