The first four chapters of our book,
Don’t Make Me Think (Read as: Most People Who Are Interneting are Stupid)
are as horrifying as I expected. As a fan of literature, and art, and… Thought, the whole domain of advertising (and thus, the internet) is generally against most of my core values. This dude effectively goes on about how nobody will take the time to read your stuff, they don’t care, they want what they came there for and, as long as they see something that might come close to “satisficing” their needs, they will move quickly throughout your site without taking the time to notice all the hard work you’ve put into it.
Steve Krug is a smart man because he teaches us (designers and such) not to count on the smarts of the user, something computer programmers and old school admen picked up on a long time ago. He’s got a lot of fantastic advice that I already pour into my everyday activities (Such as “Write what you want, then cut it in half, then cut that in half”) and so far has me thinking a lot less about “pretty” and a lot more about “accessible.”
At the same time, it’s men like Steve Krug, and the legions of designers that follow him shouting his name (along with his annoying little proverbs) from the rooftops as though he were their newfound god that let truly innovative designers jump ahead of the masses. Not everything needs to be legible. Not everything needs to be easy. Just most things.
