Dont Make Me Think

People won't use your web site if they can't find their way around it. Whether you call it usability, ease-of-use, or just good design, companies staking their fortunes and their futures on their Web sites are starting to recognize that it's a bottom-line issue. In Don't Make Me Think, usability expert Steve Krug distills his years of experience and observation into clear, practical--and often amusing--common sense advice for the people in the trenches (the designers, programmers, writers, editors, and Webmasters), the people who tell them what to do (project managers, business planners, and marketing people), and even the people who sign the checks. Krug's clearly explained, easily absorbed principles will help you sleep better at night knowing that all the hard work going into your site is producing something that people will actually want to use.

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orionblastarJun 2026

Try reading this book: https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/ If you made your users think, you have lost them.

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orionblastarMay 2025

Also relevant: https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/03213...

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everythingabiliOct 2024

I came here to say the same thing exactly. Tufte books are very visual (and expensive - see if you can find a copy of any of his books, changed my life). You can just dip in.

Norman is ace. Although his books turned me into a usability weirdo unable to switch off my usability sensors... be careful! :-)

As is Raskin - whose interface "notation" (click-drag-click etc) I think isn't talked about enough.

Can I also throw in these...

Don't Make Me Think: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/032... - I found this a REALLY useful book, and great to share with people too.

A Pattern Language https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construc... - OK, this is a bit esoteric, but it's so valuable and lots of geeks/UX-ers kind of aim to create their own pattern language as opposed to a UX-dogma.

Information Architecture https://www.amazon.co.uk/Information-Architecture-Beyond-Lou...

Visual Language https://www.amazon.co.uk/Visual-Language-Global-Communicatio... - a kind of fundamental - hard to find.

There are dozens of methodologies to learn, and put into practice. I would put it that you don't really learn UX, you do it, and revise - in order to solve problems and make things better. Once you've digested some of the ideas you need to start trying the methodologies out. This is harder than it sounds. Even companies that claim to support UX, sort of bugger things up.... in that UX can't "fix" crap... it needs to be in at the beginning.

My favourite activities / methodologies, that produced REAL results were

* Ethnography - kinda just hanging out and observing what actually goes on. One client used to print off every page to proof read their changes cos the font sizes were designed by 21 year olds and they were 60+. The applause I got for raising the font size would never have been found any other way than sitting in the corner. * Card sorting - often collaboratively with armfuls of post its to decide on categories/navigation * Wireframing - I had less success with paper prototyping, but still ... * Personas + Use Cases

...and Eye Tracking - which tbh was SO VALUABLE, not because of the insights it provided, but for the EVIDENCE (video and heatmaps) that you could use to persuade the big wigs.

So find a way to start getting yourself into trying out various methodologies, to fix problems. Doing UX when things are "kind of OK" can be quite hard imo, especially at the beginning.

Your background will be so useful, again imo and experience, you will be able to use UX to provide guidance and ideas and then MAKE THE BLOODY THING which lots of UX-ers can't do. I liked the cross-over - I code a bit and sometimes found it easier to make what I wanted, rather than specifying it or creating "designs".

Good luck!

Tom

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hypertextheroDec 2023

The following will give you a good understanding of UI design.

Number 3, Designing Interfaces, has a coherent set of principles.

1. [Don’t Make Me Think](https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/)

2. [The Design of Everyday Things](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things)

3. [Designing Interfaces, 3rd Edition](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-interfaces-3r...)

4. [Nielsen Norman Group Interaction Design: 3-Day Course](https://www.nngroup.com/courses/interaction-design-3-day-cou...)

5. [Apple Human Interface Guidelines](https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...)

6. [A Dao of Web Design](https://alistapart.com/article/dao/)

7. [Usability Testing](https://www.nngroup.com/courses/usability-testing/)

It’s important to practice, not just read. The term is “dogfooding”.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_start...

Finally, probably first of all, it’s worth thinking about whether your user interface is harmful to the people using it, and changing if so:

https://www.deceptive.design/

https://www.humanetech.com/key-issues

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kranticJun 2023

Steve Krug's Don't make me think is one of the best resources on UI/UX https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/ I would put on the book recommendation list for a UI/UX Primer

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slaterJan 2023

not sure if this is helpful, but there's this classic that kinda fits just by the title alone ;) - Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug:

https://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/03213...

It's geared towards web UX, but might be useful in your research

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