STC Usability SIG Newsletter
Usability Interface

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Steve Krug

Reviewed by Mark Hall

Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to frequently contemplate your next action when using a Web site? If everything you saw just made complete sense? By teaching the basics of Web design in plain English, "Don't Make Me Think!" seeks to all but eliminate those aspects of Web sites that confuse and frustrate most users. And Krug achieves this in a lighthearted and visually appealing manner. Perhaps best of all, since the book is a slim 195 pages, it's a book you can easily read in one or two evenings.

Krug is no quack. He has over ten years of accumulated Web design and usability testing experience, honed through working for reputable companies like Apple, Netscape, AOL, BarnesandNoble.com, and Excite@Home. During his career he has watched users struggle to use these and other Web sites, which is undoubtedly the best way to learn what doesn't work on the Web. The book jacket describes Krug as a "little-known but highly respected usability consultant." He may have been relatively anonymous before, but based on the buzz I've heard about him in just the San Diego usability community, Mr. Krug is not destined to stay "little known" for long.

Krug asserts that "there are no simple "'right" answers for most Web design questions (at least not for the important ones). What works is good, integrated design that fills a need-carefully thought out, well-executed and tested." This is Krug's overall philosophy as he covers the three parts of the book:

• "guiding principles,"
• "things you need to get right,"
• "making sure you got them right."

The text speaks plainly, not academically, which helps to draw readers into his dialogue and make his explanations understandable for readers with little or no previous Web design experience.

In Chapters 6, what I consider to be the "meat" of the book, Krug covers the five components for a highly usable site:
1. Clear site sections (aka persistent navigation)
2. Site ID
3. Home button/graphic
4. Search tool
5. Site utilities.

To help readers track their learning, Krug concludes the chapter by listing a series of "trunk test" sites in which he invites the reader to find the missing elements and suggest how each site could be improved. By stepping through these examples and showing how each of his design principles is applied, Krug helps the reader to internalize each key concept.

While "Think" has many positives, it does fall short in a couple areas

· The chapter "Animal, Vegetable or Mineral" describes how making "mindless choices" makes a site easier to use. Since this statement is obvious, it adds no real substance to the book.

· Krug's discussion of home page layout and taglines doesn't really belong in a Web usability primer. While discussing these topics provides some good food for thought for the uninitiated, its presence in a book that focuses on design and usability is a bit puzzling.

If you are a Web site designer or a usability specialist, "Don't Make Me Think" will most likely just be a light, quotable read. If you are not a professional designer, but either directly or indirectly contribute to making Web sites or software products more usable, "Don't Make Me Think" would be a great addition to your library. And at Amazon's special promotional price of $24.50, perhaps you should also buy a couple extra copies and give them to colleagues you've been trying to convert into "usability faithful." In my opinion, the decision to buy this book is a no brainer.