Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Second Edition

Think about your own experience: the sites you enjoy using. Is it because they’re “flashy,” or because they have content you want or need? Can you name a site that has content that’s interesting or useful to you that you don’t use because it’s not visually interesting enough?

Most of the time on the Web, people don’t want to be engaged; they just want to get something done, and attempts to engage them that interfere with their current mission are perceived as annoying, clueless, and the worst kind of hucksterism. And attempts to add sizzle almost always get in their way.

Screen-reader users scan with their ears. Most blind users are just as impatient as most sighted users. They want to get the information they need as quickly as possible. They do not listen to every word on the page—just as sighted users do not read every word. They “scan with their ears,” listening to just enough to decide whether to listen further. Many set the voice to speak at an amazingly rapid rate.