Customer Rating:      Summary: finally a usable book on usability... Comment: In a world of overinflated designer egos and concomitantly overinflated books on usability, Krug's minimum opus is very refreshing. Krug successfully elucidates some situations in which simply copying [website] and [website] is not the best course of action. Five stars because it is a bright spot in an otherwise bleak landscape.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Oooh lala!! BUY THIS BOOK. Comment: Basically, I am dying for a sequal. This was the best book for usability I have read so far. Most of the books put me to sleep within the first chapter. For those of us designers who have ADD, this is a great book. It reads fast, and it is educational. Whoever said it was obvious...just ignore that review. I give it to all of my clients that want to force me into doing something I don't agree with with POOR web usability. I LOVE YOU STEVEN KRUG! PLEASE WRITE ANOTHER BOOK TO ENLIGHTEN US ALL!
Customer Rating:      Summary: Excellent Overview of Web Usability in a Breezy Style Comment: This is a fun book. It can easily be read in one setting, but it will impart many good nuggets of web usability knowledge. Krug is not as extreme as Jakob Nielsen with sparseness, but rather tackles what makes the web a unique medium. His basic thesis is that people scan webpages for information, they don't read them, and therefore designers have to keep that paramount in mind. As one of his chapters is titled "Omit Needless Words," except the word "needless" is struck through. Hear! Hear! Let's give it up for pithiness.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Effective and immediately useful Comment: My situation: I'm a strong OO server-side developer who has suddenly been thrust into the presentation world of web site development. On all past projects, I've always had specialists on hand to deal with web site design and usability. Now I have to do everything (front-to-back) myself. I needed resources to get me up to speed quickly. This book has certainly fits the bill!Lets face it, in today's world where we all have to do more with less (in less time), we don't have time to research all we'd like about web usability. Per Krug's 3rd law of usability ("Omit (needless) words"), he's done a fantastic job of doing just that with this book. If you want "the bullet" on good design and usability, this is an exceptional read. There is very little fluff and lots of tangible "meat" to this book. I found the chapters on how people use the web and how to write for the web especially useful. He brings to light many design techniques I've encountered (as a web user), but I never realized the principles on which they were based. The home page chapter did a great job of highlighting some of the cultural/political challenges assoicated with home page design, as well as the laying out unique design constraints of the home page. Many technical design books (I've read) do a good job of presenting practical design techniques, but leave it up to the reader to figure out what the underlying design principles are. This makes it difficult to customize techniques unless you understand the principles. I walked away with a good understanding of the general principles, as well as some techniques for designing usable web sites. For me (a top-down kind of learner), this was extremely useful. While this book is not the be-all, end-all solution, its a great jump-start to web design and usability. It's extremely practical, uses solid real-world examples to illustrate both good and not-so-good designs, and Krug manages to interject some humor throughout. After reading this, you'll never look at web pages the same way again!
Customer Rating:      Summary: "Common Sense" is why you should purchase this book Comment: This book is well written, easy to follow, extremely useful, and well respected. I certainly recommend this book to anyone who is concerned about their target web audience and their ability to use your site. This book is full of sensible criteria for developing user interfaces.
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