Book Review: Dont Make Me Think
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This book was published quite a few years ago but it’s still very relevant today. It’s NOT a book about web design (which changes often) but rather, a book about human behavior and web usability. And how web designers can improve our websites and apps by understanding how humans interact with our creations.
Overall, this was a really easy read, quite humorous and full of illustrations and examples.
The author, Steve Krug, is a web usability consultant with more than 30 years experience helping major brands and corporations improve their web presence.
The main guiding principle of the book is the mantra “Don’t Make Me Think”; meaning, you need to be conscientious of your website visitor’s time and willingness to “figure things out” on your site. In short, they shouldn’t have to. Every clickable button, menu item, drop down or call to action should be boldly obvious to the visitor.
Anything less, the visitor will need to “think” about what this link/button/option is for…and that’s not good! Time spent thinking about how to navigate your site is time lost. You would rather have your visitor be consuming your content or taking some action that brought them there in the first place.
Let’s get to some examples…
Click here for the video version of this post!
Things that MAKE us think (and this is NOT good!)
An unclear navigation path that has visitors asking questions such as, “where do I start”? and “why am I here?” is forcing your visitor to think. If your user is asking these questions when visiting your site, then you’re adding to their confusion instead of solving their problem.
A button labeled “Employment Opportunities” instead of just “Jobs” or “Careers” is making people think. Choose simple and clear over formal and stuffy.
A button/link not clearly indicated as a clickable link. If the visitor has to think about whether or not this item is a link requires thought and decision. Ultimately, time and brain power wasted!
How We Really Use the Web
This book helps us learn how visitors really use the web; and a key takeaway is, we don’t “read”, we “scan”.
We’re on a mission to solve our problem or find information.
We know we don’t NEED to read everything, but rather scan from left to right, in a Z pattern and look for WORDS or PHRASES that match what we’re looking for; our reason for being on this site at all.
In other words, we “muddle” through with the least amount of effort possible just to get through the task.
[Don’t be discouraged that your beautifully aesthetic website is not being appreciated, because it is! The eye is taking it all in]
Convention is Clarity
The author points out that while it might be tempting to try unconventional, cool and quirky things to differentiate your website from the hundreds of others out there…
Don’t Do It.
Humans like consistency; certainty; comfort.
People ‘expect’ certain things to be in a certain spot on a website. Don’t let them down!
(Don’t Make Them Think!)
They will expect a logo or some identifying info in the upper left corner.
They will expect a menu across the top, centered or right justified. (A recent design trend is placing menus vertically…this may or may not work for your community – do some usability testing!)
Certainly the above advice is contextual and based on the purpose of your website. Sometimes, avant-garde and funky sites are quite appropriate (think art, music, creatives), but for most faith communities and churches, having a familiar web front is your best bet.
Takeaway Tips
- Not everything is equally important
- Create visual hierarchies to help the eye navigate
- Format text to make SCANNING easy by using:
- Bulleted Lists
- Short sentences
- Plenty of Headings
- Display keywords in BOLD type
- Plenty of whitespace
We read the book so you don’t have to. But you sure can if you want to! Here’s the amazon link..