Week 1 Reading

Usually when we have weekly reading assignments for a class, I dread them more than any other thing I have to do that day. Even if I have to do things that (by a normal standard) are much harder and more tedious to do; for example, 9.5 times out of 10 I’d rather be a victim of a plane crash that read my boring texts books. However, this book surprised me. Just after reading the introduction, I was excited to see where this author/designer would take me. Unlike most writers, this guy understood the average reader’s attention span and emotional attachment to textbook reading.

            Chapter One elaborated on the topic of “usability”- and the number one rule to easy usability for any consumer was “self-explanatory”. Even though that this was a fact that I was aware of, I had never had it presented to me in such simple terms. Steve Krug used many different examples of self-explanatory options versus options that required thought. What made these examples so easy to understand-- self-explanatory—was how the concept of self-explanation didn’t just apply to websites, but any situation where the consumer as actively looking for information. Obvious > Puzzling.

            Chapter Two had me chuckling to myself most of the time while I was reading. It reminded me of a comedy show titled “How we really use the web”. First the comedian will describe an event or circumstance 99.9% of the audience has experience in their everyday life. Then the comedian goes into the step-by-step process of searching for something you’re looking for on the World Wide Web. Somehow, we as the audience think it is hysterically funny that we all do the same things when looking for something on the Internet. Somehow it only becomes a funny experience when someone else points out the details of what make our process so in sync with everyone else’s. Krug does an excellent job of embracing the facts of the user/interface relationship and how to avoid the “muddling” we endure with the not-so-user-friendly websites.

Portfolio Websites:

http://www.katiegroth.com/gallery.php

http://www.shelleyneves.us/

http://calebsdesign.com/