Customer Rating: 
Summary: Excellent for the Novice and the Expert
Comment: This is one book that crosses both lines into the Novice arena and the expert arena. I stongly recommend that thsi be one of the books on your shelf for your web site.
Customer Rating:
Summary: changed my view of web design
Comment: This book made me realize the real reason why we are designing websites - for the user. This book made me realize that users will stay on the site for much longer if they can easily navigate it. It focuses on designing how the user would expect you to design (but of course, you can still be creative). And it helps you to put yourself in the user's shoes. It totally changed the way I see web design (in a very good way!). I recommend it to any web designer!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Required Reading
Comment: This book should be required reading for not only web designers, but anyone who owns a website. The book was a bit on the thin side and when I got it I thought it should have been thicker for the money. I was wrong. This book takes you through every facet of usability and is as applicable to a single person with one site as it is to a multi-level corporation who owns 30 sites. His writing style is fun and humorous and the book is an easy read.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Web Usability
Comment: If there's a book to use when introducing someone to the ideas of usability on the Web, I'd have to say that I think this is it. Not Nielsen, and not Cooper (at least not to start with). Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think" has the most no-nonsense and easy-to-follow approach I think I've ever seen, and best of all, he makes SENSE.
First of all, Krug deconstructs some of the sites we all know and use often, and he does so to help us see what we should be doing, as well as what we should not. I remember being especially impressed with his in-depth analysis of Amazon.com's navigation scheme (Chapter 6 - "Street Signs and Breadcrumbs"), from the use of tabs to the structure of the sub-navigation to color changes, he covers it all with a sense of humor, clear pictorial examples, a sharp eye for detail, and a clear concise explanation of what works and why. The reader is left with a greater understanding of not only why Amazon has been so successful, but also what choices they made that helped them find this solution.
The chapter on usability testing (Chapter 9 - "Usability Testing on 10 cents a day") was another fine example of clear communication and great ideas. Krug's breakdown of how the usability process should be conducted, and why it's needed in the first place, is concise and not preachy, as some usability authors are, and it really gives the reader an excellent idea of how they can fit usability into their process. This is probably the best way to "sell" usability to someone, and he does a great job of it.
The whole book is like that, really, but those chapters were highlights in the book for me. His ideas on simplicity of presentation and home page design were also well-taken, both as a designer and as someone who uses the web. Perhaps that is what makes his book so excellent, is that really, anyone could get something out of it. Whether it's the person who surfs the web now and again or the one who designs the pages for it or the one who's paying for the person to design pages for it, anyone could read this book and benefit from it, without having to wade through piles of needless verbage or proselytizing.
In the end, "Don't Make Me Think" seems to be an example of what it advises... it keeps things simple and accessible for a wide variety of people, and thereby makes itself useful as an excellent resource. The next time someone asks me what Web usability is all about, this is the first book I'll be recommending to them.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't design your website without this book!
Comment: This book is a definite MUST HAVE for any website designer, newbie to web design and anyone and everyone who has an online business. Simple, easy to understand visuals compliment the text, which is written in a very simplistic manner. This book is wonderful - magnificent - excellent, and will help you greatly understand the elements of successful web design. I've used it to consistently update my own website, at:
http://www.aei.dli.comIf you don't have this book, you're missing out on your single-most-important investment in your professional life!
|
|
