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Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Steve Krug, Roger Black · 10 HN comments
HN Books has aggregated all Hacker News stories and comments that mention "Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability" by Steve Krug, Roger Black.
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Amazon Summary
People won't use your web site if they can't find their way around it. Whether you call it usability, ease-of-use, or just good design, companies staking their fortunes and their futures on their Web sites are starting to recognize that it's a bottom-line issue. In Don't Make Me Think, usability expert Steve Krug distills his years of experience and observation into clear, practical--and often amusing--common sense advice for the people in the trenches (the designers, programmers, writers, editors, and Webmasters), the people who tell them what to do (project managers, business planners, and marketing people), and even the people who sign the checks. Krug's clearly explained, easily absorbed principles will help you sleep better at night knowing that all the hard work going into your site is producing something that people will actually want to use.
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Hacker News Stories and Comments

All the comments and stories posted to Hacker News that reference this book.
We should pitch in and buy the design team at Mashable a few copies of http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/...
Read Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/...

Read everything on Jakob Nielsen's blog about Usability: http://useit.com/

msutherl
It's good to read these guys, but it's nowhere near sufficient. Over time I've lost my fondness of Nielsen. He's too much of an engineer and doesn't understand subjective factors. Ever notice that his website has very poor usability due to inappropriate (read: lazy) use of typography and proportion?
Well I agree. The classic is still valid : http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/...

Everything from there has been sort of copies. I find it more interesting to dig into the human brain and related books. Ie. cognitive psychology and how our brain perceives things. The difference between cultures etc. That's where you really learn the WHY and HOW.

I'd highly suggest reading "Don't Make Me Think"

http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/...

It's more of a usability book, but it covers some visual aspects to design. Beyond that it comes down to reading, practicing, critiquing and being critiqued. Any time you visit a new website think to yourself: what looks good, what looks bad, what is intuitive, and what doesn't make sense.

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/...

It's a quick read that will give you tons of "A ha!" moments.

When I began, my friend had me start here: http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/...
I had an arduino board and the books "don't make me think" http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/... and "programming clojure" http://pragprog.com/titles/shcloj/programming-clojure
ErrantX
Yup I got an arduino too. Absolutely GREAT fun.

So far the best project I want to aim for is a UAV (http://www.diydrones.com) - either that or as a controller unit for a coil gun.

Any other suggestions for us?? :D

bnmrrs
I got an Arduino last year and just finished a medium scale project. I hooked it up to a http://hexbug.com for remote control over a network with XMPP. If you want to take a look all of the code is at http://github.com/bnmrrs/HexBugNc
From Krug's Book "Don't Make Me Think" http://www.amazon.com/Think-Common-Sense-Approach-Usability/...

A must read.

Along the same lines, "Don't make me think" by Steve Krug provides an awesome Usability foundation. (Better than Nielson, IMO.)

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Make-Me-Think-Usability/dp/078972...

zaidf
Ah, how did I miss that:) It's the last UI book I bought.
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