Each Web site in need of redesign, to paraphrase Anna Karenina, is in need after its own fashion. Sometimes it's a graphic facelift, sometimes a structural reorganization. Some need to completely readdress the relationship between content and audience. And most need a mixture of all three. Web Site Redesigns relates the stories of nine redesigns, from the one-man operation RefDesk.com to the multinational corporation IBM. From both the client side and the design side, readers are privy to the back and forth each site went through before its rebirth.
This is another Adobe Master Class book, a series which focuses on top designers and how they resolve some of their toughest projects. The designers here include Post Tool Design, who bring Chroniclebooks.com up-to-date with a fresh-looking Flash-based interface and a database back end. The design studio Method completely revamps Trip.com's site architecture. And Hot Studio creates a hip site for San Francisco's Glide Church, one that allows church staffers without any HTML skills to update content.
Readers get the inside scoop on the why, when, and how of each case study: a history of the client and the site, a profile of the chosen design team, requests for proposals, "understanding" phases, whiteboard schematics, user profiles, focus group results, intermediate sketches--whatever went on behind the scenes. Whether it's the fun icons and flash preloader quizzes of the BrainPop.com creative team or the corporate colored circles and fashionably colored hexagons of Adobe.com and Adobe Studio, respectively, devised by hillmancurtis.com, readers get a feeling for what it was like to toil on each project without actually having to do any of the heavy lifting.
The book is fun to read, especially if you're someone who enjoys problem-solving, even when you may not agree with the decisions or methodology. If the joys/agonies of Web design enrich/plague your life, you may find yourself reading this book all in one sitting. --Angelynn Grant
From Library Journal
Redesigning a complex site can be more difficult than starting from scratch. This behind-the-scenes look at the makeover process demonstrates a variety of approaches, but the message emphasized throughout is that of the primacy of user-centered design: structuring a site around the needs and habits of visitors. Larger public and academic libraries supporting design programs should buy in conjunction with Web Redesign: Workflow That Works (New Riders, 2001), a more general how-to guide to site redesign issues.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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