DON'T MAKE ME THINK!!!

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug was a very informative and helpful book.  He dealt with real examples on practically everything you need to know to set up a website and maintain it.  No matter if you are an amateur with the web, have some practice, or are an expert, this book will help you! I thought it was funny as I kept catching myself saying “wow, that does make a really big difference” every time he would point out something that could be altered a little bit…or a lot.  The majority of the stuff he points out is kind of obvious, but it is not stuff that we usually think about….at least I didn’t until I read it! He easily teaches you how to make your website user friendly, and how to keep the viewer’s attention. Every example he used, he explained why it was necessary, unnecessary, helpful or unhelpful etc. (The examples were the most helpful part of the book) This really made me start to think of what I should and shouldn’t change on my site.  I feel that most people have a sense of how to use the web, but this book focused on the changes you can make to make your site better, or even what to look for on other sites when you are looking for something specific. One of the sections I found very interesting was the “Usability Testing on 10 Cents a Day” chapter.  I’ve never really thought about that kind of stuff.  Testing your users will definitely make your website that much better.  After all, we want to make the viewer happy, don’t we? But, my favorite part of this book was when he wrote about omitting needless words.  One of the quotes in the book was this: “Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left (Krug’s third law of usability).” This was my favorite chapter because every time I go to a website I expect to find exactly what I’m looking for.  More often than not, I find myself becoming very frustrated with websites that aren’t very user friendly and have way too many words and content on the page.  If I actually take the time to read it, I say to myself “hmmm, they could have really explained that in a much more simple way.”  As I am posting to my blog, I keep this in mind.  Be creative, say what you need to say, but don’t over do it! Overall, the book truly opened my eyes to what a website needs and what it can also do without.  After I get more proficient in using the web, and designing a website, some of the other content will help me much more.  I wasn’t too excited about reading this book at first, but it just so happened that I finished it in two days because I was actually very intrigued! I am confident that my blog will be much more user friendly and accessible as the semester goes on, and if I ever create a website, this book will definitely be opened again!