Don't Make Me Think

Metadata

• Author: Steve Krug
• Full Title: Don't Make Me Think
• Category: #books

Highlights

• Guessing is more fun. It’s less work than weighing options, and if you guess right, it’s faster. And it introduces an element of chance—the pleasant possibility of running into something surprising and good. (Location 457)

• people use things all the time without understanding how they work, or with completely wrong-headed ideas about how they work. (Location 463)

• Create a clear visual hierarchy on each page > Take advantage of conventions > Break pages up into clearly defined areas > Make it obvious what’s clickable > Minimize noise. (Location 516)

• A good visual hierarchy saves us work by preprocessing the page for us, organizing and prioritizing its contents in a way that we can grasp almost instantly. But when a page doesn’t have a clear visual hierarchy—if everything looks equally important, for instance—we’re reduced to the much slower process of scanning the page for revealing words and phrases, and then trying to form our own sense of what’s important and how things are organized. It’s a lot more work. (Location 542)
• All conventions start life as somebody’s bright idea. If the idea works well enough, other sites imitate it and eventually enough people have seen it in enough places that it needs no explanation. This adoption process takes time, but it happens pretty quickly on the Internet, like everything else. For instance, enough people are now familiar with the convention of using a metaphorical shopping cart on e-commerce sites that it’s safe for designers to use a shopping cart icon without labeling it “Shopping cart.” (Location 567)
• I think it’s safe to say that users don’t mind a lot of clicks as long as each click is painless and they have continued confidence that they’re on the right track—following (Location 654)
• Your objective should always be to eliminate instructions entirely by making everything self-explanatory, or as close to it as possible. (Location 727)
• “Search and You May Find” in Nielsen’s archive of his Alertbox columns on www.useit.com. (Location 785)
• Clear, well-thought-out navigation is one of the best opportunities a site has to create a good impression. (Location 862)
• Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville (O’Reilly, 2002) and take to heart everything they have to say about search. (Location 953)
• I think this is one of the most common problems in Web design (especially in larger sites): failing to give the lower-level navigation the same attention as the top. (Location 993)
• every site makes an implicit social contract with its visitors: The name of the page will match the words I clicked to get there. (Location 1034)
• The most common failing of “You are here” indicators is that they’re too subtle. They need to stand out; if they don’t, they lose their value as visual cues and end up just adding more noise to the page. (Location 1056)
• truth is a little more complicated than that. If you’re interested, Keith Instone has an excellent treatment of the whole subject of Breadcrumbs at http://user-experience.org. (Location 1077)
• Tabs are one of the very few cases where using a physical metaphor in a user interface actually works. (Location 1134)
• There was a tab selected when you enter the site. If there’s no tab selected when I enter a site (as on Quicken.com, for instance), I lose the impact of the tabs in the crucial first few seconds, when it counts the most. (Location 1206)
• The most important thing is to keep the section names exactly the same: the same order, the same wording, and the same grouping. It also helps to try to keep as many of the same visual cues as possible: the same typeface, colors, and capitalization. (Location 1514)
• Pulldowns are most effective for alphabetized lists of items with known names, like countries, states, or products, because there’s no thought involved. (Location 1543)

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public: true

title: Don't Make Me Think longtitle: Don't Make Me Think author: Steve Krug url: , source: kindle last_highlight: 2010-11-02 type: books tags:

Don't Make Me Think

Metadata

• Author: Steve Krug
• Full Title: Don't Make Me Think
• Category: #books

Highlights

• Guessing is more fun. It’s less work than weighing options, and if you guess right, it’s faster. And it introduces an element of chance—the pleasant possibility of running into something surprising and good. (Location 457)

• people use things all the time without understanding how they work, or with completely wrong-headed ideas about how they work. (Location 463)

• Create a clear visual hierarchy on each page > Take advantage of conventions > Break pages up into clearly defined areas > Make it obvious what’s clickable > Minimize noise. (Location 516)

• A good visual hierarchy saves us work by preprocessing the page for us, organizing and prioritizing its contents in a way that we can grasp almost instantly. But when a page doesn’t have a clear visual hierarchy—if everything looks equally important, for instance—we’re reduced to the much slower process of scanning the page for revealing words and phrases, and then trying to form our own sense of what’s important and how things are organized. It’s a lot more work. (Location 542)
• All conventions start life as somebody’s bright idea. If the idea works well enough, other sites imitate it and eventually enough people have seen it in enough places that it needs no explanation. This adoption process takes time, but it happens pretty quickly on the Internet, like everything else. For instance, enough people are now familiar with the convention of using a metaphorical shopping cart on e-commerce sites that it’s safe for designers to use a shopping cart icon without labeling it “Shopping cart.” (Location 567)
• I think it’s safe to say that users don’t mind a lot of clicks as long as each click is painless and they have continued confidence that they’re on the right track—following (Location 654)
• Your objective should always be to eliminate instructions entirely by making everything self-explanatory, or as close to it as possible. (Location 727)
• “Search and You May Find” in Nielsen’s archive of his Alertbox columns on www.useit.com. (Location 785)
• Clear, well-thought-out navigation is one of the best opportunities a site has to create a good impression. (Location 862)
• Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville (O’Reilly, 2002) and take to heart everything they have to say about search. (Location 953)
• I think this is one of the most common problems in Web design (especially in larger sites): failing to give the lower-level navigation the same attention as the top. (Location 993)
• every site makes an implicit social contract with its visitors: The name of the page will match the words I clicked to get there. (Location 1034)
• The most common failing of “You are here” indicators is that they’re too subtle. They need to stand out; if they don’t, they lose their value as visual cues and end up just adding more noise to the page. (Location 1056)
• truth is a little more complicated than that. If you’re interested, Keith Instone has an excellent treatment of the whole subject of Breadcrumbs at http://user-experience.org. (Location 1077)
• Tabs are one of the very few cases where using a physical metaphor in a user interface actually works. (Location 1134)
• There was a tab selected when you enter the site. If there’s no tab selected when I enter a site (as on Quicken.com, for instance), I lose the impact of the tabs in the crucial first few seconds, when it counts the most. (Location 1206)
• The most important thing is to keep the section names exactly the same: the same order, the same wording, and the same grouping. It also helps to try to keep as many of the same visual cues as possible: the same typeface, colors, and capitalization. (Location 1514)
• Pulldowns are most effective for alphabetized lists of items with known names, like countries, states, or products, because there’s no thought involved. (Location 1543)