Mostly working on some book projects. And one of them isn’t even about usability or UX: It’s about writing.

I’ve never made any secret about the fact that I find writing to be ridiculously hard work. In an attempt to spend less time in agony, over the years I’ve found some things that make writing easier (no, not alcohol), and produce better results—things I wish someone had told me back when I started out. And for a while now I’ve been trying to shape them into a book.

If you want to know more, check out my blog post about the writing book project, or the What have I been up to category, or my twitter feed (@skrug).

It’s true: If you poke around a little, you’ll discover that I’ve got an FAQ list on almost every page of my site.

I happen to think that making it easy to find the answers to frequently asked questions is a good thing—as long as they’re really Frequently Asked Questions, and not QYWPWA’s (Questions You Wish People Would Ask).

And just in case you can’t remember where you saw one, I’ve also put all of the FAQ lists together in one place.

Mostly working on some book projects. And one of them isn’t even about usability or UX: It’s about writing.

I’ve never made any secret about the fact that I find writing to be ridiculously hard work. In an attempt to spend less time in agony, over the years I’ve found some things that make writing easier (no, not alcohol), and produce better results—things I wish someone had told me back when I started out. And for a while now I’ve been trying to shape them into a book.

If you want to know more, check out my blog post about the writing book project, or the What have I been up to category, or my twitter feed (@skrug).

The best way to contact me is by email. (I may never see a twitter DM, for instance.)

You’ll find details on the Contact page, but please do us both a favor and read the FAQ list there before you write.

As one Amazon reviewer said:

“If you’re new to web design, you’ll learn TONS; if you’re a seasoned pro, you’ll get a solid refresher and maybe even pick up on a few new things.”

A lot of UX professionals tell me they leaf through it again every time they start a new project, just to remind themselves of all the “common sense” that they tend to forget.

I may do another edition someday, but it’s an awful lot of work, so it won’t be soon.

Not anymore.

When I first wrote it in 2010, I focused on the usability of web sites because that’s what most people were building.

But in the third edition, I expanded it to show that it applied to almost anything that people use. Web, mobile, and desktop applications are obvious candidates, but it’s just as effective for things like PowerPoint presentations and election ballots.

As Burak Yigit Kaya (@madbyk) tweeted recently:

“I seriously think everyone who builds or participates in building things should read the classic “Don’t Make Me Think” by @skrug.

And I really mean ‘things’ not just ‘web things’.”

• Don’t Make Me Think is a book about how to think about usability. It’s an introduction to usability/UX/user-centered design principles.
• Rocket Surgery is about how to do usability. It’s a how-to book that shows you how to do your own simple, fast, effective usability tests.

There is some overlap, because Think also explains what usability testing is and why you should do it. But the books are really very different.

If you manage people who do testing, I’d definitely recommend reading it, since it may show you a better way for them to work. (You might even end up buying copies for them to read.)

The book focuses mostly on testing Web sites a) to keep it short and uncomplicated, and b) because when I wrote it in 2010 web sites were much more widely used than apps.

But the same method can be used to improve almost anything that people use. Web, mobile, and desktop applications are obvious candidates, but it’s just as effective for things like PowerPoint presentations and election ballots.

On the Downloads page, you’ll find test scripts I’ve added specifically for testing mobile web sites and apps.

No. Professionals will always (well, nearly always) be able to do a better job.

A professional

• will have valuable experience setting up and facilitating a test
• has usually seen the same usability problems many times and knows a lot about how to fix them, and
• may be in a better position to spell out unpleasant truths.

My point is that almost all amateurs can do a good job (good enough to be very valuable), and there are rarely enough professionals available to do as much testing as is needed. Getting it done is far more important than doing it “perfectly.”