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

by Krug Steve

If you’re not going to use an existing Web convention, you need to be sure that what you’re replacing it with either (a) is so clear and self-explanatory that there’s no learning curve—so it’s as good as the convention, or (b) adds so much value that it’s worth a small learning curve.

everything can’t be important. Shouting is usually the result of a failure to make tough decisions about which elements are really the most important and then create a visual hierarchy that guides users to them first.

start with the assumption that everything is visual noise (the “presumed guilty until proven innocent” approach) and get rid of anything that’s not making a real contribution.

I seldom see a case where the potential payoff for adding options to the persistent search box is worth the cost of making me figure out what the options are and whether I need to use them (i.e., making me think).

Good taglines are just long enough, but not too long. Six to eight words seem to be long enough to convey a full thought, but short enough to absorb easily.

A motto expresses a guiding principle, a goal, or an ideal, but a tagline conveys a value proposition.

“Guidelines for Accessible and Usable Web Sites: Observing Users Who Work with Screen Readers.”6

An article worth reading.http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.368.1017&rep=rep1&type=pdf