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|  | Author: Steve Krug
Publisher: New Riders Press
List Price: $40.00
Buy New: $21.76
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Rating:  491 reviews
Sales Rank: 1383
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2nd
Pages: 216
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.9 x 0.8
ISBN: 0321344758
Dewey Decimal Number: 006.7
EAN: 9780321344755
ASIN: 0321344758
Publication Date: August 28, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: All orders ship same business day via standard shipping (USPS Media Mail) if received by 1 PM CST. We do not ship to APO/FPO addresses.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 491
 A LISTING OF ALL KRUG'S ISSUES October 8, 2009
Glenn Hostetler (Denver, CO)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The overriding theme to the book is that anything on your web page that takes more than a fraction of a second of thought is bad. When I worked at the Internal Revenue Service, we were never allowed to post anything that took less than a day of thought.
Sure - the topics in this book are obvious. There's nothing here you couldn't have figured out yourself if you took the time to do so. But that's the point - Krug took the time to assemble these obvious but numerous issues for you, so you don't have to think through all of the potential problems your web site is likely to have. IRONICALLY, THE REAL VALUE OF THIS BOOK IS NOT IN ANY BRILLIANT INSIGHTS. THE VALUE IS THAT YOU ARE FORCED TO STOP AND THINK ABOUT YOUR OWN WEB SITE AS YOU READ. That is, simply by taking the time to drift through this light read, you can't help but to ponder how your own web site suffers from each of Krug's common web page problems. You'll undoubtedly end up making a number of improvements to your own site. Krug's small suggested improvements taken collectively really do end up making a big difference to your site. I made at least ten changes to the web site that hawks my own cheesy book (Web Service and SOA Technologies) based on Krug's very good advice.
Weakness #1 - The book's pace slows down at the end. I can't help to wonder if Krug was a little concerned that he wasn't going to have enough pages. Do we really need an entire page that tells us that some people are naturally less patient than others? But even at his slower pace, there are still many sentences that make you think (errr....even if you're not supposed to).
Weakness #2 - Why didn't Krug design a checklist of issues as the last page? You can't use his table of contents as that checklist since his style is to use titles that don't mean anything without reading each chapter. He needs a summary page like this:
* Is it obvious where you can click and where you cannot? Are there "hotspots" on images that are not obvious?
* If a user were to squint and look at your web page, could they discern what each area on the page was most likely about?
* Does your search capability have confusing pulldowns?
* If a user arrives at any random page on your web site (say, from a search engine), can they figure out what site they are on, what the page name is, what are the major sections of the site, what are the best options on the page, where they are relative to the other pages, and how they can search?
* Do your user's eyes have to leap all over the page in order to figure it out?
* Does any operation ever take more than a few seconds to figure out?
* Does the reader ever have to read through instructions to figure something out? (They won't.)
* Is information organized in a clear, visual hierarchy?
* Do you violate any web page conventions?
* Does your site have excessive images and flashy items on it?
* Are your pages reasonably short? (that is, not too much scrolling required)
* Does the page have any text on it that isn't absolutely necessary? (like this parenthetical note, for example)
* Navigation on your site has to be crystal clear. If the user is "looking for a chainsaw", do they know if they should look in the "tools" section or in "lawn and garden"?
* If the user makes a bad guess when navigating your site, is it easy to recover from the error?
* Do any of your pages look so different from the others that the user might be confused if they've accidentally hyperlinked off your web site?
* When you analyze your site, have you spent the majority of your time thinking only about the higher level pages (rather than the low down, leaf node pages)?
* Does every page have a unique identifying name?
* Is every page name prominent?
* Does the page name ever not match the hyperlink that was used to arrive at that page?
* Have you favored the use of navigation tabs? (Krug is a big proponent of tabs.)
* Does your home page establish the site mission, hierarchy, and search method? Do users immediately know why they should be on your site and not someone else's?
* What items appear "above the fold" on each page? (that is, without having to scroll down)
* Does the site have any current references so users know they are not looking at an old, dead site?
* Does the company have a good, descriptive tag line?
* Is it clear where the user can search, browse, and find the best your company has to offer?
* Are you aware that display space devoted to promoting one item implicitly detracts from other items on the page?
* Have you ever observed a completely new user (with no introduction whatsoever) land on your site?
* Have you made the mistake of doing no user testing at all because comprehensive testing is too expensive?
* Did you perform usability testing very early in web development, like you should?
* Did you make the mistake of giving help to your new test user during your usability test?
* Does your site blatantly omit obvious information about your company because of embarrassment? Does it conceal information like contact phone numbers?
* How quick and easy does your site service its most common request?
* How kind is your site to the vision impaired? What happens if you change the browser font setting to "largest"? Anything?
* Does every image have "alt text"?
You may think you don't need to read the book now, but remember the real value of the book is to force you to stop and think a while about each issue. You can't do that blowing through this list in 10 seconds, especially without the examples in the book.
Overall - Despite some minor weaknesses, the book is great and offers enormous value. Don't Make Me Think has been one of the best sellers in software books since August 2005 and for good reason. Krug's "Don't Make Me Think" really does warrant some thought. If you have a web site, there's no question that you should buy this book.
Glenn Hostetler
Author, Web Service and SOA Technologies
 Good Advice! October 6, 2009
John R. Sedivy (Cape Cod, MA)
After seeing the title I just had to read this book. I use this philosophy for just about everything - the easy, repetitive stuff should be so easy you do not have to think about it while freeing up our brain power for life's challenges and the fun stuff. So it goes with good design and usability. That is the essence of this book, basic web design practices which will provide the user with a pleasant experience when visiting your website.
Here are what I consider the highlights of this book:
1. Usability - The author preaches good usability and this shines through in this book. The book is easy to read, has nice diagrams, and simple explanations and examples.
2. Short - This book is short and to the point while providing a good overview of usability. The goal of the author was to write the book so a potential reader could finish within a long plane flight. After reading this book I consider myself much better versed in usability than prior to with minimal investment of time.
3. Examples - There are some pretty solid examples here. One particularly memorable example was in the form of screen captures of what the Web designer designs and what the Web user sees. Point taken.
4. Recommended Reading - The author provides some good recommendations in the form of books and websites. A good explanation is provided as to why each item is recommended.
Here are what I consider the drawbacks of this book:
1. Design Recommendations: This is a very subjective (and therefore heated) topic for many. Although there is some solid advice on basic design to ease the user experience I found some of the recommendations (and examples) to be a bit utilitarian for my liking. Fun design and ease of use is a tricky balancing act - so this is not necessarily a hit against the book but rather a note of difference in style. This is not a flashy design book, but more functional in nature.
2. Humor: This is another subjective area. Although I prefer humorous treatment of otherwise potentially boring topics (Seth Godin is one of my favorite authors in the field of Marketing) I found the humor to be a bit dated and did not really appeal to me. This should not stop someone from purchasing the book, but worth noting nonetheless.
Overall I found this book to be a good overview of the subject of website usability by a credible source. Given the short amount of time it will take to read the book, I believe it is worthwhile for those who create websites, are involved in the marketing function in a company who has a website, or an individual who is interested in learning about usability.
 Hugely overrated and not very insightful October 1, 2009
Andriy Drozdyuk (Toronto, Canada)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I don't know why this 200 page book receives such great reviews.
The quality of writing is nothing to be marvelled at, somewhere around grade 3. The advice is O.K., but after the first 20 pages it feels like this seemingly short and condensed book is dragging on and on.
The chapter on testing is so-so. However it could have been accomplished in 1/3 the space, without the silly examples.
The chapter on usability is way outdated and the present browser zooming makes some of the concepts obsolete. Some advice is useful, but it's buried in words.
From the usability perspective, this book on usability is not very "usable". The author tries to be funny (and sometimes succeeds) instead of conveying key-points. There are no main concepts or anything that you can take away from some parts of the book, except for a strange chapter titles like "Don't throw the baby out with the dishes" (which I think are meant to be funny).
For a much better coverage of the importance of testing and rapid prototyping I would actually recommend "The Art of Game Design: A book of lenses". The book is not really about web-design, but it conveys the need for some of the things that "Don't make me think" glosses over in a much greater depth. The writing and jokes are also far superior to that of Steve Krug.
For the programmers, CC2 should scratch all the right places to get the curious about the right things. I know it's a "bit" bigger but you would be a poor programmer if you did not read it anyway.
For designers, a course/book in/on design/typography should be much more useful allocation of their time.
My "test" of this book determined the following low hanging fruit:
-Low level of writing
-Too much wordiness
-Not enough key-points/solid ideas
In the end I think this is an ok average book, for an average sit-at-home web-designer which will maybe improve your web-site. Sadly it does not leave you with any desire to pursue the subject, and you are left with a few "band-aid" solutions and no reasonable foundation or ideas of your own.
Covers 80% of the cases October 1, 2009
Medhavi Bhatia (Germantown, MD)
This book is a very useful introductory text on usability. On scanning (no pun intended - the author has a chapter on how web users scan) the book I discovered it has valuable insight into almost all day to day issues we have designing sites which work. It helps you with a reality check on your site. You may not find solutions to your usability problems, but what you will find are suggestions and approaches to find a solution which works. The language and flow are really simple and that's what I liked most of this book.
Very Interesting September 26, 2009
Eric W. Bullock (nashville TN USA)
He really makes you think about how we don't want to think on the WWW.
Showing reviews 6-10 of 491
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