I have been working as a developer for a couple of years now and I have read my fair share of technical books and articles. Recently a colleague from work recommended „Don't Make Me Think” by Steve Krug claiming that it’s one of the most important books for any developer or designer. That this book helped to shape the way modern web design looks like today and is overall a classic that any self respected designer has to read. Suffice to say I was intrigued. I’ve ordered the third edition of the book and soon enough started reading. 

The book itself is quite old (the first edition was published over 20years ago) but being the newest edition was slightly updated and had a few additional chapters at the end about mobile design, accessibility and the last one containing some advice on how to share what you’ve learned with your team. Although I must admit that I can see why this book is (deservedly) considered „the classic” it was a bit of a mixed bag for me. The beginning seemed more like an old manual for „How to use the internet” and there were many points that could be considered obsolete. The web design certainly has come a long way. Something that might have been debatable years before became somewhat of a standard now. Though the author admits that what can be obvious to people with a bit more experience in web usability is not necessary as obvious to other I must say that the beginning left me unsatisfied. I might be a little bit biased in my opinion as I have worked in the industry for a couple of years now but I’d like to believe that most people know the basics of web design such as „buttons can’t have exactly same style as text surrounding them” or „it’s nice when a cursor design changes when you hover over a clickable element”, etc. I have to be fair and admit that most of his observations and advice are correct even in this day and time. The problem is that using the internet has become such a big part of our everyday life that most of the human - computer interactions has become obvious and natural and don’t require whole sections dedicated to them.

After getting through the first couple of chapters I could notice that Steve would frequently recommend other authors and sources in reference to what he was currently discussing. I must admit that I quite enjoyed that. The book treated each chapter like a very brief introduction to the topic at hand and then allowed the reader to dive into a specific subject with a recommendation (I’ve even added some of his recommended materials to my TBR). On the other hand telling your readers that they should read countless other books could be a bit disappointing to some. For me it was not an issue. 

The language used in this book was a bit different to what most people reading technical books are used to. It was light and full of small jokes and metaphors to make it as easily absorbable as possible. The good news is that it makes it extremely clear for non technical people or people who are just getting started in the industry. It’s not too overwhelming and overall makes for a quick read. Bad news is that you could safely remove a big chunk of the book and it wouldn’t loose much of its content. Again it comes down to a personal preference of the reader but I think that for the people that this book is aimed for it should be okay.

Now if you’re a bit more advanced developer or designer you might wonder: „is it worth for me to read this book?” and my answer is YES. Chapters about testing and accessibility were my absolute favorites. It provided a great explanation and instruction on why and how to start testing your product. I am a firm believer in the power of testing and the importance of including accessibility in app development that these parts were definitely to my liking. Moreover there were many good real life examples shown throughout the book that reminded me of some of the issues I’ve encountered when I’ve first started working on my projects for the uni.

Let’s be honest, this book is old, even the author acknowledges it at the beginning. But despite it’s age it’s still very much relevant. Sure the pictures used as examples look like nightmare fuel for modern days graphic designers (and most young people have never even encountered such monstrosities in their lives). But the truth is that even now there are many websites with cluttered home pages, incomprehensible hierarchy and unconventional and illogical UX that makes us wonder if we’ve just got a glimpse through the gates of hell. Even some websites that might look good or even great at the first glance but don’t follow these simple rules described in the book are at the end of the day unusable. 

Despite all that complaining I consider this book to be well written and very much correct with the information it presents! You can clearly see that every claim is supported by years of experience. What’s most important for me: I have learned from this book and that alone makes me very happy that I’ve read it. It helped me solidify what I’ve already known and showed some new perspective on things I thought I knew. Unfortunately due to its age some of it might seem obvious, especially to someone who has at least a little bit experience with programming or designing. But since it frequently recommends other books and articles it’s a great starting point to those who would like to dive more into design and aren’t sure where to start.

I would definitely recommend this book to junior designers and programmers starting university or their first job / internship. It could also be very good for some older folks and those who aren’t very familiar with using the internet. 

If anything I’ve written has spiked your interest try reading it yourself. It is after all a classic :)