Tips for making your site user-friendly according to Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think”

As a disclaimer, Steve says early on in this book that there are no quick and easy answers to your usability questions, it all comes down to judgement. However, this topic is an important one to at least dip into because creating a kick-ass design for your business only goes so far. Coming up with a cool design concept for a website is practically worthless if it leaves your user puzzling over where they should be or go at any given moment. Users require navigation that feels effortless. So, here are a few quick and effective tips that will help you elevate your brand’s user experience and build leads:

Don’t Make Us Work

Most readers simply skim and quickly scroll through a page until they’ve hit what they hope is their target. Don’t make them question that for longer than they need to by creating a header that doesn’t speak to the content or user directly. If they can confidently say that the information they’re looking for is only a couple of clicks away from them, then you’re doing it right.

Reduce the Noise

Omit the words that are useless. While you’re at it, remove any and all useless content, including irrelevant images. When you can, try to create bulleted lists out of the lists within your paragraphs. It helps the user to better focus on the most useful content by making it more prominent.

Think About Who’s Using the Site

There’s nothing better than a good user test. They’re made to help you answer those questions as to whether or not a “read more” button should link you to another page within the site or expand to show you more text for the user. The demographic you’re appealing to will influence your decision here. When you can, get a prototype in front of them so that you can see what does and doesn’t work. This will also help diffuse long debates internally and get you to a strong outcome even faster.

Usability and Common Courtesy

Everyone has what Steve refers to as a “reservoir of goodwill”, this is essentially the level of open-mindedness, trust, and genuine curiosity a user has when they open a company’s website. In order to protect this reservoir, keep your site relevant to what your user cares about. This will help you retain a trustworthy image. So, when it comes to communication about current events (i.e. COVID-19) that may affect your relationship with your consumer, it is helpful to have a press release or notice that keeps them informed.To drive it home, I’ll leave you with this: According to Forrester’s report on user-interface design, visit-to-lead conversions can be increased by up to 400% on sites with a “superior user experience”. Here at Tribu, we keep all this information in mind in our design process. We ask how we can push brands forward.

If you're looking for this kind of guidance and partnership, feel free to reach out to us so we can explore the possibilities with you.