Background

This is one of the top-recommended (if not the top-recommended) UX books. It's up there next to "The Design of Everyday Things".

Summary

Guiding Principles
- Ch. 1 - Don't make me think!
- Ch. 2 - How we really use the Web
  - Scanning, satisficing, and muddling through
- Ch. 3 - Billboard Design 101
  - Designing for scanning, not reading
- Ch. 4 - Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?
  - Why users like mindless choices
- Ch. 5 - Omit ~~needless~~ words
Things you need to get right
- Ch. 6 - Designing navigation
  - He starts with the analogy of how navigation works within a department store (like Home Depot).
  - When you visit a website, 1) you're usually trying to find something, and 2) you decide whether to ask first or browser first.
  - If you choose to browse, you make your way through a hierarchy, using signs to guide you. If you can't find what you're looking for, you leave.
  - There are a few different issues that make web navigation potentially-more-annoying than navigating through a physical space. So web navigation has to be good.
  - Navigation's purposes: 1) It tells us what's here, 2) It tells us how to use the site, 3) It gives us confidence in the people who built it.
  - Just as physical spaces (like buildings) have navigation conventions, so too do web sites have navigation conventions. Conventions make it easier for people to navigate in a place where they haven't been before.
- Ch. 7 - The home page
  - The home page is the most desirable real estate, and there's very limited supply. Everbody who has a stake in the site wants a link to their section.
  - Unlike lower-level pages, the Home page has to appeal to everyone who visits the site.
  - Designing a Home page inevitably involves compromise.
  - The one thing you must make sure to do is to convey the big picture. "Whenever someone hands me a Home page design to look at, there's one thing I can almost always count on: They haven't made it clear enough what the site is."
  - As quickly / clearly / easily as possible, the Home page needs to answer five questions I have in my head when I enter a new site for the first time: 1) What is this? 2) What Can I do here? 3) What do they have here? 4) Why should I be here–and not somewhere else? 5) Where do I start?
  - The first few seconds you spend on a new Web site are critical.
  - After a quick look around, I should be able to say: 1) Here's where to start if I want to search, 2) Here's where to start if I want to browse, 3) Here's where to start if I want to sample their best stuff.
Making sure you got them right
- Ch. 8 - "The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends"
  - Why most arguments about usability are a waste of time, and how to avoid them.
- Ch. 9 - Usability testing on 10 cents a day
  - Keeping testing simple–so you do enough of it
- Ch. 10 - Mobile: It's not just a city in Alabama anymore
- Ch. 11 - Usability as common courtesy
- Ch. 12 - Accessibility and you
- Ch. 13 - Making usability happen where you work

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