The title of an informative book on Web usability by Steve Krug is
“Don’t Make Me Think.” “Don’t make me think” is also his first law of
usability:
It means that as far as is humanly possible, when I look at a
Web page it should be self-evident. Obvious. Self-explanatory.
I should be able to ‘get it’ – what it is and how to use it – without
expending any effort thinking about it.
While Web usability is not branding or domain names, the same advice
– don’t make people think – applies.
Don’t make people think if you have the .com or the .net.
Don’t make people think if you spell your name Steven or Stephen. Use
an easy to spell name such as Steve. Don’t make people think if you
are Cars4sale.com or Carsforsale.com.
Don’t make people think if your Web site is Widget.com (singular) or
Widgets.com (plural).
Don’t make people think that IAAA stands for I Am An American.
Your Web page, your business and your domain name may be very
important to you. But to your customers and potential customers –
your business is just one of thousands of others.
Make people think as little as possible. Taken to extremes, this would
suggest generic names, but these have problems discussed elsewhere.
Too many generic names make it difficult for consumers to distinguish
between the generic names.
WWWRRR.com sounds like a site developed by a child. That would be
almost correct. WWWRRR.com employed about 120 people and burned
through $15 million in funding before ceasing operations in 2001.
WWWRRR stood for World Wide Web Reading, Riting, Rithmetic. It was
an educational site. WWWRRR.com is also difficult to say, limiting word
of mouth advertising.
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