A common sense approach to web and mobile usability
by Steve Krug
3rd edition, New Riders, December 2013
User level – Novice upwards
£18.84
The book to change the way you think about your website
Web usability is about making sure a website works as it’s intended to. Users – impatient and goal directed – want to ‘get’ the purpose of a site as soon as possible. If they have to think at every stage – what the site is about, where to click, what to do next – their initial ‘goodwill reservoir’ becomes exhausted. As with shopping in a store with poor lighting, the exit door becomes increasingly tempting.
‘It’s not rocket surgery’ is usability guru Steve Krug’s catchphrase and this short book shows why. It starts with a run-through of how we really use the web (what we design for vs how users read – or scan – websites). It then explains the important elements to get right, from clear visual hierarchies to conventions. Finally, it inspires you to go forth and make your website usable.
With entertaining text, most pages illustrated with a screen shot, diagram or illustration, and with the book’s clear font size and headings, it’s fun to read as well as informative.
If you have a problem persuading your boss what’s needed, there’s an excellent chapter, ‘Surviving executive whims’.
This substantially revised edition includes a new chapter on web usability for mobile devices.
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