By Steve Krug
Steve Krug is a usability consultant who has more than 15 years of experience as a user advocate for companies like Apple, Netscape, AOL, Lexus, and others. Based in part on the success of the first edition of Don’t Make Me Think, he has become a highly sought-after speaker on usability design.Source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321344758?ie=UTF8&tag=ux-booth-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0321344758
I procured a copy of this brilliant book a while ago. It's recommended everywhere, including the brief; I first came across it in when I started reading more into web design practices. This book outlines many, brilliant principles that can be applied to any design medium - not just the web.
Below, I have listed some of my own, personal lessons I've learnt from reading this book.
- A key philosophy in making anything usable is to reduce the amount of thinking that needs to be done to use it.
- Products should be self-explainatory - explain themselves.
- Users want to get straight to the point - 'small-talk' (time-waster's) will degrade the usability of a product.
- Make it easy to get home! - users need a get-out-of-jail-free card.
- Consistency is key - we're users of habit; e.g. navigational methods should work the same throughout a product.