He wrote the bible on the modern internet. He's horrified at what he sees in 2026.
Steve Krug, the author of a seminal book on internet usability, expresses deep concern over the addictive nature of modern social media. He reflects on how the 'frictionless' web he helped design has evolved into a landscape that promotes screen addiction and reduced literacy.
Why it matters
It provides a critical perspective from a pioneer of web design on the unintended consequences of modern digital user experience patterns.
Steve Krug, 77, author of "Don't Make Me Think." Cassandra Klos for BI "I think social media is the worst thing that's happened in the last forty years," Steve Krug tells me. A quarter century ago, Krug wrote "Don't Make Me Think," one of the founding books of internet usability. It's the reason sites have big bolded text and read vertically, not zagging around the screen. It's why links look like links and buttons look like buttons. He gave instructions like "instructions must die." In other words: websites and apps should just work, intuitively, effortlessly. The book is still taught in several university courses and regularly cited on X by Silicon Valley apostles like Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan. These days, we have a new word for the tao of Krug: frictionless. Krug wrote his book in the freewheeling early days of the World Wide Web.
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