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

by Krug Steve

because usability is about people and how they understand and use things, not about technology. And while technology often changes quickly, people change very slowly.

If you really want to learn about making content scannable (or about anything related to writing for screens in general), run, do not walk, to an Internet-connected device and order Ginny Redish’s book Letting Go of the Words.

It’s always seemed to me that these people probably have the jobs they do because of who they are. Designers, for instance, probably became designers because they enjoy pleasant visual experiences. They get visceral pleasure from looking at pages full of elegant type and subtle visual cues.

There are endorphins involved.

And developers tend to like complexity. They enjoy figuring out how things work, reverse engineering them in their head, and looking for ideas they can...

And because these reactions are happening at a brain-chemical level, it’s very difficult for them to imagine that everybody...

The result is that designers want to build sites that look great, and developers want to build sites with interesti...

The only problem is, there is no Average User.

Having something pinned down can have a focusing effect, where a blank canvas with its unlimited options—while it sounds liberating—can have a paralyzing effect.