Don’t make me think

REVISITED by Steve Krug

“A person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can figure out how to use the thing to accomplish something without it being more trouble than its worth”

— Steve Krug

Great write up by Bonnie Bakshi on Medium

And below I will just note out chapters and notes in order. It was an easy book to read with great points and humour. I read the earlier a long time ago, so was good to read again.

Krug’s first law:

DON’T MAKE ME THINK

• Software should be self-evident. Obvious.

• It should be self-explanatory. No effort to use.

• Clear, no-jargon language

• Use clear and consistent signifiers

• If you can’t make something self-evident make it self-explanatory

HOW WE REALLY USE THE WEB

3 real-world facts:

1. We don’t read pages, we scan them

2. We don’t make optimal choices we satisfice

3. We don’t figure out how things work, we muddle through

DESIGN FOR SCANNING NOT READING

• Take advantage of conventions

  • Be creative but ensure its still usable

  • Consistency is good but clarity trumps consistency

• Creative effective visual hierarchies

• Break up pages into clearly defined areas

• Make is obvious what is clickable

• Keep the noise down
  (There’s 3 kinds: shouting, Disorganisisng, Clutter

• Format text to support scanning

  • Use plenty of headings

  • Use short paragraphs

  • Use bullets

  • Highlight key terms and but not too many

USERS LIKE MINDLESS CHOICES

Its not necessarily about the number of clicks - more how ‘hard’ each click is

If the choice is unavoidably difficult ensure is: Brief. Timely. Unavoidable

Krugs’ second law:

“It doesn’t matter how many times I click, as long as each click is a mindless unambiguous choice.”

OMIT NEEDLESS WORDS

Edit well.

It reduces noise

Useful content becomes more prominent

‘Happy talk/sociable chatter must die

Instructions must die (everything should be self-explanatory. If absolutely necessary, keep it v short)

DESIGNING NAVIGATION

Navigation is the website. Take advantage of users mental models to form the navigation

• Navigation:

  • Tells us what’s here

  • Tells us how to use the site

  • Gives us confidence in the people who built it

• We should use web navigation conventions to aid quick location with minimum effort

• Use persistent navigation on every page (but not forms – use minimal)

• Navigation should have site ID/logo, Sections, Utilities, Back to home

• People like to search. Provide it and make sure its smart

• Work out the navigation for all levels of the site, not just the top few

• Page names

  • Every page needs a name (heading)

  • It should be in the correct places – framing the content

  • Needs to be prominent

  • Name needs to match content when clicked

• Show me where I am e.g. Using Bread Crumb trail

• Tabs are good

• Test one site (think test)

GET PEOPLE OFF ON THE RIGHT FOOT

Home page often needs to contain:

• Site ID and mission

• Site hierarchy (persistant nav)

• Search

• Teases – entices the user in

• Content promos

• Feature promos

• Timely content

• deals

• Shortcuts

• Registration

Also:

• Show me what I’m looking for

• … and what I’m not looking for (offers etc.)

• Establish credibility and trust

and all the stakeholders will want a say!

Don’t lose the big picture – what the site is.

3 most important places that help get the message across:

• The tagline

• The welcome blurb

• The ‘learn more’ (eg. video)

• Use a good tagline

Ensure it is obvious where:

• you start a search

• you start your browsing

• Where to find the best stuff

• Don’t add too much to the home page – too much noise and content will get lost – think of other solutions

AVOID ARGUMENTS ABOUT USABILITY BY TESTING AND PRESENTING DATA

KEEP TESTS SIMPLE, THEY DON’T NEED TO COST A LOT

• Test regularly (one morning a month)

• Use 3 participants

• You could in some instances use anyone to test with – you’ll stil learn stuff

• Analyse the data and share it with your team

• Fix the most important things first

MOBILE

• All about making good tradeoffs between constraints whilst creating a good user experience

• There is no hover function

• Apps should be delightful, learnable, memorable [to use], usable

YOUR SOFTWARE SHOULD “DO THE RIGHT THING”

• Don’t do user unfriendly things such as burying customer support phone numbers, be pushed to format data in a certain way etc.

• Do things to convince the user you have their best interest at heart

ACCESSIBILITY

• 15% of the world population has a disability (over a billion people)

• A disability happens as the point of interaction between a person and a society eg a deaf person facing an intercom to open a door

“It is not just a health problem, its a phenomenon reflecting the interactions between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which they live” The World Health Organisation

• Inclusive design should consider the full range of human diversity and be prepared to create multiple solutions for everyone

• Designing with user empathy and providing inclusive design solutions we will find that it also benefits many in excluding situations – with and without a disability