Customer Rating:      Summary: A must-have for every web design professional Comment: Extremely Useful and Usable * Top-notch! I've read most of the current books out on web usability and user-centered design and must say this book was better than I expected. Full of down-to-earth practical techniques, design tips, usability testing recommendations, and very clear advice. I have read it twice, and refer to it frequently. Krug does a great job of giving you just what you need, and in a logical, concise manner.
Customer Rating:      Summary: This is how it should be done Comment: The "show me" what you mean book of web usability review. I particularly like the common sense handling of the main web problems.Some of the key things that are pointed out in this book are: 1. Don't make me think: Basically the web user does not want to venture into a site that requires them to figure it out. It should be self-evident. How do we use web pages: a. We don't read pages, we scan them b. We don't make optimal choices, we satisfice c. We don't figure out, how things work, we muddle through 2. It doesn't matter how many times I click as long as each click is a mindless unambiguous choice 3. Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left. The first 5 chapters clearly illustrate the three "Krug's Laws of Usability" listed above with lots of pictures and examples. Well done. His chapters on navigation and finding your way around are a cookbook on how to do it right. He finishes the chapters with several examples, first asking the reader to look at the examples and then discusses how he feels it should be redone. Excellent teaching tool. Similarly, he broaches the topic of the Home page and how it should be structured and the various forces pulling in different directions. The examples he gives at the end here too are a good teaching tool. The remainder of the book discusses the design processes and the usability tests. These are excellent chapters in the forces at work and it is evident, he has done this many times from the information he has gathered. He provides specific suggestions for web usability testing for various stages of sites as well as for various problems. This is wonderful guidance if you are new at this. He also provides a guideline on scripting and report writing. Nice job. He winds up the book with recommended reading and also providing a website for readers of this book: http://www.circle.com/krugbook/
Customer Rating:      Summary: A must have for a designers and developers Comment: I can only agree to many happy positive reviews: This book is a must have for everybody who is working on the Internet. Finally an answer to all my questions about navigation, layout and even how people don't think when they surf the Net.
Customer Rating:      Summary: An author who follows his own advice! Comment: If I were as articulate as Steve Krug, this review would require very little thought on your part, but would still deliver a thought-provoking message. I just finished reading this book and found it very informative, thought-provoking, and enjoyable. My head is full, but I don't feel the least worn out. I'm fired up and ready to go back and re-design the few websites I'm responsible for the right way. Thanks, Steve!
Customer Rating:      Summary: Only for Beginners - Light on Substance Comment: I've been a usability engineer/information architect for 8 years and have read many books on both GUI and web design. I'm sorry to report that this book was disappointing. It took me only a few hours to breeze through and I came away with very little that was new to me and with the perception that this book was light on substance. Perhaps this is because I have been in this field for so long. However, I just finished reading Jeff Johnson's "GUI Bloopers" and, even after designing GUIs for so many years, I learned so much from Jeff's book. If you are new to this field, Krug's book will help but make sure to read "Designing Web Usability" by Nielsen, "Information Architecture for the World Wide Web" by Rosenfeld and Morville, "Designing Large Scale Web Sites" by Sano, and "Web Navigation" by Jennifer Fleming. I also recommend Johnson's book on GUI design. So many GUI Design Principles are directly applicable to good web site design.
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