designbriefs
Interface

Steve Krug

Steve Krug connects practical web-usability advice with do-it-yourself testing.

Steve Krug is a user-experience professional and the author of Don't Make Me Think, a book about web usability and human-computer interaction. His consulting practice is called Advanced Common Sense.

Subject
Designer
Worth your time?

Selectively. Start with the brief, then study the parts we point at.

What works
    What does not
      Study it if
        Skip it if
          The design analysis1 min read

          What the work is

          Steve Krug is a user-experience professional and the author of Don’t Make Me Think, a book about web usability and human-computer interaction. His consulting practice is called Advanced Common Sense.

          How it was made

          Krug’s work includes teaching people how to conduct usability tests. His 2009 book Rocket Surgery Made Easy presents a do-it-yourself approach to finding and fixing usability problems.

          What works

          Read the books as related practical resources: one introduces web-usability concerns, while the other concentrates on testing. That pairing gives a reader a route from a design question to a way of investigating it.

          What does not

          Advice becomes most useful when connected with a specific interface and the people using it. Treat a principle as something to examine in that setting, rather than a substitute for observing a task.

          What it influenced

          The two books and Krug’s workshops provide concrete ways to trace the circulation of his approach. Study the relationship between written guidance and a demonstration of testing, rather than assuming every simplified interface owes its design to him.

          Is it worth your time

          Start with Krug when you want an accessible introduction to web usability and a practical way to explore it. Reading and trying a small test are complementary parts of that study.

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