Another kind of thinking-book reviews dmtt

I was surprised by this small book-I mean, when there is an old saying in China that says "document is just like a Tao", we should naturally chew and think over and over again when reading the carrier of others' "Tao. However, Steve Krug's book is called don't make me think (don't let me think about it, DMT for short). This title has already made me feel an impact, an impulse to pick it up and read it down. This is what we expect from availability, the topic of this book.

Yes, this is a book about Web availability. As software developers (especially software developers with Web application development experience), we are more or less familiar with the concept of "availability": The most common functions should be in the most conspicuous position, A prompt should be prompted when the user needs to enter the information, and so on. But is it a specialized skill? Do you even need special talents to do this job? Shouldn't availability be solved by the artist when designing the page?

I once edited a large website. This experience allows me to view the website from the perspectives of developers, managers, and users, especially its availability, I found many interesting things. For example, when planning a page, artists tend to arrange the content in descending order of importance, which looks very reasonable; however, some research shows that when people browse content websites, the visual line does not move from top to bottom. (This topic is a bit long. Forgive me for not going into details ), that is to say, many content websites put the second or third most important content in the places that are most easily overlooked by readers. Interaction designers and availability engineers are responsible for conducting such research and providing solutions for such problems.

There are not too many people who have the opportunity to manage content websites. DMT raises a more common availability issue. For a long time, many people have known a web design principle: Do not allow users to click too many secondary links to obtain a function. However, Krug pointed out in the book that users do not mind clicking the mouse several times-as long as each click is unnecessary. That's right, so that users don't have to think about it. This is the origin of the name "DMT", which is exactly what we should pursue in terms of availability. Using an example in another Interactive Design masterpiece "about face 2.0", when you ride a bicycle, you will not think about it. If you want to speed up, you will step on it faster. If you want to turn, you will turn the handlebar, you don't think about "how to ride faster" or discuss "Do you really want to turn" with your bike ". In contrast, our website-and other software products-enables users to think too much.

Obviously, software developers and Interaction designers need to think more to prevent users from thinking. Krug's book (and the masterpiece of Alan Cooper I just mentioned) provides enough guidance in this regard, which is unambiguous. What's really interesting is that when I read this book and develop a website for the masses at the same time, I feel more and more that design doesn't just need to worry about it. You must also mobilize all your senses and think with your nose, your stomach, your eyes, your ears, and your intuition. Simply put, if a website is designed to make you feel disgusting, even if it passes all the usability tests, you should say "no" out loud-of course, this situation is not very likely to happen.

For software developers (or programmers) who are used to rational thinking, this new way of thinking often makes us feel uncomfortable. An interesting phenomenon is that there are many female experts in the field of interaction design and availability. It may be because women are more intuitive and less influenced by "machine thinking", making it easier for them to achieve this. Furthermore, women tend to be more perfectionist, whether designing a website or translating a book. The translator windy is such an interactive design professional, the above praise for women is also the author's comment on her translation.