In today’s world the internet is a major component in gaining information and business transactions. There are many different websites that provide the same or similar products, information or service. With this in mind it is important to have an excellent website that will make more people visit your website. In order to create a quality website there is several things a web designer can do to gain users approval. In Steve Krug’s book Don’t make me Think he covers many different strategies on how to build a successful webpage including the “guiding principles”, “things you need to get right”, “making sure they are right”, as well as “concerns and other outside influences”.
In the section “guiding principles”, Krug’s clarifies the importance of keeping your website simple. People in today’s world are constantly in a hurry and this mindset doesn’t change when people are on the internet. Most users don’t look at the whole page; they look for a word, phrase or picture that may be able to guide them in a certain direction. Knowing this it is important to make your website
“scan” friendly. Users usually don’t explore all the options/sections of the webpage; instead he or she will pick the first option that sounds like what they were looking for. Another way to keep your website simple is by making it easy to navigate to a different page or link. If people can’t go from one page to the next without any complexity he or she is likely to get frustrated and possibly leave the site.
In the section “things you need to get right”, Krug’s will define the essential knowledge any web designer must know. It is important that websites are designed so that any user can navigate with ease.
One way a web designer can accomplish this is starting with the homepage. A good homepage is the most important page of your website. It is what tells users the name of your website, what your website provides and directs users to all the other pages on your website. Another issue that is important to get right is easy navigation. Users want find whatever they are looking for as fast as possible and this can be accomplished with easy navigation. By putting similar subjects together and keeping names consistent is just some way to accomplish simple navigation.
After a web designer has achieved both of the subjects already discussed it is time to see if it works. In the section “making sure it is right” Krug’s explains the importance of testing the website. He specifically tells the reader how to conduct a test including who to involve, where to conduct, why conduct one and how. Also discussed in this section is how to avoid common arguments about the website. Since everyone has their own viewpoint it is likely to have disagreement with workers on how something should look or function. It is important to get these issues resolved as quickly as possible or avoid them at all costs.
The final subject covered by Krug’s is “concerns and other outside influences”. This is equally as important as the other topics because a website represents a person/company. The decisions made when building a website will be passed on to the user whether it is the layout or information that is being withheld etc. The user will receive a certain vibe which may or may not have them revisit the site.
All web designers want the site revisited as much as possible so it is always important to include certain issues, events and trends in your decision making.

The internet has become a place of serious competition web designers doing whatever they can to seem different from other web pages and the most appealing. For anybody who wants to further their knowledge and truly make a website all it can be Steve Krug’s Don’t make me Think is a must read.
It covers all the important topics and tells reader what to do and not do in web designing.