Krug- Chapter 11 & 12 (MP 30)

10 Memorable Things from Krug

1.  The "Don't Make Me Think" motto... websites should be effortless and self explanatory, and the user should not have to "think" while using them.

2.  How the user's eyes move over a site as they scan.

3.  Satisficing- the user takes the first option that is presented to them pertaining to what they're looking for.

4.  "Billboard Designing" and visual hierarchy.

5.  Make links, pictures, etc OBVIOUS that they're clickable.

6.  Eliminate business and background noise.

7.  Minimizing text and omitting needless words.

8.  The trunk test.

9.  How to include everything on the homepage and still get the message across.

10.  The usability test.

Krug- Chapter 10 (MP 28)

For my usability test, I had Samantha Baccala test my web site.

She is a student at Quinnipiac University.

She spends approximately 30 hours per week using the Internet.

About 75% of that time is spend browsing, while 25% is spent emailing.

When browsing, she mostly looks at social networking, blogging, and news sites.

Her favorite websites are facebook and pinterest.


Sam described the home page to be warm and inviting with interesting graphics and very little clutter. She was instantly able to tell that it was a website for Stafford Diner.

First, I asked Sam to find the menu. She clicked on the "Menu" button in the nav bar to the left and was brought to it in one click.

Next, I asked her to find the address of the diner.  She moved her mouse to the left again and clicked on "About Us" where she was taken to the address.

Finally, I asked her to "follow" Stafford Diner on twitter, to which she found the twitter icon under the nav bar and clicked "follow".

Krug- Chapter 8 & 9 (MP 27)

Hi, ___________. My name is Melissa, and I’m 

going to be walking you through this session today. 

Before we begin, I have some information for you, and 

I’m going to read it to make sure that I cover everything. 

You probably already have a good idea of why we asked 

you here, but let me go over it again briefly. We’re 

asking people to try using a Web site that we’re working 

on so we can see whether it works as intended. The 

session should take about an hour. 

The first thing I want to make clear right away is that 

we’re testing the site, not you. You can’t do anything 

wrong here. In fact, this is probably the one place today 

where you don’t have to worry about making mistakes.  

As you use the site, I’m going to ask you as much as 

possible to try to think out loud: to say what you’re 

looking at, what you’re trying to do, and what you’re 

thinking. This will be a big help to us. 

Also, please don’t worry that you’re going to hurt our 

feelings. We’re doing this to improve the site, so we 

need to hear your honest reactions. 

If you have any questions as we go along, just ask them. 

I may not be able to answer them right away, since 

we’re interested in how people do when they don’t have 

someone sitting next to them to help. But if you still 

have any questions when we’re done I’ll try to 

answer them then. And if you need to take a break at 

any point, just let me know. 

You may have noticed the microphone. With your 

permission, we’re going to record what happens on the 

screen and our conversation. The recording will only be 

used to help us figure out how to improve the site, and it 

won’t be seen by anyone except the people working on 

this project. And it helps me, because I don’t have to 

take as many notes.  

Also, there are a few people from the Web design team 

observing this session in another room. (They can’t see 

us, just the screen.) 

If you would, I’m going to ask you to sign a simple 

permission form for us. It just says that we have your 

permission to record you, and that the recording will 

only be seen by the people working on the project.  

 

 Give them a recording permission form and a pen  

 

 While they sign it, START the SCREEN RECORDER 

IF YOU ARE USING A NON-DISCLOSURE 

AGREEMENT (optional): 

I know we also sent you a non-disclosure agreement that 

says that you won’t talk to anybody about what we’re 

showing you today, since it hasn’t been made public yet. 

Do you have that with you? 

 

 Accept the NDA and make sure that it’s signed. If 

they don’t have it with them, hand them a copy 

and give them time to read and sign it. 

Do you have any questions so far? 

OK. Before we look at the site, I’d like to ask you just a 

few quick questions.  

First, what’s your occupation? What do you do all day? 

Now, roughly how many hours a week altogether—just 

a ballpark estimate— would you say you spend using 

the Internet, including Web browsing and email, at work 

and at home?  

And what’s the split between email and browsing—a 

rough percentage? 

What kinds of sites are you looking at when you browse 

the Web? 

Do you have any favorite Web sites? 

OK, great. We’re done with the questions, and we can 

start looking at things. 

 

 Click on the bookmark for the site’s Home page. 

First, I’m going to ask you to look at this page and tell 

me what you make of it: what strikes you about it, 

whose site you think it is, what you can do here, and 

what it’s for. Just look around and do a little narrative. 

You can scroll if you want to, but don’t click on 

anything yet. 

 

 Allow this to continue for three or four minutes, at most. 

Thanks. Now I’m going to ask you to try doing some 

specific tasks. I’m going to read each one out loud and 

give you a printed copy. 

I’m also going to ask you to do these tasks without using 

Search. We’ll learn a lot more about how well the site 

works that way. 

And again, as much as possible, it will help us if you can 

try to think out loud as you go along. 

 

 Hand the participant the first scenario, and read it 

aloud. 

 

 Allow the user to proceed until you don’t feel like it’s 

producing any value or the user becomes very 

frustrated. 

 

 Repeat for each task or until time runs out. 

Now I’m going to ask you to try doing a few more 

tasks. This time, you are allowed to use Search.

 

 Repeat steps for previous tasks.

Thanks, that was very helpful. 

If you’ll excuse me for a minute, I’m just going to see if 

the people on the team have any follow-up questions 

they’d like me to ask you. 

 

 Call the observation room to see if the observers have 

any questions.  

 

 Ask the observers’ question, then probe anything you 

want to follow up on. 

Do you have any questions for me, now that we’re 

done? 

 

 Give them their incentive, or remind them it will be 

sent to them. 

 

 Stop the screen recorder and save the file. 

 

 Thank them and escort them out. 

Krug- Chapter 7 (MP 26)

http://www.google.com/

What's the point: To search for info, images, videos, maps, news, etc...

Where to start: Type something in the search bar or chose a category from the nav bar at the top


http://www.apple.com/

What's the point: Learn about available Apple products/buy Apple products

Where to start: Choose a category in the nav bar on top or type something in the search bubble... you can also click on the product currently being advertised on the home page.

http://www.wikipedia.org/

What's the point: To search for information about something

Where to start: Choose a language or type something in the search bar

http://.netflix.com/

What's the point: To watch movies and tv shows

Where to start: Select a category at the top, a movie or show displayed on the home page, or type something into the search bar

http://www.amazon.com/

What's the point: Online shopping

Where to start: Select a category to the side, type something into the search bar at the top, or click on one of the advertised items on the home page

Interactive Prototype- Minor Project 29

Partner: Julie Abott

Here's the link to our site!

http://thestafforddiner.drupalgardens.com/

Stafford Diner Website Mockups

A couple different versions...

Stafford Diner Sitemap

Partner: Julie Abott