User experience design changes fast. Like, really fast. One week we’re all obsessed with glassmorphism, the next it’s brutalist grids or AI-generated interfaces that shift while you look at them. But beneath all the flashy JavaScript and the latest Figma plugins, there is a foundational law that has outlasted almost every trend since the dot-com bubble. It’s a simple four-word mantra: Don't make me think.
Steve Krug wrote the book on this—literally. Published back in 2000, Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability didn't just provide a set of rules; it gave us a lens through which to view how humans actually interact with screens. We aren't careful readers. We don't weigh every option on a page like we’re choosing a life partner. We scan. We muddle through. We click the first thing that looks vaguely like what we need.
If you've ever felt that spike of low-grade irritation because a "Submit" button was hidden behind a weird icon, you've experienced a violation of Krug's first law.
The First Law of Usability
When you open a webpage, your brain starts doing math. It’s subconscious, but it's happening. You’re looking for the logo to see where you are. You’re looking for the navigation to see where you can go. You’re looking for the search bar because, honestly, you probably don't want to browse anyway. Every second you spend wondering "Is that a button?" or "Where did the menu go?" is a second of "cognitive load."
Krug’s premise is that we have a limited reservoir of patience and mental energy. Every time a site makes us think about the interface rather than the content, it drains that reservoir.
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"Don't make me think" basically means that as far as humanly possible, when I look at a page, it should be self-evident. Obvious. Self-explanatory. I should be able to get what it is and how to use it without any effort.
Think about a door. If a door has a flat plate, you push it. If it has a handle, you pull it. When a designer puts a pull-handle on a door that only opens by pushing, that’s a "Norman Door"—a classic design failure coined by Don Norman. In the digital world, a mystery-meat navigation menu is the exact same thing. It’s a door that lies to you.
We Don't Read, We Scan
People are busy. Or lazy. Or both.
Most designers spend hours obsessing over the perfect copy, but the reality is that users glance at the page, spot a few keywords, and bolt for the link they think they need. This is why Krug emphasizes the importance of visual hierarchy. You need to make the important stuff big. You need to use headings that actually describe what’s underneath them.
How humans actually use the web:
- We don't choose the best option; we choose the first reasonable option (this is called "satisficing").
- We don't figure out how things work; we muddle through.
- We love our habits. If the "Cart" icon isn't in the top right, we get annoyed.
If your website forces a user to learn a new way of navigating just to be "innovative," you've already lost. Innovation in UX is great, but not at the expense of basic comprehension. A "hamburger menu" is a standard now. If you replace it with a spinning 3D cube because it looks cool, you are making people think. Don't do that.
The Myth of the Three-Click Rule
You’ve probably heard that a user should be able to find anything on a website within three clicks.
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It's a myth.
Krug and other usability experts like the team at Nielsen Norman Group have shown that users don't actually mind clicking five, six, or seven times—as long as each click is easy and they feel like they are getting closer to their goal. The problem isn't the number of clicks; it's how much thought is required for each one.
A single, confusing click is way more frustrating than three obvious ones. This leads to what Krug calls the "scent of information." As long as the link I just clicked confirms I'm on the right path, I'll keep going. If the scent goes cold, I’m hitting the back button.
Designing for the Reservoir of Goodwill
Every user starts their visit to your site with a certain amount of "goodwill."
Maybe they really love your brand, so the reservoir is full. Or maybe they just came from a frustrating experience on another site, and their reservoir is nearly empty. Every time you make them work—a tiny font, a pop-up asking for an email, a confusing form—their goodwill level drops.
When the reservoir hits zero, they leave.
Sometimes you have to ask for things. You need their email to create an account. You need them to understand a complex shipping policy. That’s fine. But you have to earn it by making everything else effortless.
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Things that drain the reservoir:
- Hiding the information I came for (like hiding phone numbers or pricing).
- Punishing me for not doing things your way (like clearing a whole form because I missed one field).
- Asking for too much info too early.
- Shifty visual design that looks unprofessional.
The "Get Rid of Half the Words" Rule
This is the hardest part for writers. Krug’s third law is: Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what’s left.
Happy talk must die.
"Happy talk" is that introductory text that says, "Welcome to our site, we are so glad you are here and we hope you find our products useful and innovative..." Nobody reads it. It’s filler. It’s noise. It gets in the way of the task.
By cutting the fluff, you make the remaining content stand out. You reduce the visual noise. You make the page easier to scan. This is especially true on mobile, where screen real estate is a premium and every extra paragraph requires a thumb-numbing amount of scrolling.
Why Modern Web Design Still Struggles
Even with Krug’s book being a staple in design schools for over two decades, we still see massive failures in Don't make me think.
Why? Because of "The Designer's Ego" and "The Stakeholder's Needs."
Marketing teams want to capture leads, so they want a pop-up. Legal wants a cookie consent banner that covers half the screen. The CEO wants a video background because they saw it on a competitor's site. All of these "needs" compete with the user's need for simplicity.
True usability isn't about making things pretty. It’s about removing friction.
Testing on a Budget
One of the best things about Krug’s philosophy is his approach to usability testing. He argues that you don't need a lab or twenty participants. You can find almost all the major problems with your site by testing with just three people.
The "Lost Our Lease" Usability Testing:
Bring someone in, sit them in front of a computer, and ask them to perform a task. "Try to buy a pair of blue socks." Then, don't say anything. Just watch where they click. Listen to them mutter to themselves.
You will be horrified. You will want to scream, "The button is right there!"
But that’s the point. If they can't find it, it's not there.
Actionable Steps for Better UX
If you want to apply Don't make me think to your own project today, stop looking at your site as a creator and start looking at it as a tired, distracted person in a hurry.
- Conduct a "Trunk Test." Imagine you’ve been blindfolded, put in a trunk, driven around, and then dumped onto a random page of your website. Can you immediately tell: What site is this? What page am I on? What are the major sections? Where can I go from here? If the answer is no, your navigation is failing.
- Standardize your symbols. Don't use a gear icon for "Settings" on one page and a wrench on another. Stick to the conventions people already know. A magnifying glass is search. A house is home. Don't reinvent the wheel.
- Kill the happy talk. Go through your homepage and delete every sentence that doesn't provide actual value or information. If it sounds like a corporate brochure from 1995, bin it.
- Make links look like links. This sounds stupidly basic, but the trend of removing underlines or using colors that are too close to the body text is a disaster for usability. If I have to hover my mouse over every word to find the link, you’ve made me think.
- Prioritize the "Back" button. It is the most used feature in any browser. If you use "single-page application" frameworks that break the back button functionality, you are actively sabotaging your users' safety net.
Usability is about respect. It's about respecting the user's time and mental capacity. When you follow the principles of Don't make me think, you aren't just making a "better" website; you're making a more accessible, inclusive, and effective one.
The best interface is the one that disappears. It’s the one where the user achieves their goal without ever having to realize they were using an interface at all. Stop trying to be clever. Start being obvious.