I originally read Steve Krug’s classic on a 4 hour flight to Chicago, and ever since has been sitting on my bookshelf begging for a review. And trust me, if there is any book that deserves to be put on a pedestal – it is Don’t Make Me Think.

Many years ago when I read the first edition of this book, I remember absorbing every “forehead smacking” point as I turned each and every page. However, probably the largest reason for falling in love with this book is because the author took the time to apply his knowledge to the book which resulted in a “fun to use” book. Each page was not about dry information, but instead had great design, layout, and perfectly written to support the points which Krug was trying to make. In a sense, he “ate is own dogfood”

This book is not provide blue prints for good design, nor does it dive deep into technology (although it does mention CSS). The reason I love this book is because it gets to the core of usability: how users read pages, why they get frustrated, and things to avoid confusion. Good design is subjective, but usability starts to become objective when you realize how predictable people are!

Chapter List

1. Don’t make me think!
2. How we really use the Web
3. Billboard Design 101
4. Animal, vegetable, or mineral?
5. Omit needless words
6. Street signs and Breadcrumbs
7. The first step in recovery is admitting that the Home page is beyond your control
8. “The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends”
9. Usability testing on 10 cents a day
10. Usability as common courtesy
11. Accessibility, Cascading Style Sheets, and you
12. Help! My boss wants me to ______.

The Good

• Written so the concepts are easy to digest
• Very fast read
• Straight to the point
• Funny (hilarious at times)
• Beautifully laid out with supporting illustrations in all the correct places

The Bad

• The focus of the usability studies all were web oriented, and I believe that most points where generic enough to be equally applied to desktop applications. As a result, I would have liked to see one more chapter giving attention to other mediums than the web.
• Not a big fan of the old fashioned two-way mirror and video recording usability tests, so a small portion of Chapter 9 was a miss in my opinion. As I have indicated before, there are easier ways to get client feedback.

This book is an absolute must read for developers and stakeholders alike. Books such as About Face and The Design of Everyday Things will not give you the same information in such a fun and distilled manner. Regardless if this book is your first or tenth book you have read on design…make it your next.

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Notice: All reviews on codesqueeze are not paid nor are traded for services. These reviews are shared so you may save time in your quest for better tools.

The first month of this year has been a good one for me. Nice, long vacation followed by a good month here on codesqueeze. I already have a few posts in the pipeline including more videos, so stay tuned for those coming in February!

Here are the top posts I read this month:

• Developer Productivity – 5 Ways To Kill It – Listen up managers…wait?…only 5?
• Software Design Kuleana – Weird title, but a home run of a post by Rob about the relationships we have with clients.
• 10 Lessons in Scalability from MySpace – An oldie, but a goody by Russell
• Leadership 101: Want Respect? Give Respect. – Title says it all, Jim hit a little close to home for me that day.
• Rules of Database App Aging – Every application mutates over time, but reflecting on this list makes me laugh (and die) a little inside.

What is the difference between intelligence and wisdom?

Some would venture to say experience, and I would agree to a point. I believe it is our failed experiences that continue forcing life’s lessons down our throats. An additional injection of humbleness through humility, and we have the perfect dose of much needed medicine to aid us in our journey towards personal improvement.

So what is stopping us from traveling down the path of enlightenment through failure? Simple. The fear of perceived failure.

Notice I did not just say “failure”, “fear”, or even “fear of failure”. What I am after is “perceived failure“, which can be interrupted into many things including:

Perceived lack of…

• Knowledge
• Artistry
• Intellect
• Ability
• Skills

You need to quit sweeping known uncertainty under the rug and this includes your code.

I grow weary of code reviews where the author (with a nice sized grin) proudly shows their clean solution, and then [being the asshole I am] call to see where they hid all of their crap code that I know is truly holding the house of cards up. Their grin quickly turns to a defensive posture, and the true code review begins…

I don’t care what you best code is – I want to see the weakest link! You and your solution are only as strong as the weakest link, so let’s take a look at it and improve it. We all have them, so let’s quit hiding them. Sure you might not look like superman now, but at least you won’t look like a liar later when your bad designs and hacks come back to haunt you (and they will).

Find it hard to open up to a group of people? Find those one or two buddies you always show your crap to. They don’t even have to work on the same team or even in the same company as you. As long as you think they can help you out, confide in them and allow yourself to take criticism.

The road to being better is to simply allow yourself to become better. Your pride is your own worst enemy in this scenario, and overcoming it will start to open many doors that lead to learning opportunities.

So after all this, why should you never flaunt your best code? Because self pride leads to a lack of humbleness…plus it’s probably not all that great to start with.