Open book image

About the author


The books "Don't make me think" and "Rocket surgery made easy" were written by Steve Krug who is an information architect and user experience professional based in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.


These books were based on the 20+ years he’s spent as a usability consultant for a wide variety of clients like Apple, Bloomberg.com, Lexus.com, NPR, the International Monetary Fund, and many others. Krug offers in-house consulting sessions where he lectures on usability testing and provides targeted advice to clients on web usability strategies.[ 1 ]


Visit Curg's page
[2] creative thinking image
creative thinking image
[3]

Don't make the user think


Crug's first and foremost law of usability was NOT to make the user think when he/she visits a website, the website should be self-evident and self-explanatory and the developer's job is to get rid of all the question marks.There shouldn't be any confusion whether an element in the web page is clickable or not.


WHY: Most people are going to spend far less time looking at the pages we design than we’d like to think and moreover every question mark adds to user's cognitive workload which is not recommended.


Don't squander the user's patience


Don't block users screen with unnecessary popups, ads and happy talk, try to eliminate the need for instructions by making everything self explanatory.


WHY: Users spend far less time looking at the pages we design than we’d like to think and moreover every popup,ad and background noise distracts users attention from the goal and this can erode the confidence in the site and user would never visit the site again.

creative thinking image
[4]


creative thinking image
[5]

Don't confuse the user

Don't make breadcrumbs interfere with the primary navigation and it's not a good practice to substitute the last, boldfaced item in breadcrumbs list for a page name that frames the content of the section. Always avoid stacking underlined text links because they are difficult to read.Don't punish the user for not doing things your way, like inputting date of birth in a specific format.


Do this instead : Make the breadcrumb separate from the main or primary navigation Have a tab selected when the user enters the web site. Give user what needs to be done to resolve the error instead of an error message like Date of Birth should be in mm-dd-yyyy format.

Goodwill Reservoir

Crug in his book emphasizes that when users visit a website having a reservoir of goodwill and if we deplete it, they might leave, and perhaps never return. Let's see the series of JOHN's reactions when he visits a bad website.


Happy Smiley

EXCITED

John opens the website for some info

smiling Smiley

SMILING

John finds something similar but not what he is looking for

Neutral Smiley

SPEECHLESS

John is unable to figure out how to go to HOME page



Shocked Smiley

PUZZLED

John clicks a link but it's not clickable!!!

Sad Smiley

SAD

A pop up comes from nowhere and blocks the screen

Frustated Smiley

FRUSTATED

John was unable to figure out how to resolve the error because the feedback is insufficient. (to be continued...)


Goodwill Reservoir continued...

After getting pissed off with a bad UI designed website JOHN visits another website which follows all the UI design and principles strictly, check out JOHN's series of reactions now...


Frustated Smiley

Frustation

Frustated John visits another website

Smiling Smiley

Smile

John smiles a bit because he was able to find the necessary info at one go without any visual distractions,ads and pop ups

Cool Smiley

COOL

John feels cool when he sees small breadcrumbs at top of every page, where they don't interfere with the primary navigation.



Wink Smiley

WINK

Search-dominant users like John starts loving the site because he finds the search box right at the top right of the website

Grin Smiley

GRIN

John wink broadened into a grin when he sees that the active tab is of different color and physically connects with the space below it so it "pops" to the front

Happy Smiley

HAPPY

John is very happy now because he knows that the navigation drawer doesn't disappear until he leaves the site

ALL ABOUT USABILITY


Sequential steps that needs to be followed

Happy Smiley

1

Maintain checklists which can give our full attention to participant.
Happy Smiley

2

Ask participants to enact the think aloud protocol, or have them verbalize their thoughts.

Happy Smiley

3

Turn off all softwares that might interrupt the test.

Happy Smiley

4

Ask what the participant is thinking only if you're not entirely sure.


Happy Smiley

5

Have key stakeholders watch tests live instead of recordings.

Happy Smiley

6

Observers should take notes, find the three most important usability problems they saw in the session.

Happy Smiley

7

You'll have more usability problems than resources to fix, so focus ruthlessly on the most serious problems.

Happy Smiley

8

Make the smallest and simplest change you can, you can spend the time to implement the perfect solution later.


 THREE LAWS OF USABILITY

Pricing of Usability Testing

Choose a testing plan that works for you

      NO             TESTING      

The web sites are not tested because the project don't have enough time or money or expertise or usability lab or don't know how to interpret the results or may be no one cares.

TRADITIONAL TESTING

8 or more number of users are required per test who are carefully selected to match target audience and the testing is conducted in a usability lab under an experienced usability professional.

LOST-OUR-LEASE TESTING

3 or 4 people who has the knowledge of using the web will be considered as users and the testing will be done in any office or conference room under a reasonable patient human being.

×     Success!!! Your plan is selected.

Contact

Doon valley, Kitchener, CA

+01 1515151515

pushpak.kurella7@gmail.com


Thanks for contacting us We will get back to you soon.

Image References and External Links


1. https://www.sensible.com/contact.html

2. https://trbbbbb.com/wp-content/uploads/data/2018/1/6/free-book-wallpaper-clipart-PIC-WSW3036879.jpg

3. https://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-businessman-get-light-bulb-idea-vector-cartoon-image31639717

4. http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/284/709/7ae.png

5. http://www.vancitymommyd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/question-mark-person-anonymous-curious-mysterious-man-mystery-mystery-shopper-animations.png

6. Icons :https://codeload.github.com/Keyamoon/IcoMoon-Free/zip/Master