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

part—the
responsiveness of the hardware—that finally made it useful.)
For the first time, the Web was fun to use on a device that you could carry
with you at all times. With a battery that lasted all day. You could look up
anything anywhere anytime.
It’s hard to overestimate what a sea change this was.
Of course, it wasn’t only about the Web. Just consider how many things the
smartphone allowed you to carry in your pocket or purse at all times: a
camera (still 
and
video, and, for many people, the best one they’d ever
owned), a GPS with maps of the whole world, a watch, an alarm clock, all of
your photos and music, etc., etc.
It’s true: The best camera really is the one you have with you.
And think about the fact that for most people in emerging countries, in the
same way they bypassed landlines and went straight to cellphones, the
smartphone is their first—and only—computer.
There’s not much denying that mobile devices are the wave of the future,
except for things where you need enormous horsepower (professional video
editing, for example, at least for now) or a big playing surface (Photoshop or
CAD).
What’s the difference?
So, what’s different about usability when you’re designing for use on a
mobile device?

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In one sense, the answer is: Not much. The basic principles are still the
same. If anything, people are moving faster and reading even less on small
screens.
But there are 
some
significant differences about mobile that make for
challenging new usability problems.
As I write this, Web and app design for mobile devices is still in its
formative “Wild West” days in many ways. It’s going to take another few
years for things to shake out, probably just in time for innovations that will
force the whole cycle to start over again.
I’m not going to talk very much about specific best practices because many
of the bright interface design ideas that will eventually become the
prevailing conventions probably haven’t emerged yet. And of course the
technology is going to keep changing under our feet faster than we can run.

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“App” | xkcd.com
What I 
will
do is tell you a few things that I’m sure will continue to be true.
And the first one is...