Skimmer's Guide - Don't Make Me Think (2nd Edition - Steve Krug)

WHAT STOOD OUT? 

Yes, it's a thin book (p. 6)

If something even LOOKS like it takes effort to use, it is less likely to be used. Steve has deliberately designed the book to be thin and thus appear to have "low opportunity cost". I find the meta beauty of this to be outstanding.

If something is hard to use, I just don't use it as much (p. 9) 

If a product is PAINFUL to use, I will actively seek to remove it from my life (glares at Windows and Internet Explorer).  

When you're creating a site, your job is to get rid of the question marks (p. 13) 

Don't make the user think! Bias your designs to making things obvious to the user. For instance, it should never be a question about whether something is clickable or not.

Conventions are useful, but boring to use! (p. 35) 

Web conventions are incredible useful, as they have well established patterns of usage. You don't have to train a user on how to use a navigation bar, it's standard now. On the other hand, conventions are terribly boring. It's hard to imagine your peers praising you for "great use of conventions".

The interesting piece of advice Steve offers out of this is: "Innovate when you know you have a better idea. Take advantage of conventions when you do not."

Omit needless words (p. 45)

A great quote from E. B. White, a rule in "The Elements of Style":

"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."

Get rid of "happy talk" on the site, anything that sounds like "blah blah blah". Same goes for instructions, make them unnecessary. Failing that, make them concise.

Some users search, some users browse (p. 56)

Steve likens searching a website with searching for an item in a store. Some shoppers will go direct to a person and ask for help, others will happily wonder around themselves. On websites, users may go direct to a search box or they may start browsing. It is important to cater for both styles.

Make sure that your search finds the right results and is effortless to use as well. Poor search capability leads to unsatisfied users, as per the story on page 69!

Show the navigation for all the potential levels before worrying about colours (p. 71)

Users usually end up spending as much time on lower-level pages as they do the top. This means that top-to-bottom navigation is important to work out from the beginning. To facilitate this, it's vital to have samples for each level of navigation. I liken this to seeing the forest through the trees, before you start arguing what colour the leaves should be :)

IF YOU READ NOTHING ELSE...

Don't make me think! (p. 11) 

Unsurprisingly the eponymous chapter of this book is a must read. Steve pleads with us that "if you have room in your head for only one usability rule, make this the one".

Someone who can barely work the Back button should look at your site and say "Oh, it's a ____".

This is further compounded by the later chapter where Steve implores us to make the choices on our website mindless.

We don't make optimal choices. We satisfice (p. 24)

A term coined by Herbert Simon, a portmanteau of satisfactory and sufficing. Steve points out that when we are faced with a problem, our normal behaviour is to pick the first reasonable solution for that problem. Users are unlikely to pour over your website to find the best option for what they want, they will most likely just pick "whatever looks good enough".

Keep the noise down to a dull roar (p. 38/39) 

A picture speaks volumes and the msnbc.com menu example is a great example of how simple black lines can ruin the user experience. When you're constantly fighting for the user's attention, you don't want a load of visual distractions to add unwanted noise.