"Don't make me think" - book review.

More reviews / related links

Submitted by pedrito on January 10, 2001 - 08:37.

A review in Spanish

Steve Krug's homepage: advanced common sense

Info on Steve Krug on Cnet

Press release on Yahoo

Where he gets his info (email discussion)

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Submitted by damclean on January 10, 2001 - 13:43.

But what's the book really about? There isn't much meat to this article. It might help to describe the book and then tell people whether or not it's worth reading.

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Submitted by dwatling on January 12, 2001 - 07:49.

I agree this review is not very meaty, but is enough to make me go and read the sample chapter and probably buy the book. Although "Jackob's book" is just rehashing his "alert boxes" it is more organised and readable.

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the book is great

Submitted by benry on January 12, 2001 - 17:30.

Krug's book does just what the title says --- it doesn't require me to think too much. Rather, it lays out the laws of usability without having to drudge through page of page of Jacob-isms as we all have to on useit.com. Krug even states that the book is simple in nature and designed to convey items quickly (cause we all have enough to read) I found the information on performing usability tests very helpful. In particular the "trunk test" and the methodology behnd testing. I almost worn out my copy I've loaned it to others so many times.

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The point of the book...

Submitted by MartinB on January 13, 2001 - 17:53.

It seems that the point of the book is to be loaned out to clients. I've also lent out my Jakob book, but that's a bit more borderline. However, it compares very well with his Usability Engineering, which is a book for practitioners, not clients. For other useful books, see the article Building a Library.

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Log Files Support Much of this

Submitted by bongotronic on January 19, 2001 - 20:22.

I know our log files show that most users rarely look at more than 2 pages and the typical session lasts less than a minute or so. The number of hits our individual pages get seems to be directly related to thier rank from the top of our menues and navigation layouts. This seems to play out what the sample chapter is saying. Try to tell this to clients, and it's a difficult sell to overcome the vain idea that people are going to read everything you put up no matter how long and tedious. Has anyone read the book "Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions" by Gary Klein referred to in the sample chapter and is it worth tracking down to read?

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Sources of power

Submitted by pedrito on March 28, 2001 - 05:42.

I read Sources of power, it's quite interesting, but not a must read like "don't make me think" because it's not directly related to web design. It's about a study of how people make decisions. The guys who wrote it studied fire commanders and such, and came up with an interesting model on how people make decisions. They came up with a solid theory on how people make decisions, which has a lot of similarities with "satisficing", e.g. choosing the first option that looks reasonable. In fact, they conculde that experienced decision makers hardly even consider options. They just come up with an option, and that's usually the one they choose. (they explain it better than me) Another conclusion is that the goal often gets defined while doing the decision making process.

It did give me better insights in how people make decisions, and it does have influence on how I design sites.

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log files

Submitted by pedrito on March 28, 2001 - 05:45.

Most log files 've studied show that there's a huge percentage of users that looks at the homepage and then leaves, and the others typically look at 2 to 7 pages (with a little drop in the graph at three pages, seems that people who look at 2 will generally also look at 4 to 7 pages).

Maybe your interpretation was based on averages and therefore not entirely correct? (or maybe that's just how your log files are)

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Wat the book is about

Submitted by dwatling on March 28, 2001 - 05:59.

Now that I've got the book and read it I can comment on what it is about: 1) Why most Web sites are so hard to use. 2) What to do about it. 3) Usability testing on a budget. For more info go to the companion site (http://www.circle.com/krugbook/index.html) where you can see a table of contents and read a sample chapter.

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A Great Start!

Submitted by MediaOhgr on May 17, 2001 - 11:10.

I think that Steve's book is a great start! I've just begun to take Web Developing seriously as my future carreer and I feel that Steve's book was a great set up (launch pad) for me. I probably never would have heard of the book let alone bought it but as luck would have it, I won the book at school. It really opened my eyes to the basics of usabilty and sparked an interest on the topic in me. It was a great start point and I would recommend it to anyone that is thinking about becoming a web developer. I especially respect Steve as although he is a usability extremest, he sees the value of a visualy stimulating site. Jakob Nielsen is a, "Bare bones, deliver the goods" man. Don't get me worng, I respect Jakob's veiws and opinions very much but as Multimedia student I really don't want to hear people tell me that I should not use graphics or flash. I'd much rather have someone tell me how to use graphics and flash responsibly. Ooops ... we bit of a tangent there ... anyway, as I said, I feel that Steve's book is a great starting point for anyone that is wondering about the wild world of usability. It has really shaped the way I go about designing web pages as well as opened doors for me to persue the topic of usability futher.

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Like "See Dick Run"

Submitted by lgt on July 26, 2001 - 07:12.

I've been a usability engineer for 10 years and am constantly reading books, journal articles, conference proceedings, etc. on usability. I read Krug's book because it was new and had received so many good reviews. After reading his book, I am convinced that the majority of people who gave it good reviews are those that are completely new to the field of usability. The book is fine as a first book on usability but those who are usability engineers, usr-centered designers, etc. will not find it substantial or insightful. If you have been trained as a human factors engineer/usability practitioner who has been doing web design, don't waste your money. If you have a friend or colleague who is curious about usability and design and knows very little about the field, this is a great book.

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