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Loading... Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition (edition 2005)by Steve Krug (Author)Short, simple book, but a bit too rudimentary for someone at my level. For beginners, I would recommend reading a summary or using someone else's heuristics instead of buying this book (eg, http://www.squeezedbooks.com/articles/dont-make-me-think-a-common-sense-approach... This book was suggested as a good resource for me, as I'm in the process of re-designing my company's website. It was very useful, and would have been even more valuable if I wasn't working with a web designer who already knows some of this stuff. It's not cheap though. I was lucky to swap for it but it costs $40 retail, which seems like a lot for what it was. Excellent book which follows its own advice on usability - clear, simple, well designed and accessible. I actually found it to be entertaining and engaging rather than just educational. A lot of the items covered leap out as being obvious, but they are summed up and organised so neatly that this is a validation rather than a criticism. "Don't make me think" actually means don't interrupt the flow of clicks. Navigating a website (or traffic) should not create information overload. Websites should be designed for scanning, offering the viewer easy, clear choices in concise words. Much of what Krug has written about usability testing and web design, has entered web design standard practice. The entertaining and clear presentation of his lessons make this book a classic. Interesting and useful book. A lot of what he says is 'of course' stuff - but mostly it's 'of course it is, why didn't I think of that?' I applied a lot of it to LibraryThing - that is, I was visualizing LT and saying 'yes, it's got that - and that - but not that, though that's mostly for selling sites' - finally I understand the people who keep asking for a search box as part of navigation. I can't apply much of this to my own sites, because they're too small and badly done - I need to start over and think about them in the light of this stuff. It only took me an hour and 40 minutes to read - there are a lot of concepts and not much in the way of facts (that's a good thing, details would only obscure what he's saying). But I think the ideas presented here are going to affect the way I think about websites for a long time. De titel maakt de kern van het boek duidelijk: bezoekers van websites willen zoveel mogelijk gedachtenloos kunnen surfen. Denkwerk is oponthoud en teveel denkwerk is verlies van goodwill en klanten. Het sterkst in het boek van Krug zijn de beeldende vergelijkingen die in een slag duidelijk maken waar het om gaat. Zo zal ik de opmerking niet snel vergeten dat homepages leesbaar moeten zijn als billboards langs de snelweg. Kortom: geen enkel omhaal in je woordgebruik, klinkklare duidelijkheid voor alles. Krug's boek wordt nogal de hemel in geprezen en niet onterecht. Toch bekruipt me ook hier en daar het gevoel dat zijn meningen soms discutabel zijn, of al weer ingehaald door de tijd. De absolute revelatie was het daardoor niet, maar goed "leesspul" is het zeker, zelfs in het Engels. Great book for an introduction to the field of usability. Lots of comparisons from well known web sites, some with before/after case studies, and other sites that simply could be done better are also mocked up. I found the book to be great, including it's length -- as he describes was intentionally short to be more usable (about 200 pages). I'd bet most people could pick up a thing or two from it no matter how much web experience you have. Also, its a fairly short book, which was good. Still I think i was thinking it would have been more focused on best practices in web design, and it was a bit broader than that. More of a jumping off point than anything else. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)006.7Information Computing and Information Special Topics Multimedia systemsLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. Penguin AustraliaAn edition of this book was published by Penguin Australia. |