How visitors really use the web

Steve Krug could write book about this! And he has -- "Don't make me think". Chapter 2 is online and viewable -- kind of a teaser for the whole book.

Krug says that "What [visitors] actually do most of the time (if we're lucky) is glance at each new page, scan some of the text, and click on the first link that catches their interest or vaguely resembles the thing they're looking for."

So if you're designing a page with a lot of text, several menus to choose from, and a ton of links, perhaps you're defeating the whole reason for the web page -- to get read. Here's some other things you should know about visitors to your site:

• They don't read; they scan the page
• They don't hunt for the best menu pick, they choose the first one that looks good.
• They don't stop to figure out how your site works. They just plough ahead and make guesses -- and maybe bad assumptions -- for parts they don't know.

Krug's point? If we know what visitors expect and how they act, we can design with that in mind. Forget creating a literary masterpiece or even an online church brochure that will get read from tri-fold cover-to-cover. Make information easy to find and not overwhelming.