Don't Make Me Think review

Don't make me think by Steve Krug was a very insightful, helpful, and straight to the point guide on mistakes he often sees on websites and very very simple rules that you can follow to optimize on gaining viewers and/or consumers to your page and making sure that someone who has visited your website leaves with a good impression of it, would come back, or would even recommend your website to other people. First of all, the books itself was a very easy and quick read and even though I don't see myself doing work in which i would be creating a website besides a blog, I would recommend this book because it offers very solid and helpful tips for if you were ever in the situation where you wanted to know the basics of what to do and get a nice, clean website page. The very first rule and the rule that is seen throughout the book is to keep your website simple. Someone did not come to your website to have to think about where to go and struggle with finding what they need. The internet is supposed to be easy and fast and as someone running a website, you need to understand that viewers will come to your website to get what they need and get out, end of story. The next rule I think that makes a good website, which I think directly relates tot he first rule, is to make your web page scannable. Not only is this important in a website, but as a reporter I have learned that that rule is very important in telling news as well. People do not have time to read and read and read every word and these long paragraphs. They want to quickly look somewhere, get the information they need and move on from there. Ways to make your page scannable include have a visual hierarchy on so that what is important, is right in your viewers face and easy to see and the less important stuff, is smaller and not in their way. Another step is to make sure that things that are clickable, look clickable. If something does not look like it is a button or that it will lead your viewer to something useful to them, who do you expect anyone to click on it to get to where they need to go? Also, get rid of "noise" or in other words, get rid of distraction that make your page look messy or take away from your pages' content. The last thing that I thought was really important was to make sure that your website always has a home button somewhere very easy to reach, because if your viewers get lost and they don't know how to get back to where they were, they may just end up leaving your whole website entirely. A home button gives them the chance to start fresh, start from the beginning and explore your website again. Overall, the book was a great read and had tips that I think anyone who is trying to be tech savvy should read.