Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

by Steve Krug
New Riders Publishing, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2000
208 pp., illus. b/w, col. Paper, $35.00
ISBN: 0-7897-2310-7.

Reviewed by Kasey Rios Asberry
Human Origins, San Francisco, CA

kasberry@humanorigins.org

Don’t Make Me Think is a slim volume of guidelines for web user interface design. In it Steve Krug advocates that designers put careful thought into simplifying interfaces so users don’t have to. All the energy that users would employ in decoding the intentions of the interface can then be used in service to their own goals that produces a more effective experience for them. Simplification on this order is not trivial; perhaps, it is more accurately called refinement, and as Buckminster Fuller famously said it’s not simple to get there. This book outlines some straightforward steps that anyone responsible for web interface development can take in that direction.

Krug understands that providing information online is a matter more of industrial design than fine arts. This approach liberates the developer from the burden of creating uniqueness for its own sake——User Interfaces simply work better when conventions are made good use of and common expectations about screen behaviour aren’t violated. This saves cognitive power for the decisions that must be made.

The structure of the book exemplifies Krug’s premise. It’s well organized and includes appropriate, clear illustrations and an index. He devotes chapters to deconstruction of assumptions about how users actually read and make decisions, navigation systems, and, most significantly, methods for usability testing that anyone who cares to can do. Test early and often is his watchword.

An important accomplishment of this book is to demystify what is largely a process of ruthless elimination and thoughtful prioritization based on listening carefully to actual users. He removes usability from the arcane realm of Usability Experts and asks that designers put users in the center of design process.

Much of the appeal of Don’t Make Me Think arises from its playfulness. Steve Krug clearly enjoys his work as a User Advocate; he invites and equips the rest of us to do the same.