Ch 1. Don’t Make Me Think
1. Don’t make me think, do as much work for the user as possible
2. Get rid of half the words, then get rid of half of those
3. Make everything as self-evident and self-explanatory as possible
4. Make it OBVIOUS that something is clickable
5. Making things easy builds confidence in yourwebsite
6. Eliminate question marks or anything which makes you think
Ch2. How we really use the web
1. People don’t read, they skim
2. People don’t make optimal choices, they satisfice and go back if needed. “guessing is fun”
3. People don’t figure out how things work, they muddle through.
4. People use things differently than how they were intended. Like typing a www address into a search box.
5. If something works for people, they will rarely try to find a better way, so build a website that makes the user feel smart.
Ch 3. Billboard Design 101
1. Make sure people see and understand as much of the website as possible
2. Create a clear visual hierarchy
3. Take advantage of established conventions (learn from what is already working)
4. Again, Make it OBVIOUS what is CLICKABLE
5. Minimize noise.
6. Make content nested together in a useful manner. (check out the front page of a newspaper to understand nesting)
Ch 4. Animal, vegetable, or mineral? (Why users like mindless choices)
Krug’s Second Law of Usability: It doesn’t matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice.
1. While it is good to keep track of the number of clicks to get to a certain goal, what might matter more is that the path to the goal is mindless
2. As a rule of thumb: 3 mindless clicks equals 1 that requires thought
3. Making things as mindless as possible will make your site easy to use and help its chances at becoming popular
Ch 5. Omit needless words – The art of not writing for the web
Krug’s Third Law of Usability: Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.
1. The web is full of words no one is going to read, eliminate them because it reduces noise, makes the words that matter, matter more, and it helps the reader get a general idea of the page without scrolling.
2. Get rid of happy talk – this is usually intro stuff that serves no purpose, but it is also anything you read and your mind starts going “blah blah blah”
3. Eliminate instructions as much as possible, no one reads them, if you must have them, make them as short and clear as possible.
Ch6. Street signs and Breadcrumbs (Designing Navigation)
1. People won’t use your Web site if they can’t find their way around it.
2. Like shopping in a retail store, you go to a website looking for something, and expect a certain hierarchy with clearly marked signs.
3. People leave your website when they are certain you don’t have what they are looking for, or when they get too frustrated from looking.
4. When browsing website there is no sense of scale (how many pages) where in the hierarchy we are, so it is good to give as many clues to this as possible.
5. This explains the importance of book marks, and websites having good home pages
6. 30-40% of web clicks are on the back button
7. Navigation is about getting from one place to another, and figuring out where you are
8. Navigation tells us where we are, and helps us get to where we want to go, and it also never loses us, once it does that, we are in serious trouble
9. In a website you are always asking, “Do these guys know what they are doing?”
Good techniques for good navigation:
1. Have the same navigation menu on every page (except maybe the home page, or some special function page like a form)
2. Keep the site logo and id on every page (site id is usually at the top left, by convention) – have the id also be a link back to the home page, to let people be able to know where they are, whenever they want
3. Give people a way to search your site
4. Most navigation help breaks down after the first or second level, but it is important to have clear navigation at as many levels as possible
5. Every page needs a name, and it needs to be in a prominent place, and the name needs to match user expectations to build trust
6. “You are here” indicators help too
7. “Breadcrumbs” give people an idea of where they are, and the path they have taken, but they should not be used as a substitute for real navigation.
On using tabs (TABS ARE GOOD):
1. They are self-evident, hard to miss, slick, and suggest a physical space
2. Color code them, this adds to their pop and appeal
3. Don’t over do it, or you will have load time issues on all those images
4. Have a tab highlighted for every page, never leave a tab un-highlighted.
Ch 7. The first step in recovery is admitting that the Home Page is beyond your control
1. With a home page, there is ALWAYS ONE MORE THING
2. The homepage has to establish site identity and mission, has to give a site hierarchy, and give a search capability
The homepage should also have...
1. Teases – things to entice the reader
2. Timely content – tell people what’s new
3. Deals – how are you giving them new value?
4. Short-cuts – stuff that is a long way a way, but important, popular, and pertinent
5. Registration (if that is even an option)
6. Show the person what they are looking for
7. Show them other cool stuff they might not be looking for but are interested in
8. Show where to start
9. Establish credibility and trust
10. It has to be amenable to the pressures of promoting the site, work politics, and showing all aspects of the company
Usual pit-falls of home pages it needs to make clear the big picture of the site “what it is all about” and easily answer these four questions
1. What is this?
2. What can I do here?
3. What do they have here?
4. Why should I be here--- and not somewhere else?
Excuses to avoid for not spelling out the point
1. It’s obvious
2. Once people get it, it is not needed
3. Anyone who really needs the site will know
4. Advertising will take care of that
5. We can just add a “first time visitor” link, right?
Tools to get the point across are
1. The tagline, it should be personable, lively, and explain the site
2. The welcome blurb
3. Use as much space as necessary, but don’t use more than necessary
4. Don’t use your mission statement as the blurb
5. Test your home page, send it to people, and then ask them what the main point of the site is
The homepage needs to answer “Where do I start?”
1. Where do I start to search?
2. Where do I start to browse?
3. Where do I start to see the best of the site?
Pull downs and other site descriptions are bad because they are twitchy, and you have to exert effort to see them
Killing the home page goose:
1. Putting a banner ad on the homepage when it is not necessary
2. Promoting everything
3. Letting deals drive the design of the homepage
4. Being greedy
Ch.8 “The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends” Why most web design team arguments about usability are a waste of time, and how to avoid them
1. It is impossible to know what will work because it can’t be proven, so any discussion on what is best, is ultimately flawed
2. This is because there is a myth of they average user, when in fact, everyone is unique.
Ch9. Usability testing on 10 cents a day – keeping testing simple so you do enough of it
1. You will wonder why you didn’t do usability testing sooner
2. Focus group – many people see many ideas and discuss to discover what they most want
3. Usability testing – you are seeing if the site can be used and understood
Testing rules of thumb:
1. Testing one user is 100% better than testing none
2. Testing one user early is better than testing 50 at the end
3. Importance of recruiting the right people is overrated.
4. The point is not to prove or disprove, but to get information
5. Testing is iterative, you have to do it more than once
6. Nothing beats a live audience if you can get it
7. Do more than one round since the first layer problems can block testers from seeing the second layer problems
Answer these two questions with usability testing:
1. Do they “get it”?
2. Can they perform any necessary key tasks?
Ch 10. Usability testing: The movie – How to do your own testing
If you conduct your own test, do the following:
1. Tell your user to think out loud, and listen to what they say
2. Tell you user what to do
3. Be understanding, empathetic, and encouraging to your user, thank them!
4. Try observe their thought process
5. Don’t give them any hints on what to do!!!
6. Probe, probe, probe, they are there, ask as many questions as you can (i.e. what do you like best? What appeals to you? Etc….)
7. Less experienced users are probably better since they are less likely to know how to cope with bad design.
Expect the following from a test session:
1. Find out if they “get it”
2. Can they find their way around?
3. Head slappers – the obvious problems you consistently overlooked
4. Shocks – the “how could they not understand that” shock
5. Inspiration – you will get some new cool ideas
6. Passion – see your baby “website” come to life and make a difference
7. Don’t jump to conclusions – step back observe as much as you can, conclude later…
8. You are seeing people on their best behavior, they are likely to act differently on their own….
9. Give more credence to actions, than what the users say
10. Make notes immediately after each session
Ch 11. On not throwing the baby out with the dishes – interpreting test results
After the testing decide what should be fixed, and then, how to fix it.
1. Always try tweaking first
2. Work on specifics, what exactly “didn’t work?” or “get the point across?”
3. Re-test, after tweaking
4. Scrap and start over if you have to, even go back to basic assumptions…
Avoid:
1. Fixing problems that most users managed to recover from
2. Adding things in, thinking that additions solve the problem…
3. Resist adding in those suggestions for “new features”
4. Do easy stuff first: The head slappers, etc…
5. Remember that even small changes can have a big impact!
Get Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
from Amazonor check out the website: http://www.stevekrug.com/index.html
Also, check out the website I am building that applies these principles, and let me know what you think.
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