The importance of observing users navigation through a website, or website usability,  is becoming more and more valuable to a company’s ROI.  It can answer different questions pertaining to the organizations online service.  What time of day did people access your company’s website? What other computer activities were completed before or after users accessed the on-line service? Many online observations can be tracked with an analytical program such as Google Analytics, Omniture, etc.

There is a book called Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability which focuses on proper site design for maximum usability.  Usability design is one of the most important–yet often least attractive–tasks for a Web developer. In Don’t Make Me Think, author Steve Krug lightens up the subject with good humor and excellent, to-the-point examples.

The title of the book is its chief personal design premise. All of the tips, techniques, and examples presented revolve around users being able to surf merrily through a well-designed site with minimal cognitive strain. Readers will quickly come to agree with many of the book’s assumptions, such as “We don’t read pages–we scan them” and “We don’t figure out how things work–we muddle through.” Coming to grips with such hard facts sets the stage for Web design that then produces topnotch sites.

Using an attractive mix of full-color screen shots, cute cartoons and diagrams, and informative sidebars, the book keeps your attention and drives home some crucial points. Much of the content is devoted to proper use of conventions and content layout, and the “before and after” examples are superb. Topics such as the wise use of rollovers and usability testing are covered using a consistently practical approach.

You will will always here me talk about website usability and user experience.  All of my initial interest in website usability  was influenced by this book.  Not to mention, I read this book in a day sitting on a beach in Mexico…so usability is my happy place you could say.  However, nothing gets me more frustrated when something so simple is overcomplicated on a daily basis.  Anyway, I highly recommend this book and you should definitely check it out.