Book Review James Kalbach, Jan 2001 Title: Don't Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability Author: Steve Krug Published: Circle.com Library, c2000 Format: ix, 195 p. (paperback) ; illustrations ISBN: 0-78972310-7 Note: "...for the people in the trenches - the designers, the programmers, the webmasters, the project managers, the marketing people, and the folks who sign the checks. Krug's clearly explained, easily absorbed principles will help you arrive at both the right questions to ask the experts you hire, and practical answer so you can make difficult technical, aesthetic and structural decisions." - back cover. Brief Review Audience: Anyone who has or ever will build a website. Geared toward beginners, but interesting and insightful for experts. Scope: Introduction to web usability. Presents easy-to-understand, down-to-earth explanations of web usability principles. Includes abundant examples and tips for practitioners. Good points: Clearly written, light texts make this a book you can read in one sitting Great examples and suggestions for usability improvements Humorous anecdotes make for a good read Thought provoking insights Bad points: Some contentions are subjective Heavy use of American slang and references to American culture might make this difficult to understand in other countries and cultures. Summary and Review Common sense. Steve Krug has it, and in Don't Make Me Think he explains web usability like never before. The author is able to make compelling arguments based on his own experiences as a usability consultant and director of his own company, Advanced Common Sense. His arguments are clear, logical and credible. In many cases, Krug states the obvious, but always with a new and interesting spin. You are bound to stop and think to yourself, "you know, he's right - I never thought about it like that before. It's so simple." This thin book weighs in at just under 200 pages and is digestible in one or two sittings. There are three basic sections: Guiding Principles, Things You Need to Get Right, and Making Sure You Got Them Right. Krug covers issues such as layout, text and writing, navigation, usability test methods and making improvements. Although not really a how-to book, there are a great number of practical tips and fantastic examples. Included in the back of the book are recommend readings - an annotated list of Krug's essential sources of information. Krug's brand of common-sense usability is bound to become more popular in the future. Currently, usability advocates tend to over-rationalize. This is partially in reaction to current, flawed web design practices that have crippled web sites and web-based businesses in the past. Valeria Casey, noted web designer and creative director at Frog Design, spoke out against the tendency to over-rationalize web usability. In a controversial interview, she even declares web usability dead. Rather than dieing out completely, however, web usability will evolve, breaking out of its isolated, specialized community of freaks and geeks who generate so-called "standards," and will spread deep into all related disciplines, becoming business as usual. If anything, web usability must improve and become more widespread in the future. Krug's common-sense approach is just the vehicle to make this happen. This does not mean, however, that a more scientific examination of usability, such as the work of Jared Spool, will not have a place. On the contrary: Spool's brand of usability will continue to inform the practice in the future. But this will be complemented by a type of usability that everyone can understand and put into practice. "It's not rocket surgery," Krug jokingly reminds us. Take Krug's "Trunk Test" for example: Imagine that you've been blindfolded and locked in the trunk of a car, then driven around for a while and dumped on a page somewhere deep in the bowels of a Web site. If the page is well designed, when your vision clears you should be able to answer these questions without hesitation: What site is this? (site ID) What page an I on? (Page name) What are the major section of this site? (Sections) What are my options at this level? (Local navigation) Where am I in the scheme of things? ("You are here" indicators) How can I search? (p. 87) His suggested method to perform this test is also down-to-earth: Step 1: Choose a page anywhere in the site at random, and print it. Step 2: Hold it at arm's length or squint so you can't really study it closely Step 3: As quickly as possible, try to find and circle each item in the list [above] (p. 88) Though lacking scientific merit, a simpler methodology is hardly possible. Yet, as Krug demonstrates time and time again with his improvements on real pages, the results of such exercises can be significant for the user experience. Krug also includes discussions of topics previously not covered in similar books. Chapter 7, entitled "The First Step In Recovery Is Admitting That The Homepage Is Beyond Your Control," is entirely devoted to designing the homepage. In spite of that belief that each involved party thinks they control the homepage, no one really owns it. There are just too many elements that typical homepages MUST include. Clearly, teamwork and a collaborative effort are essential. Another unique topic of discussion in this book is on usability within the organizational culture of a web development team. Krug humorously and accurately shows how discussions of usability can be what he calls "religious debates": "They consist largely of people expressing strongly held personal beliefs about things that can't be proven - supposedly in the interest of agreeing on the best way to do something important" (p. 132). And as in discussions about religion and politics, such talks have no right or wrong outcome by default. Krug also points out that "we tend to think that most web users are like us." Such thinking risks intrusion of personal, subjective likes and dislikes into important decisions. Krug continues this line of thought to arrive at another obvious-yet-never-stated conclusion: "There is no Average User" (p. 136). From experience, the author is convinced that user behavior varies so greatly it is dangerous to talk about common patterns. "All web users are unique, and all Web use is basically idiosyncratic" (p. 136). Consequently, Krug believes that there are no absolutes in web design, no magic "rights" and "wrongs" that can be generalized. As Jared Spool and his colleagues say: "It Depends." Avoiding "religious debates" is mission critical: "The point is, it's not productive to ask questions like 'Do most people like pulldown menus'? The right kind of question to ask is 'Does this pulldown, with these items and this wording in this context on this page create a good experience for most people who are likely to use this site?' (p. 137) A good way to insure that personal beliefs don't derail conversations is to conduct abundant user tests. Krug is a large proponent of discount usability methods. He shows that two tests with three users each can be more productive than one test with 8 users. Another secret of usability testing is identifying the extent to which "it doesn't much matter who you test" (p. 147). Much of the time, testers need only recruit based on web experience, and can more or less disregard demographics. This leads to a Krugian axiom: "Take anyone you can get (within limits) and grade on a curve" (p. 148). Krug includes a great number of helpful tips and guidelines for conducting usability tests. These include discussions on where to do tests, who should do testing, who should observe, what to test, when to test it and how to act as a facilitator. The book then concludes with guidelines for interpreting test results. This leads to a final contention: "The important things that you learn from usability testing usually just make sense. They tends to be obvious to anyone who watches the sessions" (p. 175) If you have any interest in web usability - even if you have a PhD in HCI or User-Centered Design, or have practiced web usability for years - get your hands on this book and read it. Although many points have been made by others countless times, Krug sheds light on issues in a unique way. Whether a beginner or advance expert, you will get something out of Don't Make Me Think. James Kalbach Hamburg, Germany Reviews From the Web Argus Associates (http://argus-acia.com/content/review008.html), Review by Chris Farnum (January 30, 2001) If you've ever sat through one of those stomach-turning meetings in which the Web team is arguing for the umpteenth time whether or not to use a drop-down menu, Steve Krug has got a way to help you settle the debate. This book provides an introductory overview of why Web usability is important, explores principles for assessing a site's usability yourself, and explains how to start actually testing users without breaking the bank. The author is a usability consultant with over 10 years experience and an impressive history with companies ranging from Apple to AOL. The book is easily digestible, and I found myself chuckling at his offbeat sense of humor. It's also highly practical and includes well-illustrated examples and specific techniques that you can start using right away. As an information architect, I found this book valuable because it distills and collects much of the best current thinking on Web usability in one place. Seasoned Web design professionals may not find much in this book that they don't already know, but may want to buy copies for their bosses. Krug tends to demystify issues that other writers make sound like doctoral theses. One substantial chunk of the book describes his guiding principles for assessing Web usability. As you might guess, his central message is that navigation systems, main pages, labels, buttons, etc. can either make using a site obvious or they can discourage users by making them think too much. Along the way, Krug covers a spectrum of topics that range from information architecture to visual design. He includes analysis of various design conventions, such as tabs, as well as his heuristics for evaluating pages. For example, he provides a series of stress test questions to use to evaluate your site's navigation system (p. 87). It is refreshing that although Krug offers many strong opinions, he exhorts his readers to think for themselves. Unlike some usability gurus, he leaves room for exceptions to his pronouncements and encourages people to learn methods for making their own judgments. According to Krug, just about anyone can conduct a user test. The last third of the book provides a succinct introduction to testing, including sample questions to ask users. He even includes a transcript from a session he conducted. His approach to testing is very informal and centers on questions to determine if users "get it" and if they can perform key tasks. Instead of doing one final expensive scientific test, he strongly suggests conducting many simple affordable tests from beginning to end. Some of his pronouncements, such as "the importance of recruiting representative users is overrated," may make some professionals cringe. Krug is more than willing to bend and break the traditional rules of user testing to make sure that people actually do it without fear of the time and cost. He contends that the value of testing is not collecting quantitative data, but rather gathering qualitative information for making better design decisions. For the past year I've been incorporating informal user research into my information architecture methodology, and sometimes it's a challenge to get clients to understand its value. It is great to have a resource to recommend to clients that explains why these methods are valuable even though they aren't quantitative and statistical. I really appreciate this book for justifying informal qualitative testing and giving me new ideas about how to include it in my work. Quotes from the Text On designing for the way users really use the Web (p. 29): "If your audience is going to act like you're designing billboards, then design great billboards." On writing for the web (p. 47): "Your objective should always be to eliminate instructions entirely by making everything self-explanatory, or as close to it as possible. When instructions are absolutely necessary, cut them back to the bare minimum." On low level navigation (p. 71): "...Users usually end up spending as much time on lower-level pages as they do at the top. And unless you've worked out top-to-bottom navigation from the beginning, it's very hard to graft it on later and come up with something consistent." On the need for user testing (p. 137): "Where debates about what people like waste time and drain the team's energy, testing tends to defuse arguments and break impasses by moving the discussion away from the realm of what's right or wrong and into the realm of what works or doesn't work." On "lost our lease, going-out-of-business-sale usability testing" (p. 144): "The idea of discount usability testing was a huge step forward. The only problem is that a decade later most people still perceive testing as a big deal... [You can] do your own testing when you have no money and no time." On designing home pages (p. 101): "As quickly and clearly as possible, the Home page needs to answer the four questions I have in my head when I enter a new site for the first time: What is this? What do they have here? What can I do here? Why should I be here - and not somewhere else?" Editorial Review from Amazon.com Usability design is one of the most important--yet often least attractive--tasks for a Web developer. In Don't Make Me Think, author Steve Krug lightens up the subject with good humor and excellent, to-the-point examples. The title of the book is its chief personal design premise. All of the tips, techniques, and examples presented revolve around users being able to surf merrily through a well-designed site with minimal cognitive strain. Readers will quickly come to agree with many of the book's assumptions, such as "We don't read pages-- we scan them" and "We don't figure out how things work--we muddle through." Coming to grips with such hard facts sets the stage for Web design that then produces topnotch sites. Using an attractive mix of full-color screen shots, cute cartoons and diagrams, and informative sidebars, the book keeps your attention and drives home some crucial points. Much of the content is devoted to proper use of conventions and content layout, and the "before and after" examples are superb. Topics such as the wise use of rollovers and usability testing are covered using a consistently practical approach. This is the type of book you can blow through in a couple of evenings. But despite its conciseness, it will give you an expert's ability to judge Web design. You'll never form a first impression of a site in the same way again. --Stephen W. Plain Adobe's "Web Center Gallery", Interview with Valerie Casey (2001) http://www.adobe.com/web/gallery/valcasey/main.html