Don’t Make Me Think

I have to admit, I had high expectations from Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think. After reading all the reviews on Amazon and seeing all the holds this book had in the library (which took about a year of waiting), I was excited to finally read this book. Was I disappointed? Somewhat but not really.

Krug’s philosophy in Don’t Make Me Think, states that we should design user interfaces that are obvious and simple. Hence, what Krug preaches is pretty much common sense but something that most people don’t realize or they probrably take for granted.

The book is divided into four sections. Part 1: Guiding Principles deals with how users scan information, interact with objects by muddling with them and how less is more on the Web. Part 2: Things You Need To Get Right deals with the design of navigation (Krug loves tabs) and the design of home pages (it’s all about hierarchy). Part 3: Making Sure You Got Them Right deals with the importance of usability testing (don’t test when the product is about to launch. Test in the beginning stages as well.) Part 4: Larger Concerns And Outside Influences deals with the politics of interaction design and is more of a chapter to vent and relate rather than offer any practical advice.

All in all, the book was an easy read and had a lot of good things to say. As to why I”m a bit disappointed, it’s because I was expecting this book to be the bible of interaction design. I’m sure that when the book was first published, it really rocked the web design world. But if you read other interaction design books, then you would be familiar with a lot of Krug’s ideas.

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