1
Bearden
Geoffrey Bearden
Ms. Jackman
Persuasive Writing
14 September 2017
Assignment #4
In Steve Krug’s book “Don’t Make Me Think”, he discusses the reality vs the ways we think we use the interne. He discusses the fact that in reality no one actually reads a website page. He states that most people only scan the page and click the first thing that peaks the interest of the reader. People design websites with the intention of having people view every detail of what is on the page, but that is not the case. He states people are good at scanning, do not have to read every little thing on the website, and also that when viewing a website, there is a certain goal in mind. He also discusses that websites are not supposed to be spent on for a long time. He says That most people are in a hurry and do not have time to look through every little detail on the page. Another thing Krug talks about is that we don’t care about how websites are supposed to be used. It is not important to us, nor do we care about the things that are irrelevant to the goal we had in mind when viewing the site. Lastly Krug talks about what should be different when designing a website. He says that don’t over complicate your website and if people are going to treat your site like a billboard, then make it a very good billboard. His argument is that people do not use the internet for its full potential, only the ways they want to use it. The website that I visited was proreference.com. I choose this website after doing a google search of “The New England Patriots”. The first couple of websites were all websites that I have visited before, so I went on to the second page and looked through there. This website had all the statistics during the patriot’s history. They had the most valuable plyers in franchise history, and all of the facts on the team. While viewing the website, I did almost exactly what Krug was talking about in his article. I did not look at any of the tabs on top of the page, nor did I read one single full sentence. I got caught up in all the stats about my favorite player, Tom Brayd, and ignored all the small facts. The site has hundreds of statistics that I ignored and only looked at the ones I cared about. After testing Krugs theory on my own I understand his argument more clearly. I think he is trying to prove that when it comes to the internet, people are lazy. They do not care about tht little things that the people who created the site might care about, but rather only care about what they clicked on the site about. If I really wanted to, I could spend hours on that site and learn more than I possibly ever could need about the New England Patriots, but instead I spent 10 minutes and only found the things I already knew, and the only things I cared about. After this assignment I am definitely going to pay attention to how I use websites, and also look at my own website and find ways to simplify it so that my reader will be interested in the things I choose to include in the website.