Book SummaryDon't Make Me Think, by Steve Krug

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Don't Make Me Think

In our increasingly digital world, bad web design isn't just annoying for users—it can derail a company’s business strategy. In Don’t Make Me Think, user experience (UX) consultant Steve Krug explains that users hold the websites they visit to a high standard. If your company’s site fails to meet their needs, they’ll abandon it for one of your competitor’s sites and may even hold a lasting grudge against your brand.

If you’re a web designer, developer, or any other professional involved in creating websites and digital products, you need to know how to design a digital experience that delivers everything users want and more. Krug breaks down how to do this, arguing that above all else, users want the websites they visit to be intuitive—they want to be able to navigate quickly, without thinking hard. Designing your site with this goal in mind leads to sleek, efficient user interfaces that keep visitors happy and engaged.

Krug...

Don't Make Me Think Summary The Basic Goal of UX Design

Before we discuss how to design an effective website, let’s clarify what effective websites look like by exploring the two things users want most from the websites they visit.

First, Krug contends that users want to find what they’re looking for as quickly as possible. They don't read web pages thoroughly; rather, they skim every page for words or phrases that seem relevant to their interests. Then, they click on the first relevant option they see instead of weighing all available choices to find the one that’s the most valuable to them.

Second, Krug asserts that users want to find what they’re looking for as effortlessly as possible. When users have to think hard about where to click, they’re aware that your site is making them spend unnecessary mental effort. Every second they spend struggling to understand your site makes them more likely to give up and leave or even resent your brand.

Because users value efficiency and effortlessness so highly, designers need to make their web pages clear, simple, and scannable. This way, users can instantly identify the right places to click with minimal mental effort. Additionally, if users trying to optimize their...

Don't Make Me Think Summary The Structure of an Intuitive Website

Now that we’ve established the basic goal of UX design, let’s explain how to structure your website to accomplish this. We’ll cover how to design an effective home page, then we’ll discuss how to keep users oriented as they navigate your site.

How to Design an Effective Home Page

The most important page on your website to design well is your home page, writes Krug. Typically, the home page is the first thing new users see. If it fails to quickly and clearly convey what the site is about and why a user should stick around, users will get confused and leave.

Krug argues that the biggest mistake designers make when creating a home page is failing to convey the site's core purpose clearly and concisely. To avoid this mistake, Krug recommends utilizing three key elements:

• A slogan: a catchy phrase next to your site’s logo that sums up what your site or organization does. Users will typically see this first, so a good slogan is the best way to communicate your site’s purpose quickly and effortlessly.
• A brief site description: one or two sentences that communicate your site’s core purpose in more detail—in case users want further clarification after reading...

Don't Make Me Think Summary How to Make Individual Pages Intuitive

Now that we’ve covered how to structure a website, let’s explore three tips for designing individual pages that are easy for users to navigate and understand.

Tip #1: Create Visual Hierarchies

Recall Krug’s assertion that users navigate web pages by quickly scanning them for whatever information and links that will help them accomplish their goals. If you want your web pages to be intuitive, make this scanning process as easy as possible. To do this, Krug recommends creating effective visual hierarchies: designs that determine the order in which users scan the page.

Typically, some elements on a web page are more eye-catching than others. Ideally, visual hierarchies draw the user’s eye to the most important elements on the page, or the elements that the user is most likely looking for. The most important content on the page is the most visually dominant, the next most important content is slightly less visually dominant, and so on. To attract attention, use visual cues like large size, striking colors, and cushions of negative space.

Additionally, in an ideal visual hierarchy, **the composition of the page reflects the logical relationships between various...

Don't Make Me Think Summary How to Design UX for Mobile

Next, let’s explain how to design UX for mobile devices. While the basic principles of UX design remain the same, the mobile format presents some unique problems. Here are a couple of the major differences between designing for mobile and desktop.

Difference #1: Much Smaller Screen

Krug contends that one of the primary challenges of designing for mobile is the limited screen size: Designers must find a way to keep their website fully functional when far fewer elements can fit on the screen at any given time. To do this, identify your website’s core functions that users need frequently, and make them quickly accessible from your mobile home page.

Other helpful functions may need to be pushed further away from your home page than they normally are. With a mobile-size screen, this is unavoidable. This isn’t an issue, as long as the path to these functions is clear. Contrary to popular belief, Krug contends that users don’t mind spending a little time tapping (or clicking) through multiple pages—as long as each new page makes it clear that they’re getting closer to their goal.

For example, on a restaurant's mobile website, the home page might prominently feature a button...

Don't Make Me Think Summary How to Improve Your Website’s UX

Krug believes that if you want to deliver the best possible user experience, it's crucial to continually test and optimize your website design. Let’s explain what these UX tests should look like, how to run them, and how to work them into your schedule.

What’s a UX Test?

In a UX test, you observe individual users attempting to accomplish typical tasks with your website to identify potential points of confusion or frustration. According to Krug, UX testing is an invaluable way to improve your website. Testing helps you identify specific design elements that do or don’t work.

How to Run a UX Test

Krug explains that you need very little to conduct a UX test—just a quiet room with a computer and internet access. One person facilitates the test by prodding the participant to explain their thought process as they accomplish a set of tasks while navigating your site. Getting inside your user’s head like this will help you diagnose issues with your website that may not be obvious to you or other team members who are too close to the problem.

The testing process itself is simple: Welcome the user and make them feel comfortable, have them open your home...

Shortform Exercise: Analyze a Website’s UX

Study a website you visit frequently to understand how Krug’s principles of intuitive web design play out in the real world.

Open a new tab and access a website that you visit frequently. How does the home page communicate the site’s core purpose? How effective is it at doing so, and why?