Job-o-rama? Krug Intro-CH.3

"Jobs" "Employment Opportunities" "Job-o-Rama"

--Don't make me think, Steve Krug

After reading the section about word choice for links, I started thinking back to when I first applied for my part-time job at Staples. Even though the initial link says "Jobs," at the bottom of the page, the page within gives the user so many options that we have to think, and as Krug so clearly states in his book, we shouldn't have to think. From within that page, I have to choose between "Jobs Main, Working here, Careers at Staples, and so forth. Only if my eyes wander further down the page will I see the obvious link to choose: hourly jobs. Still, this process takes far too much time, and it's no wonder my Staples store has such a hard time keeping a well staffed store--people have a hard time even finding the application page!

Thus far, I have no complaints about this book. In fact, I actually like it. Even though some of the material is obvious and a no-brainer, it's still nice to see it in writing. And I loved the examples he illustrates exactly what a user sees compared to what's actually visible. When I think about the research papers that I wrote in high school, I realize now that I'm a typical user. If I didn't find revelant information within the first five minutes of scanning, I would hit the back button and search elsewhere.

I love Krug's bluntness in this book as well, such as "If your audience is going to act like you're designing billboards, then design a billboard." Something so simple, yet, it's pretty obvious that not everyone thinks that far out of the box. I can't wait to see what he has to say in the upcoming chapters.

Wanna read others' thoughts?