This is a reflection collection around the principles found in Don't Make Me Think, Brain Rules, and the Design of Everyday Things

1. Just Stating the Obvious
Collective Reflection of “Don’t Make Me Think.”
By Natalie C Dunn

2. Facts Of Life
Scanning Versus
Reading
Choosing the First
Reasonable Option
When in Doubt, Users
Muddle

3. Important things you want your user to
see:
1. Use Standardized Patterns
2.Create Effective Visual
Hierarchies
3. Break Up Pages into Clearly Defined
Areas
4. Make it Obvious what’s clickable
5. Eliminate Distractions
6. Format Content to Support Scanning.

4. Websites should be:
Usable
InnovativeCreative

5. Create Effective Visual Hierarchies
 Second Most important thing
 Third Most Important Thing

6. Break Pages Up into Clearly Defined Areas
19th Annual Rotary Golf Tournament
McNary Golf Course
Monday, July 29th, 2013
Check in at Noon
Shotgun start at 1:00pm
$125 per player
Sponsorships Available at
$150
19th Annual Rotary Golf Benefit Fundraiser
is to help fund the dictionary project. All
fourth graders in both public and private
schools receive a dictionary throughout the
Salem-Keizer and Stayton area.
For More Informa on Contact Your Club Golf Chair or Event Chair Natalie Dunn NatDunn31@gmail.com
Dividing the page into clearly
defined areas is important to
allow the users quickly which
areas of the page to focus
on.

7. Make it obvious to what is clickable

8. Eliminate Distractions

9. Format Content to Support Scanning
Use Plenty of Headings
Drawing the user’s eye to the important stuff on the website.
Keep the paragraphs short.
• Use Bullets
Highlight Key Terms

10. Adam Sandler was right?
The Rule of Clicks:
3 Mindlessness, Unambiguous, clicks equal
the click that requires thought.
Provide Guidance, be brief, timely, and
unavoidable.

11. Omit Needless Words
Get Rid of half of the words on each page
then get rid of half on what’s left. (Third
Law of Usability)
Remove Half the words equates to
reducing half the noise.

12. Knowing what type of user helps the
designer
Search Dominate or Link Dominant?

13. Answer the 5 Questions & Monty Python
When visiting a website, answer these
questions:
• What is it?
• What can I do here?
• What do they have here?
• Why should I be here and not
somewhere else?

14. Usability tests versus focus groups
Usability Tests: observing one person
at a time try to use something to do
with your website.
Focus Groups: small group of people
sit around and talk about things

15. Mobile Apps
Mobile Apps should be
easy to relearn, made
clear, memorable,
useable, and delightful.

16. The Reservoir of Goodwill
Things that add
goodwill:
Know the main things that
people want to do on your
site
Tell me what I want to know
Save my steps whenever
Put effort into it
Know what questions I am
likely to have and answer
them.
Provide creative comforts
Things that
diminish goodwill:
Hiding information
from you
PUNISHING ME
FOR NOT DOING
THE RIGHT THINGS
Asking me for
information that you
don’t need

17. Designers speak for everyone

18. Evaluating your design: Don’t Make Me
Think and Everyday Things
Don’t Make Me Think
The main goal is building clarity,
make sure that your website users
can understand and know what they
are looking at.
Usability testing is used at the end of
the project observing your potential
audience.
Everyday Things
The hardest part of design is getting
the requirements right which ensuring
that the right problem is being solved.
Getting the requirements right involves
repeated study and testing.

19. Visual Cues
Don’t Make Me think:
Visual Cues in design are your meat
and potatoes and need to be
noticeable.
Innovate when you know you have a
better idea
Whenever you replace something it is
either so clear and self-explanatory
that it adds value.
Everyday Things:
Brilliant design plus support that have
consistent activities that will result in
visible in the design.
Five Whys – Keep asking why until you
have uncovered the true underlying
causes.
Good design fits needs so well that the
design is invisible.

20. Brain Rules and Don’t Make Me Think
Don’t Make Me Think:
Rule of Clicks
Designers provide users with brief,
timely, and unavoidable guidance.
Eliminate Question Marks
Link Dominant User or Search
Dominant User
Brain Rules:
Divide Presentations into 10 minute
segments. (Attention)
“Learned Helplessness” (Stress)
Make it effortless (Memory)
Are you a Lark, a Hummingbird, or an
Owl?

21. Designers: You have to impress me, entice me,
direct me, and expose me to your deals.

22. Designers are responsible to make it great
for everyone.

23. References
All photos found through Flickr and altered by Natalie for this
presentation.