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Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter) [Paperback]

Dan M. Brown
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Book Description

September 25, 2010 0321712463 978-0321712462 2

Successful web design teams depend on clear communication between developers and their clients—and among members of the development team. Wireframes, site maps, flow charts, and other design diagrams establish a common language so designers and project teams can capture ideas, track progress, and keep their stakeholders informed.

 

In this all new edition of Communicating Design, author and information architect Dan Brown defines and describes each deliverable, then offers practical advice for creating the documents and using them in the context of teamwork and presentations, independent of methodology. Whatever processes, tools, or approaches you use, this book will help you improve the creation and presentation of your wireframes, site maps, flow charts, and other deliverables.

 

The book now features:

 

  • An improved structure comprising two main sections: Design Diagrams and Design Deliverables. The first focuses on the nuts and bolts of design documentation and the second explains how to pull it all together.
  •  New deliverable: design briefs, as well as updated advice on wireframes, flow charts, and concept models.
  •  More illustrations, to help designers understand the subtle variations and approaches to creating design diagrams.
  • Reader exercises, for those lonely nights when all you really want to do is practice creating wireframes, or for use in workshops and classes.
  • Contributions from industry leaders: Tamara Adlin, Stephen Anderson, Dana Chisnell, Nathan Curtis, Chris Fahey, James Melzer, Steve Mulder, Donna Spencer, and Russ Unger.

 

“As an educator, I have looked to Communicating Design both as a formal textbook and an informal guide for its design systems that ultimately make our ideas possible and the complex clear.”

—Liz Danzico, from the Foreword


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Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning (2nd Edition) (Voices That Matter) + Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover



Product Details

  • Paperback: 312 pages
  • Publisher: New Riders; 2 edition (September 25, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0321712463
  • ISBN-13: 978-0321712462
  • Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 0.7 x 11 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
(7)
4.1 out of 5 stars
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Second Edition is Even Better! December 9, 2010
By Amelia
Format:Paperback
A great update to the first edition, which was a classic. This belongs in the reference library of every web and user experience designer. Although Dan Brown clearly wrote this with web designers from the IA/UX persuasion in mind, there's guidance throughout that can be leveraged by those from other design and creative disciplines that need to communicate their work to various audiences.

For me, that's the secret sauce that makes this book so valuable. Besides the excellent information (and more illustrations) on structure and tools for creating effective communications, it provides guidance on when and how to frame and use different types of communications (deliverables or diagrams) to facilitate discussions, work with stakeholders, clients, and other contributors, and enable projects to move forward. If you work with clients or stakeholders (what designer doesn't?), this book will help you be more successful.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful in all ways! November 22, 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
OK, I'm biased, but I love this book. Dan did such a great job creating a book that you actually WANT to come back to time and again. If you're like me, you probably have lots of books on your shelf, and they look nice up there, but you may not take them down and actually use them very much. This book might not look as nice on your shelf, because you'll use it so much that it will get beat up. Which is a good thing.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Creative Manager April 17, 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book was a great resource in giving best practices of how to display complicated UX ideas and design. The cherry on top was that each design section also comes with suggestions on how to run a client through a meeting using the tools referenced.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars How to communicate your ideas April 16, 2012
By Joeb
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I purchased this book because I needed it for school. I haven't had any trouble reading it and there are a lot of good and helpful ideas within.
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Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Communicating Design Second Edition by Dan M. Brown is a delightful read--one especially suited for those taking Web programming courses or wanting to learn the inside strategies on Web site design/programming preparation.

The book starts off by covering the fundamentals of wireframes, personas, site maps, concept models, and flowcharts. These components of the book are not only technical in a how-to format, but also practical in a business sense. In fact, Dan Brown makes a point of stressing how to negotiate these "deliverables" in business meetings, in essence preparing the reader for a career in design strategies.

The second part of the book not only emphasizes how to format the products (i.e., wireframes, personas, etc) into professional deliverables through providing structure for the reports, but also delves into competitive reviews, usability plans, and usability reports. Of most interest to me was the competitive review, as it helped establish the framework (including site map) of a site I'm about to build. One easily overlooked shortcoming of the book is that it doesn't spend the time on research strategies, such as focus groups and interviews that the book A Project Guide To UX Design by Russ Unger does. However, Communicating Design exceeds many other books in its elaboration on the personas, wireframes, site maps, flow carts, etc.--the actual deliverables.

Although the book doesn't delve into how to create the deliverables in different software programs (it only mentions a few of the usable programs like Illustrator and Microsoft Visio, for instance), one can go to Lynda.com for a month-to-month membership and access tutorials on these components.
... Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 stars Good content lost in poor style October 13, 2011
Format:Paperback
As some other reviewers have pointed out this book is best suited to those who are interested in managing the project as well as actually doing the design job. I can see how from his perspective this book does not agree with some designers, who care very little about how to set-up meetings to discuss design deliverables, and just want get their primary job done. However, as a product manager, I found this part interesting.
What is really bothering me is the style of the author's writing. Overcomplicated long phrasings mixed with out-of-place comments (or are those jokes?) about author's hobbies... sometimes I feel I am reading a blog not a book, it's a waste of time.
I would suggest that for the 3rd edition the author teams up with a good editor who would help him phrase his thoughts more laconically, and remove all the noise from the book. Until then, if you are considering buying this book, I suggest you keep looking (unless you have lots of free time).
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2 of 9 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Not really useful for Web Designers November 8, 2010
By akh2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is more meant for project managers and not for web designers/developers. I also find it over priced since it's printed in black and white.
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Example of web design deliverable documents and templates
on the book blog it says that they are not available but he would like other people to make them... I'm pretty disappointed that they are not up after over a year.
Jun 4, 2008 by D. Toop |  See all 2 posts
Documentation
P. Alberts:
In a word, definitely. Communicating Design looks at preparing various documents for several different kinds of audience, and provides insight on how to tailor the deliverables to those audiences. Each chapter in Communicating Design includes a section on presenting and using the... Read more
Feb 23, 2007 by Dan Brown |  See all 2 posts
Author ready, willing, and able to answer your questions
Hi Dan,
I've read through the description that you posted, but wanted to make sure this is the book I'm looking for. Im not a programmer myself, nor is my day job designing web sites, but I'm working on a site idea right now. My goal is to put the idea into writing (which is why the title of... Read more
Jan 1, 2007 by A. Shibli |  See all 13 posts
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