This book shows you how to conduct your own usability tests on the cheap. What follows is a summary of the book’s major rules and observations:

1. Don’t Make Me Think!

The number one usability rule, most often expresed by users. Web pages should be self-evident, obvious, and self-explanatory. Buttons should have short text and look clickable. The default search for your site should be simple.

2. Design for scanning not reading

By observing users Krug found that people glance, scan some text, and click on the first reasonable option (called "satisficing"). People scan Web pages, they don’t read them. We don’t make optimal choices, we satisfice. We don’t figure out, how things work, we muddle through because most of the time it is just not that important. If we find something that works, we stick to it.

Here are some things you can do to make sure users understand as much of your site as possible:

a. Create a clear visual hierarchy to show relative importance of content (H1/H2 etc.)
b. Take advantage of conventions
c. Break pages up into clearly defined areas
d. Make it obvious what’s clickable
e. Minimize noise

3. Users like mindless choices

Make each click an unambiguous orthogonal alternative.

4. Omit needless words

Get rid of half of the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left. This is especially important on home pages and
gateway pages.

5. Navigation: Use street signs and breadcrumbs

Typical Process: 1. You’re trying to find something 2. Decide to “Ask” or “Browse” first 3. If Ask, look for the search box 4. If Browser, you make your way through a visual hierarchy and using signs to guide you.

Factoid: The back button accounts for 30 to 40 percent of all Web clicks. Persistent navigation appears on every page of the site and should include the following five elements:

a. Site ID
b. A way home
c. Search
d. Sections – Sub-Sections
e. Utilities

Your navigation should answer these questions:

a. What site is this?
b. What page am I on? (page name)
c. What are the major sections of this site? (Menu, Tab)
d. What are my options at this level?
e. Where am my in the scheme of things? (use breadcrumbs)
f. How can I search?

6. Your home page should convey the big picture

What is the site about? Use a good short tag line and welcome blurb. Rotate site promotions. Remove everything nonessential.

Home page navigation can be unique. Since the Home page has to reveal as much as it of its site, you may want to add a descriptive phrase to each section name, or even list the subsections – something you don’t have the space to do on every page. Site ID is usually larger.

The trouble of rollovers. 1. You have to seek them out 2. You can only see one at a time

Rank Our Picks – 50 Best Websites 2007 – TIME

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Our Favorite 100 Blogs 2007 – Our 100 Favorite Blogs – News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Via http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/0,1206,l=213025&s=25234&a=212961,00.asp

Top 100 Undiscovered Web Sites

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Source: Anandtech