Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

by Krug Steve

One of the things that I find annoying about the Tang argument (“making sites accessible makes them more usable for everyone”) is that it obscures the fact that the reverse actually is true: Making sites more usable for “the rest of us” is one of the most effective ways to make them more effective for people with disabilities. If something confuses most people who use your site, it’s almost certain to confuse users who have accessibility issues. (After all, people don’t suddenly become remarkably smarter just because they have a disability.) And it’s very likely that they’re going to have a harder time recovering from their confusion. For instance, think of the last time you had trouble using a Web site (running into a confusing error message when you submitted a form, for example). Now imagine trying to solve that problem without being able to see the page. The single best thing you can do to improve your site’s accessibility is to test it often, and continually smooth out the parts that confuse everyone. In fact, if you don’t do this first, no matter how rigorously you apply accessibility guidelines, people with disabilities still won’t be able to use your site.