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

by Krug Steve

Things that diminish goodwill Here are a few of the things that tend to make users feel like the people publishing a site don’t have their best interests at heart: Hiding information that I want. The most common things to hide are customer support phone numbers, shipping rates, and prices. The whole point of hiding support phone numbers is to try to keep users from calling, because each call costs money. The usual effect is to diminish goodwill and ensure that they’ll be even more annoyed when they do find the number and call. On the other hand, if the 800 number is in plain sight—perhaps even on every page—somehow knowing that they can call if they want to is often enough to keep people looking for the information on the site longer, increasing the chances that they’ll solve the problem themselves.