37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Book or brochure?, May 31, 2005
I find it difficult to believe so many people liked this book:
The author starts off with 'bad' examples that admittedly have been made on many websites, but are really to obvious to put in a book of which the author is claimed to have 'inimitable wisdom' (back cover).
Then, towards the end, more examples of 'good' design are given, and most of these did not impress me at all. At some point I even got the feeling this was some sort of brochure (given its size, you can hardly call it a book) written to advertise the websites of Godin's friends and clients.
The enormous amount of research the author must have done is nicely summarized in this quote from page 105: 'Find the sites on the web that are working and copy their organization.'
If you're looking for a good book on this subject, look up Steve Krug or Jakob Nielsen.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Appealing Concept, June 9, 2003
Author of several brisk, witty, and informative business books, Seth Godin has a unique gift for locking in on a core concept and then explaining why and how it can guide and inform thinking about an important business issue. In this volume, he focuses on "how to make any Web site better." His dual metaphors explain the meaning and significance of the title. Preferring a marketer's version of a Web site to that of an engineer, he suggests that "One of the best ways to remind yourself about what's really going on [when someone visits a Web site] is to think of a monkey in a big red fez...The best way to motivate the monkey [to take a desired action], of course, is to use a banana. Whenever a monkey walks into a new situation, all it wants to know is, 'Where's the banana?' If the banana isn't easy to see, easy to get and obvious, the monkey is going to lose interest. But if you can make it clear to the monkey what's in it for him, odds are he'll do what you want." Obviously, the monkey is the Web site visitor and the banana is the incentive mechanism.
Godin uses a number of different real-world Web sites to illustrate what is and is not effective; he also explains why. (Presumably many of those responsible for the ineffective Web sites have read this book and made the necessary revisions since it first appeared about 18 months ago.) One of the book's most interesting points concerns the quite different mentalities of the engineer and the marketer. The former assumes that smart people have plenty of time, know precisely what they want from their online surfing, and can make a considered decision if provided with sufficient data. In stunning contrast, the marketer assumes that people are busy, ill informed, impatient, not very thoughtful and eager to click on to something RIGHT NOW. The marketer also believes that if you don't give the visitor the right object (or objective) to click on to immediately, the visitor will hit the "Back" button and leave.
I presume to add another difference: I think that most visually complicated Web sites resemble the front page of the U.S.A. Today newspaper (especially the Friday/Saturday/Sunday edition) whereas the most effective Web sites resemble the most effective billboards along a highway. Percentages vary but research studies suggest that online surfers spend about 90% of their time visiting the same ten Web sites Also, that after a unsatisfying experience, the percentage is even higher; that is, approximately 95% of online surfers never return to that Web site.
One substantial benefit this book provides which I did not anticipate when I began to read it is that the same principles which Godin recommends to increase a Web site's effectiveness are also relevant to the design of marketing and sales collateral materials such as direct mail solicitations and printed brochures. Because of the immense clutter through which messages of various kinds struggle to reach their destination, and because this clutter is certain to become even greater, Godin's concept of what he calls a "purple cow" (explained in a book of the same name) has compelling importance: become and then remain remarkable for as long as possible. Web sites, letterhead, business cards, products, services...indeed contact and communication in any form...must attract and reward attention or are certain to fail. Period.
Those who are responsible for Web sites or who heavily depend on Web sites to help achieve their business objectives are strongly urged to check out all of those which Godin features in his book. Also be alert to various lists of award-winning Web sites, especially those selected by online surfers rather than by technicians. For example, the finalists in competition for the 1st Annual Web Site Award sponsored by WIRED magazine.
One final point: This year's Purple Cow may well be a Plaid Kangaroo in 2004.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Big Red Herring, September 16, 2006
Let me first say that I'm a huge fan of Seth Godin. That being said, this is not one of Seth's better works. A better title might have been: The Big Red Herring: A few of my web page pet peeves.
Here's how the book breaks down. There are a total of 111 pages. There are 46 mini-critiques which are comprised of one page with a single B&W screenshot of a webpage or email and a facing page explaining what you're looking at. These pages are usually only about 3 - 4 paragraphs (half the page). Of the 46 mini-critiques, 7 are about emails. This leaves 39 mini-critiques about actual websites.
I think that for the money we should have had at least a few of the screenshots in color, particularly the one where Seth tells us that the buttons are the wrong color, but doesn't mention what color they are. We don't know, we're looking at a B&W picture.
There are only about 13 unique insights. So each insight is repeated an average of 3 times. In the book Seth himself says, "Redundancy is often the enemy of a great web experience". Well, ditto for the book experience.
The first web site listed on Seth's recommended site list is the book's. You'll find that the only content on the web site is directed toward selling you the book that you're already holding. There are no extra web site critiques or examples. What's the point? As Seth himself would say, "Where's the banana?"
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