Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
by Steve Krug
Amazon.com Editorial
Review Usability design is one of the most important--yet often least attractive--tasks for a Web developer. In Don't Make Me Think, author Steve Krug lightens up the subject with good humor and excellent, to-the-point examples. The title of the book is its chief personal design premise. All of the tips, techniques, and examples presented revolve around users being able to surf merrily through a well-designed site with minimal cognitive strain. Readers will quickly come to agree with many of the book's assumptions, such as "We don't read pages--we scan them" and "We don't figure out how things work--we muddle through." Coming to grips with such hard facts sets the stage for Web design that then produces topnotch sites.
Using an attractive mix of full-color screen shots, cute cartoons and diagrams, and informative sidebars, the book keeps your attention and drives home some crucial points. Much of the content is devoted to proper use of conventions and content layout, and the "before and after" examples are superb. Topics such as the wise use of rollovers and usability testing are covered using a consistently practical approach.
This is the type of book you can blow through in a couple of evenings. But despite its conciseness, it will give you an expert's ability to judge Web design. You'll never form a first impression of a site in the same way again. --Stephen W. Plain
Flash Web Design
by Hillman Curtis
Amazon.com
Learning from the best is always a good idea, especially when the best in the field is adept at explaining his methods. In Flash Web Design, Hillman Curtis, a renowned Web developer (particularly in motion graphics) walks you through nine enlightening Flash projects in order of increasing complexity.
Curtis calls these exercises "deconstructions," and it's an apt term. All the finished pieces can be viewed on Curtis's site (www.hillmancurtis.com/book). With his help, you reconstruct each Flash movie with no step overlooked. They range from type animation (Macromedia Shockzone) to his bandwidth-skinny (20K) navigational, an interactive media site created with action scripting, a streaming visual poem with MP3 audio and many other techniques. The spots are all aesthetically elegant, vibrant, and cutting-edge in terms of design and typography and are
The author is first and foremost a designer. The book demonstrates the importance of conceptualizing the clients' needs and how to preplan and storyboard the projects. It documents the motivations behind even the smallest design decisions, making this book valuable as a teaching tool and not just a grab bag of hotshot how-tos. Each project takes time, but even beginners can re-create the Flash movies. The steps are clearly explained and illustrated with screen shots. The artwork, however, is not provided. To work along with the deconstructions, readers will have to create similar art, film, and sound files.
Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works
by Kelly Goto, Emily Cotler
Editorial Review
Anyone who has managed the process of developing or redesigning a Web site of significant size has likely learned the hard way the complexities, pitfalls, and cost risk of such an undertaking. While many Web development firms have fantastic technical expertise, what sets the topnotch organizations apart is the ability to accurately manage the planning and development process. Web Redesign: Workflow That Works directly addresses this crucial area with a specific, proven process.
This brief but important book lays out a specific five-step strategy--called the Core Process--that can always be applied to the development of Web sites and fine-tuned to almost any type of project. Each step--defining the project, developing site structure, visual design and testing, production and QA, and launch and beyond--contains three related but distinct tracks. The text begins with a brief overview of each of the steps, then delves deeper into each with detailed explanations as well as specific forms and project-management strategies. This book does not cover back-end, server-side programming. Instead, it focuses primarily on the visual, conventional components of a Web site.
Authors Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler compiled this book in an attractive, easy-to-read format. This process guide uses numerous full-color screen shots to illustrate site examples, as well as plenty of site diagrams and sample forms. The book even has a companion Web site with downloadable forms in PDF format to put the Core Process into immediate action. --Stephen W. Plain
Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed
by Jakob Nielsen, Marie Tahir
Design Dump Editorial Review
If your a beginning web designer or a seasoned vet, this is a must buy. Put it on your shelf. Believe me, you'll refer to it from time to time and time to time. Concepts that will never go away. Web design has changed a lot from the inception of the internet, but there are basic fundamentals in the approach and execution of homepage design that should NOT be broken. I know it's very cliche`, but oh how true...If it ain 't broke don't fix it. Really...users get use to reading and navigating websites in a certain regimented way.
Don't make them change. And as Steve Krug said, "Don't make them think!"
Jakob Nielsen, if you don't know already has been coined the "MAN" for usability studies and techniques. He has laid the foundation for web designers and others who value the idea of testing before executing. This is a must read, and a must buy!
Designing with Web Standards
by Jeffrey Zeldman
Amazon.com Editorial Review
Standards, argues Jeffrey Zeldman in Designing With Web Standards, are our only hope for breaking out of the endless cycle of testing that plagues designers hoping to support all possible clients. In this book, he explains how designers can best use standards--primarily XHTML and CSS, plus ECMAScript and the standard Document Object Model (DOM)--to increase their personal productivity and maximize the availability of their creations. Zeldman's approach is detailed, authoritative, and rich with historical context, as he is quick to explain how features of standards evolved. It's a fantastic education that any design professional will appreciate.
Zeldman is an idealist who devotes some of his book to explaining how much easier life would be if browser developers would just support standards properly (he's done a lot toward this goal in real life, as well). He is also a pragmatist, who recognizes that browsers implement standards differently (or partially, or not at all) and that it is the job of the Web designer to make pages work anyway. Thus, his book includes lots of explicit and tightly focused tips (with code) that have to do with bamboozling non-compliant browsers into behaving as they should, without tripping up more compliant browsers. There's lots of coverage of design and testing tools that can aid in the creation of good-looking, standards-abiding documents. --David Wall
Defensive Design for the Web: How to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points
by 37signals, Matthew Linderman, Jason Fried
Amazon.com Editorial Review
If your a beginning web designer this a great book to start with. If your designing a web application with lots of forms, this is a good book to remind you of standard practices. This book is basically about using common knowledge in designing the crisis points that many consumers run into. One thing I liked about the book is they use real web examples. And often do comparisons off a "good" solution versus a "crappy" one. This is not a revolutionary book. But it is good for beginners and a good refresher for those who have been doing this for awhile.
Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy
by Nick Usborne
Product Description: A guide to creating copy that connects with customersand makes the sale
Advertising and promotion professionals have long known that, while bells and whistles may grab a customer's attention, words make the sale. Yet, nearly a decade into the Web revolution, E-commerce professionals are just now waking up to the fact that the usual high-tech, graphics-heavy approach to site design is bad for business.
Net Words explores the reasons why and makes a strong case for a revolutionary new approach to copy writing tailored to the unique demands of a powerful new medium. With the help of dozens of examples of successful and unsuccessful on-line writing, author Nick Usborne shows readers how to harness the power of the written word for the Web. Readers learn how to imbue a business with a distinctive on-line "voice" and use it to forge lasting bonds with customers, increase market share, and close sales.
Envisioning Information
by Edward R. Tufte
From the Author:
This book celebrates escapes from the flatlands of both paper and computer screen, showing superb displays of high-dimensional complex data. The most design-oriented of Edward Tufte's books, Envisioning Information shows maps, charts, scientific presentations, diagrams, computer interfaces, statistical graphics and tables, stereo photographs, guidebooks, courtroom exhibits, timetables, use of color, a pop-up, and many other wonderful displays of information. The book provides practical advice about how to explain complex material by visual means, with extraordinary examples to illustrate the fundamental principles of information displays. Topics include escaping flatland, color and information, micro/macro designs, layering and separation, small multiples, and narratives. Winner of 17 awards for design and content. 400 illustrations with exquisite 6- to 12-color printing throughout. Highest quality design and production.
Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook
by Dan Cederholm
Book Description
Web Standards, created and enforced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), make sure that web designers and browser manufacturers use the same technology syntax, no matter what language they script in. Web Standards ensure the net stays neat, preventing the chaos that would emerge with inconsistent code. These standards also increase content compatibility among varying viewing devices, from screen readers for people with vision impairments, to cell phones, PDAs and more. Web standards are applied to code in HTML, XML and CSS.
Cederholm's book explains how to create markup and style, exploring multiple techniques for handling situations when building with Web Standards. In this easy-to-read book, each chapter provides "extra credit" sections, giving you bonus tips and tricks, and empowering you to make better decisions based with well-rounded information.
The Art and Science of Web Design
by Jeffrey Veen
Amazon.com review:
When it comes to Web design, style guides are often too boring and predictable to capture the attention of caffeine-riddled Web developers. But not The Art & Science of Web Design; this book strategically equips readers to design sites effectively.
Jeffrey Veen, an established design guru and one of the creators of HotWired.com, has authored a carefully structured look into the undercurrents of Web design. Organized around the key development topics, the book is laden with a historical background of standards, features, and trends. Yet the topics are timeless and core to good Web engineering, so it's space well spent. The mix of expert opinion and historical explanation creates a well-rounded reader experience The
Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites
by Douglas K. van Duyne
The Design of Sites, Second Edition, is the definitive reference for the principles, patterns, methodologies, and best practices underlying exceptional Web design. If you are involved in the creation of dynamic Web sites, this book will give you all the necessary tools and techniques to create effortless end-user Web experiences, improve customer satisfaction, and achieve a balanced approach to Web design.
After a comprehensive tutorial covering the foundations of good Web site design, you will move on to discover the thirteen major Web design pattern groups. These patterns solve recurring design problems and help design teams avoid reinventing the wheel. Patterns range from creating a solid navigation framework and the all-important home page, to instilling trust and building credibility with your customers and improving site performance through better design.