Don’t Make Me Think

Years back, I got the first edition of the book Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug.

The book is about making websites usable… if your website (…your software) is easy to use, you will get more users. Since we wanted more users with ZOOMS, we designed the web-interface to PI with nuggets of wisdom from this book.

To summarize Mr. Krug:

• Websites are self-serve.
• Users scan; they do not read.
• Be really concise.
• Follow established conventions (newspapers, billboards, street-signs)

My favorite parable is that of someone buying tools at the store. They enter the store and do one of two things:

1. Ask the clerk (i.e. search)
2. Walk the aisles (i.e. browse)

Design websites that bend the information to the habits of the user. The more difficult the information to wield, the more the user will search. The more familiar the user with the system, the more they will browse (or bookmark).

ZOOMS was designed from the ground up to be search. We have breadcrumbs (for navigation)
and lots of whitespace and Google-inspired design (following convention). And we did this so our customers would could treat OSIsoft PI as a self-serve resource to increase users.

I recommend the book – if you’re into creating software. And I recommend ZOOMS… if you’re into driving higher levels of operational excellence into your enterprise.