Conversations with Steve Krug, Author of “Don’t Make Me Think”
May 15
Technology design, interfaces, patterns, ui, usability, webdesign 4 Comments
Tonight, I had the great pleasure of meeting Steve Krug, one of today’s leading experts on web usability design and author of the famous book “Don’t Make Me Think.” I’ve actually read this book about 3 years ago on a plane ride. It was a very quick read of about 100 pages, but very very easy to digest, practical and applicable. My background is development and being a typical developer at the time, I was very much an engineer who built software for other engineers. Of course this always leads to software and applications that ordinary people hate because it’s hard to use and not intuitive. Anyways, his book opened my eyes to the world of user-centric design methodology. This wasn’t design mumbo jumbo in the creative sense. This was design in the sense of “make something easy to use, easy to learn, and hard to screw up.” His book made it easy for developers to understand how *good* designers applied basic understanding of users to create user interfaces (UI) that made sense.
Anywho, I was able to meet Steve Krug because RoundArch hosted a happy hour for Steve Krug and Lou Rosenfeld *who I did not get to meet 
* because they were in town for some usability workshops. Steve was always swamped it seemed and I finally got a chance to go up to him and introduce myself towards the end of the night. I told him I loved his book, and he mentioned he had another one coming out at the end of this year about doing user testing.
I asked him if there was one thing that he could tell people to educate them on usability what would it be? He said “watch users.” He said you’d be amazed at what you can learn and garner from the simple act of watching how your users interact with your software without you intervening. He’s made CEOs sit down and watch users fumble through bad websites to show them how little they know about their users. Often times too, a simple change such as placement or color can have a huge impact on the usability of a website.
Ever since I’ve read his book, I often test my web applications with non technical people. I just let them drive. Lately, my guinea pig has been my wife. She’s super smart but she’s not technical, although that’s slowly changing. Anyways, I put the computer in front of her and let her figure it out. She’ll say, “but I’m not technical, I won’t get it.” to which I reply, “if you had to be technical then I’ve failed.” So she’s a quick and easy litmus test for me when I make stuff. It’s the same principle as designing a car. It should be easy enough for the average person to learn how to drive. If I had to know the inner workings of the car in order to drive it, that’s a bad car design.
Anyways, I highly recommend his book, especially to developers because you’ll see things differently. You’ll be able to empathize not only with designers more but also your users. And when you create software that users love, that’s a very rewarding feeling.
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Pek Pongpaet is the VP of Technology and Product for SpotOn Inc. Pongpaet’s expertise ranges from product design and development, and martial arts. Prior to SpotOn, Pongpaet worked at Accenture Technology Labs in the research department coming up with next generation user interfaces. At Roundarch, a technology and strategy consulting firm, Pongpaet’s work included envisioning and designing the dashboard of the future for the Tesla Model S electric car.
May 16, 2008 @ 07:49:24
This is very true, take GM for example. If you have ever driven an import like a Toyota everything seems to make sense in the car, but get in a GM and it feels like you have to rub your belly and pat your head to activate the e-break.
May 16, 2008 @ 08:27:45
There are some great points in here for developers. I really like the idea of just spending some time watching users move through your application, and making sure those users aren’t technical. And it should absolutely be the case that users should be able to find what they need with no explanation from the designer. It would be hugely helpful if all developers spent time doing this while there is still plenty of time to modify the UI, but I think it generally happens way to late in the process, if at all. Great post!
May 16, 2008 @ 11:38:10
It’s not just developers too. Many times stakeholders have it in their heads that things have to be this way or that. But when the rubber hits the road or the user hits the app, all else doesn’t really matter. It’s what the user sees and gets. People who create the apps or the website are too close and can’t see the forest for the trees, plus they have prior knowledge of the app. Empty your cup.
May 16, 2008 @ 16:27:08
Yeah, user testing is one of the big things they push in our basic engineering classes. What I always thought was interesting was that by watching and REALLY REALLY paying attention, you can notice problems that the user may not even think to verbalize if you were to ask them after the experience what they liked or didn’t like.