← People and their mental models
5 claims Steve Krug made fit 5 mental models. Most often: Affordances and signifiers, Design is how it works, Feedback loops. Everything they said here.
An interface should show what can be done and where, and give people a model of how it works.
Their wordsAnd by definition, affordances are the last thing you should hide.
Judge a design by what it does for the person using it, not only by how it looks.
Their wordsIt doesn't matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice.
Shorten the loop between doing and finding out; whatever a loop rewards is what you become.
Their wordsTesting one user early in the project is better than testing 50 near the end.
Find the essence and cut the rest; simplicity is hard work, not the absence of effort.
Their wordsGet rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left.
Watch real people use the real thing; your own sense of what is obvious does not count as evidence.
Their wordsTesting always works, and even the worst test with the wrong user will show you important things you can do to improve your site.