Don't make me think

I can't believe that there are still Digital Specialists that haven't read Steve Krug's classic "Don't Make me think". Personally I think that if you are to have one, and one only, book on UX, it should be this very one. However, if you don't feel like buying this piece, in this post I gather for you the essence of the book.

"Don't make me think" is Steve Krug's first law of usability. The user is not supposed to think on what to do, where to go or where he was (feeling lost on your site? She is likely to abandon it shorty...). All design should be self-explanatory, focused on a user who scans (yes, we don't think, we scan). People, or, users, also don't make optimal choices, they satisfice. 

Good design is taking advantage of conventions. This was especially my favourite one, since I remember the times when I thought I could think of the best, innovative and completely awesome design no one has ever seen before (was so proud of it!) with no concerns on how that would influence other people, or, in this case, how would they know what to do on the site. 

• The more important the content, more prominent it shall be
• Maintain logical and visual relation
• Break pages into defined areas
• Make obvious what is clickable
• Keep the noise down (I will be coming back to the noise, you will surely get tired of that)
• Format text to support scanning (wait?... yeap!)