Don't Make Me Think is a book on usability by Steve Krug. It has on all time favorite list of many usability experts to a long time now. However, the book was not available in paperback Indian edition until a few months back.
Now, the book is available from Flipkart at a very reasonable price of Rs 256 and that made it all the more interesting for me to try! With the cash on delivery option, it was a breeze to buy with no fear of online fraud.
About the Book
This book covers the topic of Usability from a common sense perspective. There are no jargons and no complex explanation on the science of usability engineering. If you are anyone who is associated with Web based development, this book is useful. Be it a developer, a designer, a project manager or the CEO of an organization that is planning has a presence on the web, this book will help you to appreciate the importance of simplicity.
What I liked
In very simple terms, the whole concept of usability is laid out in the initial chapters. The 'see for yourself' tests are very innovative. The points that the author makes look so obvious when you re-look sites with a usability perspective.
The testing strategy covered in the penultimate chapter too is extremely practical and very helpful for any organization.
What could be better
This book was last updated in 2005. So the whole world of Web 2.0, Ajax and Social Media picked just about after the publication of the book. There isn't much coverage about how to use the new features like overlays and Ajax calls.
However, the book explains the fundamentals. So, any technology that comes up can always be viewed based on these common sense approaches. For example, the importance of 'You are here' or the 'breadcrumbs' etc is very well explained.
Maybe the author should have a blog or a twitter feed to make things more interactive!
More resources
Author's website: http://www.sensible.com/index.html
Further Reading list: http://www.sensible.com/recreading.html
Usability in-depth: http://www.usability.com/
Price comparison from Indian sites
