Table of Contents
Preface About this edition vi
Introduction Read me first 2
Throat clearing and disclaimers
Guiding Principles
Chapter 1 Don't make me think! 10
Krug's First Law of Usability
Chapter 2 How we really use the Web 20
Scanning, satisficing, and muddling through
Chapter 3 Billboard Design 101 28
Designing for scanning, not reading
Chapter 4 Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral? 42
Why users like mindless choices
Chapter 5 Omit needless words 48
The art of not writing for the Web
Things You Need to Get Right
Chapter 6 Street signs and Breadcrumbs 54
Designing navigation
Chapter 7 The Big Bang Theory of Web Design 84
The importance of getting people off on the right foot
Making Sure You Got Them Right
Chapter 8 "The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends" 102
Why most arguments about usability are a waste of time, and how to avoid them
Chapter 9 Usability testing on 10 cents a day 110
Keeping testing simple-so you do enough of it
Larger Concerns and Outside Influences
Chapter 10 Mobile: It's not just a city in Alabama anymore 142
Welcome to the 21st Century.
You may experience a slight sense of vertigo
Chapter 11 Usability as common courtesy 164
Why your Web site should be a mensch
Chapter 12 Accessibility and you 172
Just when you think you're done, a cat floats by with buttered toast strapped to its back
Chapter 13 Guide for the perplexed 182
Making usability happen where you live
Acknowledgments 192
Index 196
