The Pragmatic Craftsman :: Simplicity from complexity : by Stanley Kubasek ::

Don’t Make Me Think
by Steve Krug
ISBN 0321344758
Date Read 3/2006

My Rating

This is a required reading for UI designers, web developers, and very useful for web users. That covers almost anybody, right? Written in a style that is accessible to anybody, so why not? Anywhere you fit in that group, you will benefit.

Think about yourself as a web user. When you visit a new site, what happens? Do you spend a lot of time figuring out where everything is, or do you quickly scan it then if you find you’re looking for, you click on it. I certainly follow the latter. And I’ve gotten frustrated a lot of times when a site is making it hard for me to see where I am, what the site is all about. I give up a lot of times. But I know, now, because of the book, that the site is badly designed. On the other hand, I appreciate the sites that just seem right instantly.

This book is very valuable. I learned how users browse (they scan). I learned what users don’t like (they don’t like fancy stuff). I learned what users like (standard, intuitive interfaces). I became a better user because I see this when I browse. I became a better developer, because I know that users don’t think and I try to make it as easy as possible for them. I think about that when I design an interface.

This is an excellent book. It is a quick read (you can even read it in a bookstore in one or two sittings). I bought the second edition, but it doesn’t differer too much from the first. This is the best, most intutive, and the shortest book on UI I’ve read.