Don't Make Me Think - Chapters 1-3

I love how the author in chapter lays it all out so simply in chapter one. The idea of "don't make me think," is really quite sound. I do find myself quite frustrated when I visit a particular website and can't figure it out quickly. It does seem like this problem is more prevalent in corporate sites than in private, user run sites. One of the things that stood out to me in this chapter is that with just a little thinking on the designer's part, a site with tricky or difficult usability can be modified to something much more user friendly. This can be something as simple as changing buzz-words that were used (like Jobs vs Jobs-o-Rama) or changing a not so obvious link to an obviously clickable button.

Chapter two focused on the user experience when they first visit a website. After reading it, even as a designer I can see some of myself in what the author describes. With so much information out there, and so many sites that offer such similar information, it’s more important to design your site in a way that the user will find what they’re looking for with minimal effort. I know that when I go to Amazon, which is a site that I visit daily, I’m often looking for something specific on the homepage. If I don’t find it right away, I’m not going to dig through the homepage, I’m going to either go straight to the menu to take me to the category I’m looking for, or I’m going to simply type what I’m looking for in the search bar and go on from there. I’m rarely interested in any of the other information on there that doesn't pertain to what I’m specifically looking for. The average user is likely to spend even less time searching for what they want than I am, so you need to make it as easy as possible or you risk losing them to someone who will.

The third chapter goes into the idea of using traditional media designs for building your website. The best example was the idea of using a newspaper design as a starting point. You have the name of the site at the top, your main feature under the name (like a story headline, main product information, etc.), and you have your sidebar which can be a table of contents or additional headlines (like on a shopping site the list of categories available or a blog with bio info and additional links). It once again focuses on how a user looks at your site. Like a newspaper headline, you want to design your site to show the user what you feel is the most important feature on your website and to go there. You want to make it easy and obvious so they aren't trying to figure out where things are like links, descriptions, and pictures are. A designer shouldn't be afraid to use traditional conventions, because they work. That doesn't mean that a designer can’t try to come up with something new, but they had better make sure that if they do, it’s at least as good at the original convention if not better.