Review of 'Don't Make Me Think' by Steve Krug

At first when I looked through “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug, I thought to myself, what a waste of money to order this book. In spite of my preconceived notions, the book has actually proved to be not only helpful, but eye-opening. It was ignorant of me to think that usability is not important. The whole world is shifting to an online universe and without a usable internet, then a lot of people are left frustrated and possibly not able to get their work done. This book has made me realize that the web is not just an aspect of business, but it should be the number one priority. Without a successful website, some businesses will not prosper. The book did a good job highlighting most people’s downfalls on the way they think about the web. In chapter 2 (How We Really Use the Web), one example was ‘what we design the web for’ and ‘the reality’ of how it is used. We design the web for people to read and read and read and stay on our page for a while. The reality is that people are usually in a hurry, don’t have time, or don’t want time to read the overwhelming amount of information. If websites are not designed correctly, it’s not a loss to the user-it is a loss to the business. The user will hit the back button and find something else that works for them because most people do not read pages, they scan them. Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the book was the one on “Omitting Needless Words.” As a telecom broadcast student and an aspiring journalist, I have realized that I not only like to ask a lot of questions, but I also like to elaborate, and talk a lot. Sometimes, less really is more and this book highlights on that. If the rule in the book says “get rid of half of the words on the page, and then go back and get rid of half of what is left.” If that be the case, I sometimes say or write entirely too much. Maybe it is information that is not needed, or maybe information that I am biased towards that I want to share with everyone else. I liked the part where it said “happy talk must die.” I think often times we like “feel good” stories, or too many quotes per one story. When “happy talk” dies, users get the most important, raw data that they are looking for, without it being diluted with someone else’s opinion. The billboard technique really is golden. The last thing that stood out to me was the concept that usability is a common courtesy. I never really thought about it that way before. I thought of it terms of a good design or a bad design. The tips given in the book were rather helpful, especially when it said that the FAQ’s should be real, helpful questions and not just a sales pitch. As a user, I get very annoyed when my questions cannot be answered so I then leave the site. Krug’s book had a lot of truth to it.