“Don’t Make Me Think”, by author and usability consultant Steve Krug, is an enjoyable book about web site usability centering around design and basic markup development.

At first I thought I wasn’t going to enjoy the book and prepared myself for a bash-fest by a “usability consultant” who thinks he just knows everything. Well, I was wrong. The usability consultant is modest, helpful and uses humor throughout the book to lighten any blows. Mr. Krug never argues politics in web site design like “what buttons should look like” or “whether drop-down menus are good or bad”. Usually, in those instances, he states both arguments and gives an opinion on the matter. That opinion, like most throughout the entire book is simply, “all within context”. Lesson to be learned: do not make a decision without looking at the situation within context, because anything could be good or bad depending on the context, so no argument either way will always win out. He is on the side of usability testing, to test each context, and he gives full instruction on how to go about usability testing.

On page 7 in the introduction, he even goes out of his way to tell us that he won’t bad-mouth poor designs and that he respects anyone who can design web sites because it’s hard work. Bravo!

Oh, and the book isn’t all text either, you can expect illustrations, colors and photos on just about every page. But this brings me to my first negative point about the book, I think it’s overpriced. I don’t think the colors and illustrations condone a price tag of around $40, especially when it isn’t a lengthy read either; I read it all in one sitting. The only other critique I could possibly muster is perhaps, sometimes, maybe a little too many footnotes are used, making it hard to read paragraphs of text without being interrupted to read elsewhere. After a while, I just simply ignored the footnotes altogether.

Pick up the book, read it in one sitting and enjoy. (Psst… buy it used or on sale.)