Don’t Make Me Think / Steve Krug / 197 pp.

Nonfiction

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability is a fun and quick introduction to web usability filled with easy-to-understand examples and illustrations. As the book is mainly about what works and what doesn’t on websites from a design perspective, the only background you need to enjoy this book is occasional Internet usage. While this topic has the potential to be dry, this book is a surprisingly quick read and contains a nice amount of humor and interactive elements. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about web usability.

One of my favorite quotes: “It is always interesting to watch Web designers and developers observe their first usability test. The first time they see a user click on something completely inappropriate, they’re surprised. (For instance, when the user ignores a nice big fat ‘Software’ button in the navigation bar, saying something like, ‘Well, I’m looking for software, so I guess I’d click here on “Cheap Stuff” because cheap is always good.”) The user may even find what he’s looking for eventually, but by then the people watching don’t know whether to be happy or not.”

Links for this book: Amazon, MERLIN, eBook
note: For page count, some adjustment might be needed for the pictures.