"Don't Make Me Think!"

This week I read the first two chapters of Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" ( 2nd edition). While I don't have a rich background in web usability, I do have a strong background in design thinking, and anticipating user needs and wants. In that regard, these two chapters really did seem like common sense. A large portion of my current design work consists of printed pieces used for recruitment of sixteen through eighteen year olds - a group not exactly known for having a long attention span. I was pleased to see that many of the strategies I use in this print work, carry directly into good design for the web. My number one goal for each print piece is to anticipate the questions that might arise on the subject matter at hand, and make it very easy for the reader to find the answer before they even know they had a question! Although I hadn't verbalized them, or put them in list form, I use Krug's list of questions that a visitor "shouldn't have to think about" daily. Those are:

1. Where am I?
2. Where should I begin?
3. Where did they put _________?
4. What are the most important things on this page?
5. Why did they call it "that"?

I'm happy that my current work has prepared me to make the leap to usable web design.

I was most interested in Krug's facts of "Real Web Use", especially fact #3. Facts number one and two posit that (1) we don't read web pages, we scan them; and (2) we don't make optimal choices, we select the first reasonable option and go with it (aka, we satisfice - cross between satisfy & suffice). Fact #3 however, states that we don't try to figure things out, we just muddle through. And this works in many cases, but Krug gave four reasons why we should help our users get it rather than allowing them to muddle through. Those reasons:

• there's a better chance the user will find what they want,
• there's a better chance they'll understand what the full range of the site has to offer,
• there's a better chance of steering them to where you want them to go, and
• they'll feel more in control, which is more likely to bring them back.

Because my interests lie in recruiting and in helping small businesses, these four points are critical to my design work. I think I probably knew these things before reading this, but they seem much clearer and much more important after seeing them in writing!