Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited a common Sense Approach to Web Usability Steve Krug

Don’t get me wrong...
This edition has new examples, some new principles, and a few things I’ve
learned along the way, but it’s still the same book, with the same purpose:
It’s still a book about designing great, usable Web sites.
And it’s also still a book about designing anything that people need to
interact with, whether it’s a microwave oven, a mobile app, or an ATM.
The basic principles are the same even if the landscape has changed, because
usability is about people and how they understand and use things, not about
technology. And while technology often changes quickly, people change
very slowly.
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There’s a wonderful Norwegian video (with subtitles) about this that shows a monk getting help
as he struggles to use the newfangled “book.” (Search for “medieval helpdesk” on YouTube.)

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Or as Jakob Nielsen so aptly put it:
The human brain’s capacity doesn’t change from one year to the
next, so the insights from studying human behavior have a very long
shelf life. What was difficult for users twenty years ago continues to
be difficult today.
I hope you enjoy the new edition. And don’t forget to wave in a few years
when you pass me in your flying car.
STEVE KRUG
NOVEMBER 2013

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Introduction: Read me first
THROAT CLEARING AND DISCLAIMERS
I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know. But I’d like to clarify a few
things.
—JOE FERRARA, A HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND OF MINE
I have a great job. I’m a usability consultant. Here’s what I do:
People (“clients”) send me something they’re working on.
It could be designs for a new Web site they’re building, or the URL of
a site that they’re redesigning, or a prototype of an app.

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 I try using what they send me, doing the things that their users would
need or want to do with it. I note the places where people are likely to
get stuck and the things that I think will confuse them (an “expert
usability review”).
Sometimes I get other people to try using it while I watch to see where
they
get stuck and confused (“usability testing”).

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 I have a meeting with the client’s team to describe the problems I
found that are likely to cause users grief (“usability issues”) and help
them decide which ones are most important to fix and how best to fix
them.
Sometimes we work by the phone...

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...and sometimes in person
I used to write what I called the “big honking report” detailing my
findings, but I finally realized that it wasn’t worth the time and effort.
A live presentation allows people to ask me questions and voice their
concerns—something a written report doesn’t do. And for teams doing
Agile or Lean development, there’s no time for written reports anyway.
They pay me.
Being a consultant, I get to work on interesting projects with a lot of nice,
smart people. I get to work at home most of the time and I don’t have to sit
in mind-numbing meetings every day or deal with office politics. I get to say
what I think, and people usually appreciate it. And I get paid well.
On top of all that, I get a lot of job satisfaction, because when we’re finished,
the things they’re building are almost always much better than when we
started.
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 Almost 
always. Even when people know about usability problems, they can’t always fix them
completely, as I’ll explain in 
Chapter 9
.