Krug reading response- Ch. 1, 2, & 10
It’s both strange and liberating to find that several facts and key aspects to keep in mind about how people use websites are things that I’m already very aware of yet am in need of reminding. Web browsing and navigating is something of second nature to me; however, it’s humbling as a designer to read, as Krug points out, that there will be points during the building of my site where I assume the user will be using everything I put in on a page. Although he doesn’t touch upon it specifically, I think this is something that resonates a lot with designing mobile apps, for with less space to work with, less is more in the long run. I’ve found myself thinking more in terms of what to involve in a mobile app design than what I’d include on a desktop screen.
With Krug’s personality coming through his writing, at times I feel as though his words of advice are geared towards a slightly older generation, yet they are, of course, facts I need to see written out rather than simply relying on my intuition. Something that made me think a little differently was his side note stating, “There’s almost always a plausible rationale—and a good, if misguided, intention—behind every usability flaw (p. 14).” When I come to poorly built web pages that aren’t up to speed with how users expect them to work, I come to think that the site hasn’t been updated or the builders don’t recognize that there’s a problem, and perhaps don’t care to fix it. But I guess it’s not that they don’t care, it’s that they’re worried about having more important aspects working smoothly in order to ultimately get the job done. I find myself getting very annoyed when I come across a very basic working website, and most of the time go back a page or two to find something that promises modern efficiency. In fact, I base a lot of my trust towards a website or app based off of its initial appearance. If, during the first few seconds of my scanning over everything, there’s too much to look at on one page, I move on. In relation to this, I very much liked his comparison of making every page or screen self-evident “like having good lighting in a store”.
It was humoring to read in Chapter 10 how several of his warnings are factors that I already have as pet peeves when it comes to browsing, especially on phones, because I feel as though after the past 10 years of using a phone, people should already have this self-evident design stuff down. I go onto my phone and into my apps or the Internet expecting the app to know me more than I know the app. I remember times when I first started using smartphones when I was extremely pleased to find that if I wasn’t familiar with the program I was using, I could just swipe my fingers in a direction I’d expect something to happen, and that move would unexpectedly, and very satisfyingly, do the job I wanted to complete. While a lot of Krug’s advice are facts that sound obvious, they involve key ideas to keep in mind in this modern, competitive world: keep things delightful, learnable, memorable, and efficient, and you’ll be a happy designer.
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