Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition

I'd never read this web usability classic before and my to-the-point review is this:

There's a reason this book is a classic in the field. It's smart, well written, funny and damned easy to read through*.

Quick hit reviews aside, I was surprised to learn that this book was at least partially written in a Bruegger's that I frequent. It's true. Steve Krug lives in the next town over and tapped out at least some of the book in a Bruegger's just a couple of miles from here. I feel just that much smarter by association

*It's a perfect book for a plane trip, so if you work on the web and haven't read this book pick it up before the next coast-to-coast or transatlantic (or pacific) flight. You'll be a better designer/developer/manager when you land on the other side.

Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design Another excellent book. The ideas outlined here would be of benefit to any web application. Small or large, the idea of paring down features to only those "necessary for the users to complete the activity the site is meant to support" is a noble one. I've, more often than I'm comfortable admitting, worked on projects where feature bloat ruled the day and I can tell you from bitter experience, giving in to "nice to have" features can be the absolute death of a project. The biggest disaster I've ever worked on was mostly sunk by feature bloat and lack of focus*.

There's plenty to take away from this well written examination of what's right and wrong with modern web application design. I read this on vacation and while I wouldn't have traded the hammock I was on or the excellent wine I was drinking for anything, some small part of me thought "wow, I'd love to be able to put some of this stuff to work immediately."

One thing I don't fully agree with is Hoekman's admonition, later on in the book, to throw away specifications and requirement documents. While that might work for the less complication applications he outlines in his book (excellent applications all), there's no way to do, for example, a detailed financial services application without relying on solid documentation. When there are complicated business rules in place throwing a developer and a designer in a room with a white board and having them "work it out" just isn't going to cut it.

Still, with a smaller scale, less structured application, the techniques and approaches in Designing the Obvious will be of benefit to anyone working in field of web application design and development. This is a recommended read.

*there was also a painful stab in the chest by a web application framework from hell to help that project into its grave.

Remember when I redesigned my home page? No? I made some changes based on the guidelines provided by usability.gov. Basically I cut down the amount of prose text and clarified the site choices available.

Well, not quite a month has passed, but I wanted to share the preliminary results with everyone anyway. By the metrics that I was targeting on that page (bounce rate and % of exit) the redesign was a resounding success. Here are the numbers:

So people are spending less time trying to figure out what to do, are less likely to immediately leave (bounce) and are less likely overall to make my home page the last page they visit on the site. I'll take improvements like that any time. Big ups to the Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines

Once I get my laptop back from HP, I'll be looking to see if I can experiment with a few more nuggets from that excellent resource. I'm definitely eying adjustments to some of the navigation pages around here. I'll be sure to publish the results as I get them.

One of my favorite guidelines from the Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines is the following:

10:1 Use Meaningful Link Labels

Guideline: Use link labels and concepts that are meaningful, understandable, and easily differentiated by users rather than designers.

Comments: To avoid user confusion, use link labels that clearly differentiate one link from another. Users should be able to look at each link and learn something about the link’s destination. Using terms like ’Click Here’ can be counterproductive.
Clear labeling is especially important as users navigate down through the available links. The more decisions that users are required to make concerning links, the more opportunities they have to make a wrong decision.

My emphasis. In terms of web design and development pet peeves, I hate "click here" even more than I hate opening a new window for off-site links* to "keep people on your site," so it's always nice to have some place with gravity to point to when telling people "click here? that's a bad idea."

*imagine how much I hate clicking here to to open a new window….

In case you all haven't noticed, I'm constantly working on this site. Week to week I'm always trying different things to see what works and what doesn't. It's cool for me because I get the benefit of a better site (and who doesn't want that?) and it's cool for my company and clients since they get the benefit of he lessons learned from all that tinkering without having to pay for it (or even identify that said tinkering should be done in the first place.)

All of which allows me to smoothly announce- I unveiled a new version of my home page today

Why? Why not? It is my home page after all, so there's a lot to be said for making it perform more efficiently.

That and I was reading the Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines published by the US Government and was struck by the clarity of guidelines 5:3 through 5:5. They deal with home page design and are all 4s and 5s (out of 5) on their importance scale, so it seemed like I ought to sit up and take notice. I especially grabbed onto 5:5:

5:5 Limit Prose Text on the Homepage
Guideline: Limit the amount of prose text on the homepage.
Comments: The first action of most users is to scan the homepage for link titles and major headings. Requiring users to read large amounts of prose text can slow them considerably, or they may avoid reading it altogether.

My research showed that no one was clicking on the links buried in the prose blocks on my home page, so the above seemed like it was speaking right to my site. Based on that convergence I figured losing all that prose wasn't going to hurt anything, so we'll see how the simplified links work out.

Want to see it in all its simplified glory?

Make with the clicking.