Unit 1 Reading Response

In the first chapter of the first unit of reading "Don't Make Me Think", Steve Krug explains explains to us the importance of designing websites to that is clear and concise. His first law of usability is to make sure to design the website where the target audiences doesn't have to think when they need to navigate the page. There shouldn't be much thought into it and that the reaction should be fairly instantaneous. Some ways to enforce this is to not make it all cluttered up, make clickable obvious, have less options in a drop down menu bar by having the search enable to find the closest to your keywords.

The second chapter "How we really use the Web" goes over how web audiences really read and navigates through a website. Steve Krugs explains that we don't actually read every single word within the website and that we usually just scan them because web audiences are usually pressed for time and know what they are looking for. Web audiences do this by focusing on words and phrases that would match best to their target intent like in Ginger's example. He also believes that we "muddle through" because its just not important to us and that once we find something that works theres no need to change our way of doing things.

The last part of the reading in unit 1 is "Why Mood Boards matter", this article explains what a mood board is (can be a loose collage or a refined template) and the benefits of presenting a mood board to a client. The first benefit is a much quicker and efficient mock up production that can save misunderstandings of opinions later on. It gives a smoother relationship with the client by making them feel more involved and that you the designer are listening to their ideas and suggestions. Finally, mood boards are just more fun and allows for greater brainstorming.