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A review by aqword
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd Edition) by Steve Krug
3.0
I was predisposed in favor of this book because it's the most-voted-for on the UX Stack Exchange. It wasn't all I'd hoped it would be. If this were the first text about usability I'd read, I might have gotten more out of it. As it was, the overwhelming majority of the topics presented seemed patently obvious to me.
One thing this book has going for it is its brevity. Before agreeing to publish a second edition, Krug insisted upon first discovering what could be removed from the first edition so that no extra length would be added. Rather than writing about details of debates relevant only to people completely immersed in usability, he aims to convey the most essential concepts of the usability field as briefly as possible. In this he succeeds. The book is a clear introduction to some of the most important principles of the field. However, it glosses over them without going into depth.
Perhaps the most useful part of the book is a transcript of a sample usability test, including what to say and do at the beginning of the test. The introduction says that this chapter was abridged from three chapters in an earlier version of the book and some of the content was moved to Krug's site and expanded upon in a later book, which I am now interested in reading.
Some other (less useful) things this book says are:
- The function of every element on the page should be as obvious as possible. Aim to make things self-evident, but make them self-explanatory at the very least.
- Expect users to skim, satisfice, and muddle through pages. Designers should make it easy to skim and make it so that users have to muddle as little as possible.
- Use a clear visual hierarchy to help users find things faster.
- Don't go against conventions unless your change brings a significant and easy-to-learn improvement.
- Assume that every element is visual noise.
- Use navigation elements not just to show people how to find what they're looking for, but also to give them a sense of where they are and what else the site contains.
- Navigation should be consistently laid out through all the levels of the site, not just the top two.
- Navigation elements (particularly those showing the location of the current page) should stick out.
- Tabs connecting to the pages below are strong navigational elements.
- All headers and labels should be clearly associated visually with the elements they relate to (framing those elements).
- Make sure that the homepage conveys the big picture. It should tell what the site is about. Use taglines rather than mottos next to site logos. (Tell what the site does, not what it's ideals are.)
- The navigation should be the same on all pages except for the homepage and pages with forms.
- Avoid the Tragedy of the Commons that occurs when too many things are added to the homepage. All departments will want homepage links, but too many homepage links will devalue the homepage. (The sections of the book about the homepage are decreasing in importance owing to the decreasing number of users actually landing on site home pages.)
- You shouldn't expect any one feature to be the best way of doing something for all users (or a mythic Average User); instead focus on whether it creates a good experience for users who encounter it in its current context.
- Focus groups are for initial planning; usability tests are for iterative improvement.
- Test early, informally, and often. This way, you can improve the product and encounter issues in later tests that weren't evident until issues from the first test were resolved.
- You can set up an inexpensive yet effective usability lab by placing a camcorder monitoring the screen in one room leading to a TV displaying the video to stakeholders in another room. Use a screen recorder as well.
- Before you have a working prototype, run tests on a couple of sites with similar features or functionality to get a sense of what works well about them.
- Be considerate of the user. Try to have their best interests at heart.
- To help make a site accessible to people with disabilities, first make sure it's usable for people without disabilities.
- Several small tweaks in the code can drastically improve accessibility.
One thing this book has going for it is its brevity. Before agreeing to publish a second edition, Krug insisted upon first discovering what could be removed from the first edition so that no extra length would be added. Rather than writing about details of debates relevant only to people completely immersed in usability, he aims to convey the most essential concepts of the usability field as briefly as possible. In this he succeeds. The book is a clear introduction to some of the most important principles of the field. However, it glosses over them without going into depth.
Perhaps the most useful part of the book is a transcript of a sample usability test, including what to say and do at the beginning of the test. The introduction says that this chapter was abridged from three chapters in an earlier version of the book and some of the content was moved to Krug's site and expanded upon in a later book, which I am now interested in reading.
Some other (less useful) things this book says are:
Spoiler
- The function of every element on the page should be as obvious as possible. Aim to make things self-evident, but make them self-explanatory at the very least.
- Expect users to skim, satisfice, and muddle through pages. Designers should make it easy to skim and make it so that users have to muddle as little as possible.
- Use a clear visual hierarchy to help users find things faster.
- Don't go against conventions unless your change brings a significant and easy-to-learn improvement.
- Assume that every element is visual noise.
- Use navigation elements not just to show people how to find what they're looking for, but also to give them a sense of where they are and what else the site contains.
- Navigation should be consistently laid out through all the levels of the site, not just the top two.
- Navigation elements (particularly those showing the location of the current page) should stick out.
- Tabs connecting to the pages below are strong navigational elements.
- All headers and labels should be clearly associated visually with the elements they relate to (framing those elements).
- Make sure that the homepage conveys the big picture. It should tell what the site is about. Use taglines rather than mottos next to site logos. (Tell what the site does, not what it's ideals are.)
- The navigation should be the same on all pages except for the homepage and pages with forms.
- Avoid the Tragedy of the Commons that occurs when too many things are added to the homepage. All departments will want homepage links, but too many homepage links will devalue the homepage. (The sections of the book about the homepage are decreasing in importance owing to the decreasing number of users actually landing on site home pages.)
- You shouldn't expect any one feature to be the best way of doing something for all users (or a mythic Average User); instead focus on whether it creates a good experience for users who encounter it in its current context.
- Focus groups are for initial planning; usability tests are for iterative improvement.
- Test early, informally, and often. This way, you can improve the product and encounter issues in later tests that weren't evident until issues from the first test were resolved.
- You can set up an inexpensive yet effective usability lab by placing a camcorder monitoring the screen in one room leading to a TV displaying the video to stakeholders in another room. Use a screen recorder as well.
- Before you have a working prototype, run tests on a couple of sites with similar features or functionality to get a sense of what works well about them.
- Be considerate of the user. Try to have their best interests at heart.
- To help make a site accessible to people with disabilities, first make sure it's usable for people without disabilities.
- Several small tweaks in the code can drastically improve accessibility.