Don't Make Me Think

, Web Usability

I highly recommend a book called '''Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability''', by Steve Krug, ISBN:0-7897-2310-7. It is attractive and well-designed, and has a real common-sense approach to making sure readers will find your web site usable.

I've been working in usability for twenty years, and I still found Krug's clear distillation of the rules of simple usability powerful and applicable to web sites and even other modes of information presentation. -- Peter Kaminski, 20010715

Here's a summary of page design goals from the book. Don't let this be a shortcut that keeps you from buying the book itself! It's got lots of great explanations and examples, as well as other topics.

Each page should easily answer (p. 87):
 * what site is this? (site ID/logo)
 * what page am I on? (page name)
 * what are the major sections of this site? (sections)
 * what are my options at this level? (local navigation)
 * where am I in the scheme of things? ("You are here" indicators)
 * how can I search?

Home page adds (p.103):
 * tagline next to or under site ID
 * welcome blurb - what's the point of this site?
 * answer to "where do I start?"