Book Review of Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think"

"Don't Make Me Think" is a paperback guide to achieving optimal website usability for anyone building or redesigning a website. The guide is written by usability expert, Steve Krug, who draws on over 20 years of experience in the industry. He works as a consultant to companies wanting to make their websites user friendly, through his website Advanced Common Sense. One could assume that a book about web usability could end up being a lengthy and tedious instruction manual but instead Krug's book is more of advice from a friend who has been there. He teaches readers to ask the right questions as opposed to just telling them what to do. What works well in Krug's guide to usability is the accessibility of it. As promised in the preface of the book he mostly steers clear of using jargon or technical language. This is an effective move because it contributes to the books universal appeal. Almost anyone could pick up the book and take something away from it. The lack of technical speaks makes the subject matter a lot less intimidating and a quicker read. Less time is spent trying to figure out what a certain section really means. His use of examples are really great at driving the message home. The book is filled with multiple screenshots of websites that illustrate his points. He also provides good scenarios, both relating to web design and metaphoric scenarios that do a great job of driving home the importance of certain elements of web design. On the other hand, some might find that there are perhaps too many of these effective examples. One piece of advice that Krug gives is importance of editing and omitting unnecessary words. At times several pages of presenting a scenario and then explaining how it relates to the section on top of why the section itself is important can be somewhat overkill. Some scenarios can presented more concisely and without explanation to avoid getting too deep into something doesn't really require much depth, for example a chapter explaining how design teams can sometimes spend too much discussing what users like. Despite a few sections sections that run a little longer than they probably should have, Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" is still a quick and easy read. He accomplishes what the title implies. The reader does not have to do much thinking while reading this guide but at the same time is able to retain good advice on how to make their website as usable as possible without feeling like they just stepped out of a mind spinning class for developers learning how to code.