Krug Book
Essay
Haider A. Tung
MFC 215
In his book “Don’t make me Think!”, Steve Krug describes guidelines to the appropriate methods and
techniques for web design which nowadays, in order to make a good website, are quite essential. The
very first thing Krug talks about is usability. He explains that usability means to make sure that the
website works well and that an average person should be able to use and navigate through the website
without getting frustrated and confused. A webpage should be self-evident (or if not, then selfexplanatory), should not have uncommon names/text and the links should be clear and working. This is
the key essence of the book. He then progresses on to explain the general attitude of people when using
the web. People are motivated by saving time which, as a result, causes people to muddle through
pages as they do not wish to figure it out, scan through pages instead of reading every single sentence
and choosing the first reasonable choice. As a result, it is strongly advised to ensure clear visual
hierarchy and to break pages into clearly defined areas. He also recommends to minimize noise on your
webpage, make obvious what’s clickable (e.g highlight the link) and to use conventions.
When it comes to content, Krug strongly frowns upon ‘Happy Talk’. That would be unnecessary small
talk on the webpage that is basically just a filler and is not necessary. This proves to be a turn-off for the
users and it is strongly encouraged to get rid of it. In order to make a web page more concise and clear,
The following elements should be present:
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Site Id
Sections
Subsections
Utilities
An indicator on what page you are on and name of the page
Small text version links in the footer
Site ID, a link to the home page, Search option, utilities and sections should be persistent elements
throughout the website navigation. It doesn’t really matter how many times one has to click as long as it
is a mindless task. Since there is no penalty for guessing wrong on the web, the back button proves to be
the most used feature.
Once a webpage is complete, testing is important and you should check to see if it is clear enough. You
should test to see if the site ID, page name, sections, local navigation and search options are apparent
and not hiding away anywhere. In case of the homepage, along with previously mentioned elements, it
should also prove to be attractive and very self-explanatory as this is first page a user visits and it is at
this point they decide how much time they want to spend on your website. Adding a good tagline can
help in making things more clear.
Testing is important as to ensure no blunders are on your webpage. Having problems and errors on your
page is a quick way too lose online traffic. At once, 3 (at most 4) testers is optimal and having people
from outside (i.e not within the developer team) test out the website is a good way to get opinions on
where to improve or how the general public would react to it. Make sure to eradicate and amend any
problems encounter in any corner as each problem encountered by a user will reduce their level of
goodwill towards your website.
Finally, accessibility of a website is also part of usability. There are various ways to make your website
more accessible such as making content accessible by keyboard, using cascading style sheet, creating a
“skip to main content” option (users who have to sit through a really long intro video will not be happy)
etc. Overall, Krug states that the easier you make your website, the better it is. Instead of teaching every
technique and bit of web development, he focuses on how to make it more appealing and functional. All
the fancy operations do seem attractive and they are an advantage but if they are complicated to use,
they serve as a disadvantage. A clean, to the point, user-friendly website is the one that brings in more
traffic and in order to advance in the field of web design and development, following these key steps will
always prove to be fruitful.