Chapter 1 - Don't Make Me Think - Krug's First Law of Usability

[Diamond Website Conversion]

We all already know Krugg’s First Law of Usability. After all, it’s the title of our book: Don’t make me think. A webpage should be intuitive, obvious, and self-explanatory for every user. The simple fact is people are busy and usually not too interested in reading everything that you have to say or figuring out a novel sort of navigation. Things that may be exciting or cute to a designer or advertising team may not come across in the same way, and can lead to confusion. Jargon and wordiness should be avoided—simple, clear, and short things are usually best. Phrases used as buttons and links should make it immediately obvious where the link is heading with as little thought or interpretation as possible. Links should also be easily identified as clickable links, and need to stand out from the page.

Take a quick look at a couple web pages. Yours, your competition’s, click “I’m feeling lucky” on Google with a couple random keywords. See how much the page makes you think. Try to approach it from a fresh perspective, and feel out the intuitiveness of the navigation and links. Does it feel simple and self-evident to you?

[Shelby]

It is few and far between to find a web page that "doesn't make me think." One of them that I like is Groupon. It is easy to use, self-evident, simple, easy on the eyes, and all meat and no potatoes. http://www.groupon.com/los-angeles/

Hopefully with time more website will catch on the importance of these principles.