Robert Hoekman’s books are inline with Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think. They are quick reads that take a simplistic, straightforward, and humorous approach to explaining usability principles.

Designing the Obvious focuses on Robert’s 7 qualities of great web-based software. Explaining how to use each quality to perform ‘Interface Surgery’, as well as changes to the overall usability process, and principles such as kaizen and poka-yoke, the book is great for anyone tasked with creating a pleasant user experience.

Designing the Moment takes a micro-look at different phases of a user experience from searching to sign off and how to make improvements every step of the way. By focusing on each ‘moment’ of the user experience, Robert puts many standard elements of a web experience under inspection and makes some great recommendations.

If you’re looking to give some time to a ‘professional’ book, consider giving one or both of these a shot.

As a new visitor to the Engauge Digital Blog, I decided to start by reading the existing posts in an effort to avoid duplicate discussions. With numerous articles and limited time, my experience consisted of multiple visits where I would read a few articles before having to leave to focus my attention elsewhere. I began each return visit by asking, “Where did I leave off?” The answer would be found after scanning several posts and pages requiring a growing amount of time and effort. I don’t spend much time on blogs, but I have had similar frustrations and thought I would post to see if my experience is common.

THE QUESTION: Has anyone seen a blog that easily allows users to indicate what posts have been read, easily locate unread posts, and search within the posted content?

Indicating where the user is and where they have been in a web experience is a basic best practice, but in my experience it’s commonly void within blogs. The fact that users do not have to select every post prior to viewing does make the typical visited link identification difficult. However the presence of a “Read” check box with every post, an “Unread” filter or category option, and a search field could help answer “Where did I leave off?”