1. Chapters 1 & 2 of Steve Krug's "Don't Make Me Think!"

"Don't make me think!" Krug's First Law of Usability

A web page should be self-evident, obvious, and self-explanatory. Users should be able to "get it" what it is and how to use it without expending any effort thinking about it.

For example,
1. A page that doesn't make users think:
- Ok. This looks like the product categories...
- Memory, Modems.. There it is: Monitors. Click.
- ...and these are today's special deals.

2. A page that makes users think looks like:
Things that visitors to a site shouldn't spend their time thinking about
- Where am I?
- Where should I begin?
- Where did they put___?
- What are the most important things on this page?
- Why did they call it that?

Things that make us think

How we really use the Web, the main reason why it's important not to make me thinks is that most people are going to spend far less time looking at the pages we design than we'd like to think.

If Web pages are going to be effective, they have to work most of their magic at a glance. And the best way to do this is to create pages that are self-evident, or at least self-explanatory.

How we really use the Web

To design effective Web pages, you have to learn to live with three facts about real-world Web use:

1. We don't read pages. We scan them.

• We're usually in a hurry.
• We know we don't need to read everything.
• We're good at it.
  

2. We don't make optimal choices. We satisfice.

• We're usually in a hurry.
• There's not much of a penalty for guessing wrong.
• Weighing options may not improve our chances.
• Guessing is more fun.
  

3. We don't figure out how things work. We muddle through.

• It's not important to us.
• If we find something that works, we stick to it.

* "Why are things always in the last place you look for them?"
" Because you stop looking wen you find them." - Children's Riddle