Ive been busy traveling for work and not getting the chance to read as much for fun, but managed to read the update to this timeless reference book for basic website and now mobile usability.
Its very basic and even calls itself out as such, but I think its a great introduction to the areas of web and mobile usability and is something anyone who is a fan of welldesigned products would enjoy! This book is what it states a common sense approach to web usability.
The book lays bare the facts, that
, Users do not read the text in a web page,
. Users muddle through a web page, no matter how well thought out the layout, and menus are,
And as a designer, your task is to take these two facts into account when designing your website,
The author, Steve Krug, is very perceptive, While this is evident throughout the book, what did it for me was the footnote about the Site ID being on the top right corner in web pages with right to left languages, and his comment about inconsistent navigation options in many sites once you are two or three pages deep.
The first one is a nice callout, the second I've been burnt by it so many times!
The section that talks about how to resolve "design" people problems, when members of different teams prefer one design over another, is a lifesaver for any Project / Development / Product Manager.
It clearly brings the focus back to the problem are we doing the right thing for the intended users of this website
The graphic showing what a webpage means to a CEO, Developer, Designer, and Marketing, nails each group's perspective on the head.
The difference between a focus group, and a usability testing team is explained well,
The chapters on usability testing is a must read for all QA teams, The table showing how much it would cost to do "Get it" and taskbased usability testing is very concise, and useful, I would recommend taking this nofrills approach a part of my org's development methodology,
That said, the book is roughly ten years old, The principles, no doubt, still hold good, But, it would be nice to see an updated version that talks about
, The proliferation of social media, and how to design for that,
. Webbased Enterprise application UI design,
above is closer to home for me, Type of question that I would like to be tackled In web based Enterprise apps that specifically deal with a particular vertical say Insurance, how much can you assume that the user knows about the domain, and consequently, how does that affect your design
The book is well laid out, and you can see evidence of the author eating his own dog food.
The footnotes offer interesting segues sometimes not about web usability, and the Recommended Reading section is a big plus,
It is an easy read, at a little underpages no reason your web dev team can't find time to read and reread it! In this book, Krug shows you how to make things easy for visitors to your site by making sure everything on it is obvious at a glance and easy to find and get to.
And he practices what he preaches I picked this book in large part because of its clear, attractive, readerfriendly design, It's a quick read, but you may want to take your time on it a bit to make sure you fully register everything he says.
There are applications of what he says far beyond web design, I teach pronunciation, and know that people really don't want to have to grapple with poor pronunciation and incorrect grammar to get at what a speaker actually meant to say.
Those who say the listener should do some of the work too are not thinking about how competition for attention and resources works in the real world.
If you have a web site, blog, or any other online presence, I highly recommend you get and read this book NOW! عندما فتحت المساحة المخصصة للمراجعة كنت أنوي الكتابة بالإنجليزية لكن دافع قومي ربما جعلني أكتب بالعربية
الكتاب جيد و دمه خفيف وشرحه واضح جدا لكن موجه بشكل كبير للمواقع التجارية
لكن مثلا المواقع الحكومية المواقع التعليمية كلها تحتاج معايير لقابلية الاستخدام تختلف عن الموجودة في الكتاب لكن المجال كما بدا لي مفتوح وفي البدايات و يحتاج للكثير
أيضا مصممي الأنظمة و قواعد البيانات و واجهاتها بحاجة لقابلية الاستخدام وتحديد بعض المعايير لقابلية الاستخدام أيضا What I liked:
The simple language used to explain normally complex matter
The good humour, examples and metaphors the writer uses to explain things.
They really work.
Now the bad parts:
I find the information in the book to be a little too simplistic and common sense.
Even for people with only interest on the area of web usability they may find that they already know, or at least thought in a very similar way when they browse daily
I understand that this isn't a scientific book and the author does refer to Nielsen a couple of times but all in all the knowledge in this book comes directly from the writer's mind with very little scientific sources to confirm what it's being said
Even the second edition is from, almostyears have passed and most of the webpage elements he focus on the book, aren't really that used anymore.
Still, this isn't the author's fault, Books age and so
does the content they possess, Tasarıma yeni başlamış ve başlamak isteyen herkesin mutlaka okuması gereken "Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability", nokta atışı tespitleri ve örnekleriyle harikulade bir başlangıç kitabı.
Öte yandan, her ne kadar içerik bakımından günümüze uyarlanmaya çalışılsa da verdiği zaman aşımına uğramış örneklerin özellikle deneyimli tasarımcılar için yararlı olduğunu söylemek pek de mümkün değil.
Yine de bilgileri tazeleme veya kendinizi test etme konusunda güzel bir okuma olabilir,
Londra, Birleşik Krallık
Alp Turgut I cant believe I hadnt read this book before, I remember seeing the cover everywhere for a long time but never looked into what it was, Anyhow. Its about web usability and damn is it good,
It is well written, easy to understand and most things are not surprising at all, but the way they are packaged and presented leaves an impact.
Each paragraph has a short list of things that the reader could easily implement, leaving the feeling that improving is actually easy or at least starting is easy for anyone.
I will not look at web pages or our own product the same ever again,
A good book is usually the one that I “swallow” quickly and that sparks a few ideas, This was a good book and all product managers should read it, At the minimum it will at least confirm many of the things that you are already doing towards good usability but might also spark a few new ideas to level up.
این کتاب رو خودم یه نگاهی فقط بهش انداختم اما یکی از دوستان خلاصهای رو ازش در اختیارمون گذاشت.
درسته که کتاب نسبتا قدیمی محسوب میشه اما نکات مهمی توش هست و به عنوان لیستی از چیزهایی که باید/نباید رعایت کنیم رو در بهمون میده.
برای شروع یو ایکس میتونه مفید باشه.
The book was a short, quick and easy read that can easily be finished on a plane ride, It's in full color with a couple of helpful diagrams, but I mostly found the comics in it annoying and patronizing, A lot of what Krug brings up in the first half seems like common sense, but he does delve deeper into some points, which may be helpful for some.
The most valuable information I found in Don't Make Me Think was the little quizzes in the middle of the book where readers are presented with sample websites and asked what was wrong or needed improvement.
Krug walks through important aspects of those sites in a clear and concise manner, I wish that more of the book was made up of examples like those, Ironic that this book makes the reader think think about design and views on life, all at once, An excellent book for stimulating the brain to think and view the world in new ways, Quick, thorough, and to the point, as it suggests, Even inspired me to write a review, on the web, I don't even NEED to think twice to say this was a VERY GOOD eread!!
It really is a book that can stand the test of time, though all three iterations, it keeps the tone and message: "good web design starts with instinct of the user.
"
Krug's book focuses on web usability, fundamentals of good design, and user experience testing, Every web designer should get their hands on this as it is a reference for the mind about the mind! give it a go, it will have you thinking differently.
Ive been working in software for my entire professional career, Except for the past year, Ive been a backend software engineer for backend code in data platforms, web apps, and operations, Throughout my years as an engineer, Ive neglected studying design, Its always been the elusive facet of product development that Ive appreciated, but never come to understand,
Ive dabbled in different design tools to create sample mockups for products I wished to build, but I always copied what looks good instead of putting design pieces together.
This year, I wanted to change my perception of design and learn how a designer thinks when working on a project, To start my journey as an amateur designer, I thought best to begin with the fundamental books about web design, Thats is how I was led to Steve Krugs book, Dont Make Me Think,
I started reading it with high hopes, It began with a friendly welcoming attitude to the world of design a world I had only experienced from the outside, With Krugs definition of usability, I learned some basic principles that I had only heard vaguely mentioned by colleagues in the past.
However, after these abstract principles, I felt the rest of the book wasnt as helpful as I was expecting,
Written in, but updated in, there were a lot of concepts that have been outdated in todays web world, The majority of the chapters were written with concrete examples, and while some layout tips might be applicable to todays modern apps, the rest were artifacts of an older browsing history.
Obviously, rapid changes are extremely difficult to account for when writing a book about the design of the web, Because of this difficulty, it would have been better to have discussed the top usability concepts, rather than specific examples, A great example of this issue is the entire chapter dedicated to the Home page,
Another nit picky problem I had while reading was the unnecessary amount of book recommendations, Its one thing to source where a concept has come from, but its another to introduce the importance of a specific usability application e.
g. font styles and sizes, then spend a few sentences introducing it and instead of summarizing it, recommend an entire book on the subject.
I came for a distillation of usability principles and applications, not to build a library of books that Im never going to get to.
The worst offender was the accessibility chapter, Two of the four recommendations to fix the problem of accessibility was to read an article and another book! Thats not the type of advice Im looking for when Im reading a book about usability.
Nonetheless, I did learn a few interesting helpful tips about usability, The chapter on usability testing and DIY testing solidified some high level understandings I had about user testing, There were also multiple instances where I said “ohhh” out loud after learning the “why” behind UX concepts e, g. goodwill reservoir that I heard colleagues mention but never clarified,
Unfortunately, these instances were short and far between, Instead, I had to wade streams of lightjokes and quirky writing that got annoying after awhile, Even the random off topic footnotes the author injected got tiresome by the end, I get that he was trying to give the text some mensch, but it wasnt landing for me,
Overall, this wasnt the book I was hoping for, I wasnt trying to get buy in from my manager to perform usability tests, I wasnt trying to compare UX to usability, Instead, I wanted to learn about some core principles of UX and design that I could use in my daily workflow, I guess Ill have to keep looking, .