HN Books @HNBooksMonth

If you want to start doing usability testing I'd recommend getting a copy of Steve Krug's Rocket Surgery Made Easy (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-yourself/dp...). It will probably take you less than an hour to read and will stop you making the basic mistakes I see folk new to usability testing make.

Rocket Surgery Made Easy

http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-Do-It-Yoursel...

"A decade ago the rise in popularity of Flash steered many web designers down the wrong path. It wasn’t the fault of the technology, but of the people using the technology. The same thing applies to HTML5: just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I'm all for innovation, but innovation should not be regressive."

Yes. The first job of someone putting up a website new design or redesign is to do usability testing. Can a user who reaches your site by a search engine result or some friendly inbound link accomplish a relevant task upon reaching your site? If not, why not? As Steve Krug says, "this isn't rocket surgery,"

http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-Yourself/dp/0...

and if you aren't investing in making your website usable for users, related to some purpose you had when putting up the website in the first place, you might as well do without having a website.

⬐ iron_ball

On the other hand, most of this rogues' gallery is digital agencies or sites made by digital agencies. Sadly, those businesses market to unsophisticated customers on the basis of flash and dazzle, and usually any attempt at user advocacy is met with requests for flash and dazzle. The target audience of this kind of site is not the end user who visits the site; it's the manager who signs off on the invoice. Those managers very seldom have long-term engagement growth as an evaluation metric.

⬐ th0ma5

Thank you for posting this. I both always wondered what I was thinking about such sites, and also had problems capturing the mindset of the audience when I wanted to make sites like this!

⬐ visualcsharp

I call it "bamboozling people with bullshit."

But not a new one: "Rocket Surgery Made Easy", by Steve Krug, http://amzn.com/0321657292

⬐ JacobAldridge

Yes, I claim no originality. I just find it useful to insert mid-rant, because it lightens my tone (and tests who's listening / reading!).

1. Be clear about the problem you're solving.

2. Watch (in person) real people using your website trying to solve this problem. Many times. Fix the most glaring problems.

This is the best book to learn usability testing, and the only one I would recommend: http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy--Yourself/dp/...

For those interested in the topic, I highly recommend this book by Steve Krug http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Surgery-Made-Easy-Yourself/dp/0...

This app looks like it would work well with Krug's recommendations.

⬐ drp

Is that a hash tag? This is not twitter.

⬐ None

None

⬐ nir

His "Don't Make Me Think" is still the best UX book I've ever read. Focused, clear and sensible.

⬐ timdorr

My copy of Don't Make Me Think is ragged because of how much I've read, referenced, shared, and noted in it. It's that good.

⬐ SamAtt

And it's entertaining enough to give to other non-technical "stake holders" in your website planning committee. Which means a lot when you're trying to convince them not to make an egregious UI mistake.