The book promises to keep the content short, to the point and easy to be read on a plane ride (well, a little longer plane ride). Don’t Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability quoted some good points including that of “nothing important should ever be more than two clicks away”, “speak the user’s language” and “be consistent”.
What is says is that, a site should get rid of the question mark. It should have to the point text, words, be accessible and should use the common default form conventions. It is more because most people tends to scan a site most of the time than going through all the details. The book also re-iterates the fact that designers are often reluctant to take advantage of conventions. They are often tempted to re-invent the wheel, largely because they feel that they’ve been hired to do something new, different and not the same old thing.
The book advises to get to the point, that introductions are best avoided in many cases. Signs should be used properly - a web surfer sees pages like billboards at 60 miles/hr. Make the site easy to navigate around, a proper breadcrumb helps a site which are large and atleast 3 clicks or more deep. Try to have a search for your site, if you cannot afford one - then try Google.
Proper page names is a must for an effective website. The book praises the traffic signs of Los Angeles and went further to say that they have the best street signs in the world and I agree with the author.
- Their street signs are big. When stopped at an intersection, you can read the sign for the next cross street.
- They’re in the right place, hanging over the street your’re driving on, so all you have to do is glance up.
Talking about road signs, my country - India - have one of the worst road signs.
- They are small and mostly not maintained.
- They are the wrong place - I have missed the Pune-Mumbai Expressway entrance more than 5-6 times because the sign was confusing and was inside the entrace and not before enough to take a turning decision.
I think all websites should have signs, guides, links like the street signs of LA.
The book also advises you to test your sites with users, get their feedbacks, follow, study their feedbacks and see how things can be improved. Cascading Style Sheets, against many developers belief, is not the start and end of accessibility but is just a small tool that plays a good role to help a site more accessible.
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