Customer Reviews

Creating Killer Interactive Web Sites: The Art of Integrating Interactivity and Design

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Well for a computer book on web design that touts this great web site to get examples and download scripts, it would be nice if the site was kept up. Not worth the money, and I for one would never recommend the book to anyone.

This book constantly refers to scripts available at their companion website. At the website all you will find is an inadequate excuse for why the scripts aren't there. Without the scripts the book is nothing more than useless theory that can't be put into practice.

Save your money and buy a book that includes a companion CD-ROM rather than empty promises of a companion website.

Web Design is more than good design. Good design is necessarybut not sufficient. It needs to be complemented by clever design. Thisis the point that gets driven home by the book from Adjacency. And funnily enough, its not just talk - all the concepts are tried and tested. It is refreshingly different to read a "how to" book that gets down from the pulpit of painful platitudes and makes a big deal about techniques and tricks that really work. Not to short circuit great design, but to augment it, for a medium that is bursting out of its technological seams for the last three years.

Conquering the trade off between high graphics and high download speeds, making pictures bleed off the page without scrolling, how to design for the 640-480 monitor as well as the 800-600 monitor (a personal favourite) - these are some of the magic tricks that the book shares. In addition, the attention paid to site management, updating, information design and branding, are eye-openers to web designers overly preoccupied with the interface design.

The profile of the authors is really where the book takes off. Pascal (love the name!), who can't figure out whether he's a designer or a programmer. And Andrew Sather, with training in graphic design, creative writing and art history, there's always enough in the book to suggest a level of thinking that requires the burst of brilliance made possible by the synergy of distinct disciplines. Proving once again that the web is really the Wild West for interdisciplinary cowboys.

Take the issue of branding. The book suggests the creation of a brand board - a practice not uncommon in real-life branding and communication exercises. The idea is to create a set of visuals, images, words and actually create a collage that is used by the design people. Further, there is also a clear need to develop a user profile (beyond saying NRI or all Indians). The user profile needs to get into psychographics, demographics and technographics. The last refers both to the kind of comp! uting infrastructure and access to the net, browser preferences, screen resolution and the like, as well as their attitude to technology, information and browsing habits.

A particularly interesting technique to handle mutiple browsers, for example, is to use large images with transparent GIFs and hypertext. The background image can be a JPEG, which will exactly fit a 600-800 screen. But the text and the foreground are all designed to fit the 640-480 screen. The bottom and right end of the image, therefore, are areas which are not always seen and serve primarily to present a complete picture. The compression can be increased in this area, so that the overall file size stays small. Clearly, there is no reason to succumb to the trade-off between rich images and download times. Instead there must always be a push to break the trade-off to achieve both. It is this thinking which, more than anything else is the signature of "Creating Killer Interactive Web Sites".

The authors don't stop at design, they highlight the need to stay in touch with the client after the launch. Quarterly reviews of competing sites and updates on technology are some of the things that you can do to promote the relationship and elevate it to a new plane. The site launch has not been ignored either. A site needs to be launched with some fanfare. A press conference, an event, a competition or an on line event are some of the things that you can do to promote the site at launch. The drama of unveiling the site has a certain power that makes the site larger than life.

This is another good idea that has actually been implemented. Using the web itself should be a natural corollary while talking about it. After all, as the final chapter in the book says, "A web Site Manager's work is never done. For a great web site to remain viable, it must grow and evolve visually, editorially, functionally and technologically. Your site must at a minimum, stay abreast of devel! opments in your business. Ideally, you will continually evaluate your site's effectiveness vis-à-vis your business objectives and its usefulnesxs from the point of view of the user."

For the record... As the author of "Creating Killer Web Sites," I've been asked if I had anything to do with this book. I did not. I am sorry for the confusion with the titles -- it's our publishers' decision. Titles are not protected by copyright -- I encourage people to make book-buying decisions based on content, not titles.

Giving an overview of essential web-site design proceedures, Creating... shows how customer driven research and objectives come together to make sites that are intelligent and engaging. A book for those who want to create, pitch and sell. The psychology of web based marketing. Its where we're all headed.

This book is simply brilliant. It is quite frankly the business methodology of one of the foremost digital communications groups in the world to-day. (And I am surprised that they have gone into such detail.) The authors have, in my view, wisely avoided the pitfalls of discussing the technology, and concentrated on the communication. Although IT gurus may find it superficial, those interested in communications will find it biblical. Disregard the few who complain of a company boasting of its abilities; the book is not pretending to be anything other than a "How-we-do-it" explanation by the guys from Adjacency. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence will understand the context in which it is written and I found no statement suggesting that this is the only way. If you aspire to creating the most effective digital communications you can, you must buy this book, whatever it costs, for within you will find information that is priceless.

It was a good informational book, but also a ripoff for forty dollars. If the book was lowered to about, maybe Ten to twenty dollars, i think it would increase the company sales, but it helped me alot to create my own webpage

Although I found some decent information in both the organization and construction processes of web interactivity, I also discovered how much effort it took to sort the details. There were too many examples cluttering the flow of information. Definitely not worth the price.

My book on html and javascript was more helpful on interactivity. This book seems to demark a line between people who can "just do it" and those who need a board room, 10 people, and six meetings in order to figure out where the best place to stick the navigation bar might be. Those already trained in color theory, minor marketing ideas, and are up-to-the minute with html and other web languages/programs such as Javacript and Flash can skip it. Something about executives copying "cool" style leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Those with confidence enough to think for themselves should do so.

The number of published design books keeps growing but the number of quality ones remains constant. This books contains little information that couldn't be gleamed from visiting the author's sites. Worst of all the interacive portion of the book is tiny and vague. The book itself is 'designed' beaitfully, in brightly colored pages in a layout ala wired, but it offers nothing in the way of interactive web design.