With the growing HMI (human-machine interface) design I'm doing, I've been meaning to read more books on usability, interactivity and psychology. So after a little research I picked up Steve Krug's, "Don't Make Me Think." Sounds perfect.
I enjoyed Steve's tone of voice. Very personable. Witty. Down to earth. And just like the premise of the book, he's very straight-to-the-point. This really helps because web usability is certainly a topic that could get real dry, real fast. Krug keeps it fresh throughout.
Thankfully, the design of the book matched the content in terms of ease-of-use. The designer tried to employ Steve's principles of web design to the book and did so wonderfully. It's a great example of how to lay out a book of this nature.
The overall content is all very relevant and relatable, even if the specific website examples are dated. When he's talking about particular situations you can immediately relate or empathize because it's more than likely something you've encountered in your career. Many times you probably wish you had this book to pull out at that very moment to use as canon fodder. "No, the website doesn't need more pizzaz and blinking things to make it pop."
Krug mainly covers usability principles and theories, specific implementation of ideas, usability testing, and accessibility. Some of it was old news, but it's still good to read and re-read things like that. Drill it into your head. But a lot of it, especially the chapters on usability testing, were particularly elucidating for me.
If you work on any sort of HMI design, this is a valuable book to read. Phones, web, tablets, head-units, machines, anything with an interface. Watches, DVD players. Whatever. You'll get some benefit from this book and enjoy reading it to boot.
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