1. A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability By Steve Krug, 2000
Don’t Make Me Think!
A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
By Steve Krug, 2000

2. Question:
What’s the most important thing I should do if I want to make sure my Web site is easy to use?

3. Answer:
Don’t make me think!

6. Things that make us think:
Names of things
Cute or clever names
Marketing-induced names
Company-specific names
Unfamiliar technical names

7. Things that make us think:
Links and Buttons not obviously clickable

8. Things that make us think:
Thinking about how I want to search

9. Things that make us think:
Where am I?
Where should I begin?
Where did they put _____ ?
What are the most important things on this page?
Why did they call it that?

10. However, . . . You can’t make everything self-evident
You can make it self-explanatory

11. How we Really use the Web
Scanning
Satisficing
Muddling Through

13. Fact of Life #1: We don’t read pages. We scan them.
We’re usually in a hurry
We know we don’t need to read everything
We’re good at it.

14. Fact of Life #2: We don’t make optimal choices. We satisfice.
We’re usually in a hurry
There’s not much penalty for guessing wrong
Weighing options may not improve our chances
Guessing is more fun

15. Fact of Life #3:
We don’t figure out how things work. We muddle through.
It’s not important to us
If we find something that works, we stick with it.

16. If users “get it”. . .
There’s a better chance they’ll find what they’re looking for
There’s a better chance they’ll understand the full range of what your site has to offer
You’ll have a better chance of steering them to parts of the site you want them to see
They’ll feel smarter and more in control, which will bring them back

17. So what do we do?
If your audience is going to act like you’re designing billboards,
Then design great billboards.