Don't Make Me Think

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Ed., Steve Krug, New Riders Publishing, Berkley CA, 2006. ISBN 0-3321-34475-8. "Don't make me think!" I've been telling people for years that this is my first law of usability. And the more Web pages I look at, the more convinced I become. It's the overriding principle--the ultimate tie breaker when deciding whether something works or doesn't in a Web design. If you have room in your head for only one usability rule, make this the one. Making Web pages self-evident is like having good lighting in a store: it just makes everything seem better. Using a site that doesn't make us think about unimportant things feels effortless, whereas puzzling over things that don't matter to us tends to sap our energy and enthusiasm--and time. When we look at how we really use the Web, the main reason why it's important not to make me think is that most people are going to spend far less time looking at the pages we design than we'd like to think. As a result If Web pages are going to be effective, they have to work most of their magic at a glace. And the best way to do that is to create pages that are self-evident, or at least self-explanatory.

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