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Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems
- By Steve Krug
- Published Dec 8, 2009 by New Riders. Part of the Voices That Matter series.
- Copyright 2010
- Dimensions: 7 X 9
- Pages: 168
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-321-65729-2
- ISBN-13: 978-0-321-65729-9
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It's been known for years that usability testing can dramatically improve products. But with a typical price tag of $5,000 to $10,000 for a usability consultant to conduct each round of tests, it rarely happens.
In this how-to companion to Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steve Krug spells out an approach to usability testing that anyone can easily apply to their own web site, application, or other product. (As he said in Don't Make Me Think, "It's not rocket surgery".)
In this new book, Steve explains how to:
- Test any design, from a sketch on a napkin to a fully-functioning web site or application
- Keep your focus on finding the most important problems (because no one has the time or resources to fix them all)
- Fix the problems that you find, using his "The least you can do" approach
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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Inspirational, By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems (Paperback)
BOUGHT THIS BOOK THE MINUTE I REALIZED IT WAS OUT:Having been a "Usability Professional" for a number of years, I purchased this Steve Krug book, the minute I knew he had another book out, without even paying attention to what it was about. This guy is just that good. This enthusiasm was due to his previous book "Don't Make Me Think" which was a great book on how to make more usable web sites. First I was surprised, as initially I had not realized it was a book for User testing for non-Usability professionals... Next, I thought, Wow, this is a great book too. BASIC IDEA: The whole idea is to do quick usability tests with a few users, that are reasonably representative of your end users. This test would be viewed by your stake holders and be done in one morning each month during various stages of development of your site. This way, it gets to the right people when it's needed. Anyone who does usability work, knows how laborious and costly tests can be. However... Read more
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Make Web Designers Think!, By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems (Paperback)
Steve Krug is the author of the bestselling book Don't Make Me Think!, which has racked up worldwide sales of 250,000 since its publication in 2000.That book based its approach to assessing and improving the usability of websites on the injunction in the title. If visitors to websites have to figure out what to do on a website, then the website is operating at a disadvantage. Krug offered some very pertinent, uncomplicated advice on web usability, how to judge it and how to implement solutions to problems that are identified. When updating that first book in 2005, Krug decided that Rocket Surgery Made Easy had become necessary: a handbook for putting usability principles into practice, focusing in particular on user testing. The title refers to the phrase Krug coined (and trademarked) to summarise his view that all of this is just common sense: it's not rocket science and it's not brain surgery. It also gives a clue that Krug,... Read more
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Usability Testing for Dummies, By
This review is from: Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems (Paperback)
Despite its confusing title, this book has a clear focus: Convince you of the benefits of simple usability tests (the kind where you sit down with a user and watch them perform some tasks), and walk you through that process with just enough detail to make you confident that you, too, can perform such tests without too much effort. The focus of this book is on finding usability problems; there isn't much discussion of specific problems, just the advice to keep the fixes as simple as possible.
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Online Sample Chapter
What Do You Test, and When Do You Test It?: Why the Hardest Part Is Starting Early Enough
Table of Contents
FINDING USABILITY PROBLEMS
Chapter 1 You don’t see any elephants around here, do you?
What do-it-yourself usability testing is, why it always works, and why so little of it gets done
Chapter 2 I will now saw my [lovely] assistant in half
What a do-it-yourself test looks like
Chapter 3 A morning a month; that’s all we ask
A plan you can actually follow
Chapter 4 What do you test, and when do you test it?
Why the hardest part is starting early enough
Chapter 5 Recruit loosely and grade on a curve
Who to test, and how to find them
Chapter 6 Find some things for them to do
Picking tasks to test, and creating scenarios for them
Chapter 7 Some boring checklists
…that will save your butt
Chapter 8 Mind reading made easy
Your job as test facilitator
Chapter 9 Make it a spectator sport
Getting everyone to watch, and telling them what to look for
FIXING USABILITY PROBLEMS
Chapter 10 Debriefing 101
Comparing notes and deciding what to fix
Chapter 11 The least you can do™
The best ways to fix usability problems
Chapter 12 The usual suspects
Some problems you’re likely to find, and how to think about fixing them
Chapter 13 Making sure life actually improves
THE ROAD AHEAD
Chapter 14 Teleportation made easy
Remote Testing: Fast, cheap, and slightly out of control
Chapter 15 Overachievers only
Recommended reading and more
Chapter 16 Happy trails / to you
A few final words of encouragement
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