Don’t Make Me Read Don’t Make me Think Guiding Principles Summarized by Andrew Piatek

Don’t Make Me ReadDon’t Make me Think Guiding Principles Summarized by Andrew Piatek

Don’t Make Me Think!

• Page should be mindless, obvious, and effortless.• Easily identify what page is, displaying what the person

wants faster.• Unnecessary wording of things require thought. • Instead of “employment opportunities,” use jobs.

• Make clickable things obviously clickable. • How to search• Do the thinking for the user like Amazon.

How We Really Use The Web

• People don’t use sites the way we think they do• Only scan pages because user is in a hurry, doesn’t need to read

everything, and it is habitual.• Don’t choose the best options, we satisfice with first reasonable

option• We are in a hurry, limited penalty in wrong choice, spending more

time doesn’t improve chances, and guessing right is faster and more pleasant

• Don’t waste time in figuring out how something works, but just use it.

• Not import enough to learn, and if it works already, won’t learn the right way.

Billboard Design 101

• Create a clear visual hierarchy on each page through font size, descending the page, and nesting sections.

• Use conventions like newspapers, large headlines that summarize content or icons that represent things that are widely accepted like a shopping cart.

• Break pages up into clearly defined areas• Make it obvious what’s clickable• Minimize noise.

Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral?

• Users’ clicks must be painless and keep them on the right track.

• Keep choices clear• First question of the word game Twenty Questions,

“animal, vegetable, or mineral?” is a mindless choice.

Omit Needless Words

• E.B. White’s rule “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences.”

• Krug recommends removing half of the words on the page.

• Reduces noise, useful content is more prominent, and pages are shorter.

• Don’t use “happy talk,” or the greetings that accompany pages that no one reads anyway.

Andrew Piatek

adpiatek@buffalo.eduhttp://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~adpiatek/