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oyceterI was actually supposed to read this for work, but I ended up taking it home and reading it before bed just because it was so much fun. Krug writes very casually, with many fun footnotes and non-technical prose. I think that anyone who's interested in human-machine interfaces or just good design in general would be like this, and hey, I'd recommend it to anyone even remotely interested in the subject, because I liked it.
Krug doesn't have hard and set rules of web design; mostly he just asks that the designer makes things as easy as possible on people navigating through the site. Of course, this brings up another boatload of issues -- what's easy? what's self-evident? Krug provides a few guidelines (make sure people can tell what your site is about in five seconds). I think the book is most valuable because it makes me think about the web from the standpoint of a user.
Things I learned:
It's sort of funny, being in web development. It actually rather reminds me of the odd closing gap between me the reader and me the person who knows authors and me the person who used to work at a bookstore. Part of me is me the internet addict who's been using the thing since tenth grade and would probably jack in if I could, part of me is me the web dev person who attempts to do behind-the-scenes usability and etc.
Anyhow, I found it fascinating, largely because one of my great joys in life is internet stuff, and I am extremely good at grouching and grumping about bad design. I.e. splash pages annoy me! Flash annoys me! Frames annoy me! Hard-to-read text annoys me! Everything that gets in the way of me getting to my content annoys me! Web dev me, on the other hand, has to work with people who want the user to be blocked from things every now and then (registration, surveys, etc.). So it's an odd balance.
Also, even if this book didn't make me think about the internet, I would like it just because a) the author likes Amazon (I adore Amazon) and b) this footnote explaining "Hansel and Gretel" (Krug stuck in H&G to illustrate breadcrumbs in web navigation):
Yay immolation!
Krug doesn't have hard and set rules of web design; mostly he just asks that the designer makes things as easy as possible on people navigating through the site. Of course, this brings up another boatload of issues -- what's easy? what's self-evident? Krug provides a few guidelines (make sure people can tell what your site is about in five seconds). I think the book is most valuable because it makes me think about the web from the standpoint of a user.
Things I learned:
- Navigation is of the good
- Page titles are of the good
- Tabby things are of the good
- Actually trying to see what the users do is of the good
- People get lost and bored and distracted really easily
- I am a browsing user, not an asking user (aka I would rather get hopelessly lost navigating around a site or a department store, as opposed to using the search box or asking a salesperson. My philosophy is I find more interesting things when I get lost. Unless I am desperate. Then I ask)
- Confusion is bad
It's sort of funny, being in web development. It actually rather reminds me of the odd closing gap between me the reader and me the person who knows authors and me the person who used to work at a bookstore. Part of me is me the internet addict who's been using the thing since tenth grade and would probably jack in if I could, part of me is me the web dev person who attempts to do behind-the-scenes usability and etc.
Anyhow, I found it fascinating, largely because one of my great joys in life is internet stuff, and I am extremely good at grouching and grumping about bad design. I.e. splash pages annoy me! Flash annoys me! Frames annoy me! Hard-to-read text annoys me! Everything that gets in the way of me getting to my content annoys me! Web dev me, on the other hand, has to work with people who want the user to be blocked from things every now and then (registration, surveys, etc.). So it's an odd balance.
Also, even if this book didn't make me think about the internet, I would like it just because a) the author likes Amazon (I adore Amazon) and b) this footnote explaining "Hansel and Gretel" (Krug stuck in H&G to illustrate breadcrumbs in web navigation):
In the original story, H & G's stepmother persuades their father to lose them in the forest during lean times so the whole family won't have to starve. The suspicious and resourceful H spoils the plot by dropping pebbles on the way in and following them home. But the next time (!) H is forced to use breadcrumbs instead, which prove to be a less-than-suitable substitute since birds eat them before H & G can retrace their steps. Eventually the tale devolves into attempted cannibalism, grand larceny, and immolation, but basically it's a story about how unpleasant it is to be lost.
Yay immolation!
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Mon, Oct. 31st, 2005 03:23 pm (UTC)YES
Frames annoy me!
YES
Hard-to-read text annoys me!
YES
Everything that gets in the way of me getting to my content annoys me!
YES....especiallly those stupid ads that pop up and you have to skip them to get to the content. Urk.
....those footnotes sound great (I am a sucker for books with great footnotes).