A web agency weblog

Despite being published in 2000, Steve Krug’s Don’t make me think is a great book covering the most important aspects of usability.

Believe me or not, I have just finished reading it for the third time. Steve offers us excellent ideas which you need to remember in a daily basis if you really are into web design. He has good jokes too (the donuts drawings in the first pages reminded me of many distracted customers I’d had).

You can read the book in one afternoon, he really applies the omit needless words concept here, one concept borrowed from Elements of Style and also mentioned by Stephen King in his excellent On Writing. The whole chapter on this subject is just a couple of pages.

I really like the way used by Steve to explain most usability concepts from the user perspective, specially the part in how users see a web page all blurred versus the way a designer hopes.

You can tell that Steve has been there when he talks about the religious debates arising between programmers, marketing people and designers when choosing certain interface elements .

But not everything is focused in design, Steve also talks about internal politics, which, as we all know, most of the times tie web developers hands.

There are many great resources online about usability, but Steve has made a great job of putting the most important issues in one easy to read package.

You should grab a copy of Don’t make me think even if you are not into web design, these concepts apply to many other fields too.

Get it, read it and let us know what you think about!