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Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User Experience (Paperback)

~ (Author), Aaron Gustafson (Technical Editor)
Key Phrases: grand public, faceted browse, global navigation area, Home Office, New Riders, University of California (more...)

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Thoroughly rewritten for today's web environment, this bestselling book offers a fresh look at a fundamental topic of web site development: navigation design. Amid all the changes to the Web in the past decade, and all the hype about Web 2.0 and various "rich" interactive technologies, the basic problems of creating a good web navigation system remain. Designing Web Navigation demonstrates that good navigation is not about technology-it's about the ways people find information, and how you guide them. Ideal for beginning to intermediate web designers, managers, other non-designers, and web development pros looking for another perspective, Designing Web Navigation offers basic design principles, development techniques and practical advice, with real-world examples and essential concepts seamlessly folded in. How does your web site serve your business objectives? How does it meet a user's needs? You'll learn that navigation design touches most other aspects of web site development. This book: Provides the foundations of web navigation and offers a framework for navigation design Paints a broad picture of web navigation and basic human information behavior Demonstrates how navigation reflects brand and affects site credibility Helps you understand the problem you're trying to solve before you set out to design Thoroughly reviews the mechanisms and different types of navigation Explores "information scent" and "information shape" Explains "persuasive" architecture and other design concepts Covers special contexts, such as navigation design for web applications Includes an entire chapter on tagging While Designing Web Navigation focuses on creating navigation systems for large, information-rich sites serving a business purpose, the principles and techniques in the book also apply to small sites. Well researched and cited, this book serves as an excellent reference on the topic, as well as a superb teaching guide. Each chapter ends with suggested reading and a set of questions that offer exercises for experiencing the concepts in action.

About the Author

James Kalbach has a degree in library science from Rutgers University, as well as a master's in music theory and composition. He is currently a Human Factors Engineer with LexisNexis and previously served as head of information architecture with Razorfish Germany. He is an active speaker and author on information architecture and usability in Germany, where he helped co-found an IA community.

Product Details

Paperback: 456 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; illustrated edition edition (August 15, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0596528108
ISBN-13: 978-0596528102
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #76,775 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

#17 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Microsoft > Web Browsers
#29 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Home Computing > Internet > Web Browsers
#62 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Graphic Design > Website Architecture & Usability

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Inside This Book (learn more)

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
grand public, faceted browse, global navigation area, primary user research, rich web applications, web navigation design, main navigation options, associative navigation, social tagging systems, evaluating navigation, persuasive architecture, paging navigation, utility navigation, navigation labels, contextual navigation, tagged resources, canned searches, navigational pages, banner blindness, facet categories, tagging service, functional pages, structural navigation, local navigation, clever labels

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Home Office, New Riders, University of California, Usability News, Jared Spool, Morgan Kaufmann, The Vocabulary Problem, Main Course, Google Docs, Smith Robert, Marti Hearst, Using the Web, Edward Tufte, David Danielson, Xxxxx Xxxxxx, Smith Richard, Alan Cooper, Digital Web Magazine, Very Good, Second Edition, David Brittan, Donna Maurer, Human-System Communication, Communicating Design, List Apart

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	53% buy the item featured on this page: Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User Experience 4.4 out of 5 stars (18) $31.49
	17% buy Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions 4.5 out of 5 stars (12) $31.49
	11% buy Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites 4.0 out of 5 stars (108) $26.39
	11% buy Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition 4.7 out of 5 stars (491) $26.40

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Customer Reviews

18 Reviews

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4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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4.4 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews)

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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rings True, September 18, 2007

By	Brett Merkey (Palm Harbor, FL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

�
The title of this book does tend to focus things, doesn't it? A book totally dedicated to working out navigation challenges in Web products means that it is destined to be a one-stop keeper on your shelf. If you work in any capacity on Web front-ends, navigation is often the issue of issues, the source of stimulating and heated team discussions. This book won't end those discussions but the information in it will certainly add calm perspective to them.

_Designing Web Navigation_ seems to have it all in one place, including practice discussion at the end of each chapter and further reading recommendations. The amount of information is impressive. There is not a page without a visual aid of some sort. I certainly like having lots of screenshots of real sites with the commentary of the author.

I also like the practical knowledge of the author which informs his writing -- he emphasizes the variability of the rules in the complex contexts we Web workers tend to work in. Note, for instance, how differently he approaches Amazon's tabbed navigation from how usability guru Jakob Nielsen writes of them. Nielsen never passes up an opportunity to exclaim what is wrong wrong wrong about Amazon's tabs. Kalbach, instead, explains the motivation behind each passing stage in the evolution of those same tabs, giving the dynamic context. This rings true for those of us with daily working knowledge in constructing user interfaces.

I was a bit disappointed that the book did not have more on the specific problems of designing Web *applications* instead of conventional Web sites. However, the book is written is such a way that this is not a problem. The advice and arguments on p.236 "Don't start by designing the navigation on the home page" encapsulates quite well something I have learned working on agile development teams over the years.

I had a few problems with the readability of this book. Page numbers look like squished gnats and all paragraph sub-headings were a pretty but painful light blue. The extremely large line-height weakened the separation of paragraphs.

As I mentioned, this book is chock full of the right material that belongs on your shelf for when you need it...and you will.
�

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Foundation Resource, September 6, 2007

By	Susan Prosser (Gilbert, AZ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This handsome volume will help web designers learn how to analyze their business needs and translate them into a workable navigation system for their users. Unlike some other design books, James Kalbach doesn't shove his own design principals down the reader's throat. Instead, he cites use cases and usability studies that will help readers figure out which design approach will best suit their needs.

Lots of screenshots from well-known websites, great layout and good organization make the book a pleasure to read. The book starts by explaining general principles, so even if you're new to the concept of interaction design, you'll quickly get up to speed. More advanced readers could skim the first chapters, and plunge in later, where they'll learn things like visual logic and information design. Each chapter ends with a good summary, thought-provoking questions that either reinforce or expand on the chapter's topics, and suggestions for further reading. Note: I do have one quibble with the layout. The page numbers are so small it made my eyes hurt. But everything else about the book's design is inviting and useful.

Caution, though, this is not a coding book. You won't learn how to make pop-up menus or write clean CSS. It's meant to help readers learn how to make decisions about the look and feel of a website. Even though the book is focused on web navigation, "regular" software designers will benefit, too, since so much interaction design is driven by users' expectations that all software should work like the web.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good summary on web navigation , February 10, 2008

By	G�cza Zolt�n K�roly (Budapest, Hungary) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an exhaustive book that summarizes a lot of aspects of website navigation. I recommend it mostly to information architects of bigger websites. It is more detailed on navigation than the Polar Bear book (Information Architecture for the World Wide Web), though I still find that book the absolute handbook on the topic.

The book consists of three parts:
The first part is about common user behaviours, types of navigation systems, labeling, etc. This part summarizes a lot of things you probably know but maybe it is not as structured in your head as the author makes it.

In the second part, the author presents a framework on how to design web navigation. From the evaluation to the actual visual layout of the navigation system, all relevant phases are discussed with examples.

The third part is about special navigation: search, social tagging and RIAs. A good intro to the topics with some interface patterns.

The book has a lot of screenshots that are quite current. Some chapters are quite self-explaining (ie. what are tag clouds, or what types of pages there are) but that is normal for a book that aims to be a baedeker for all things related to the topic.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for web designers
James Kalbach, writing on behalf O'Reilly Media, presents a strategic, consumer-driven approach to web navigation in his book, Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User... Read more

Published 27 days ago by A. Musselman

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read hands-on usability book
This book IS what is trying to explain. A great web-usability book from the navigation point of view (quite an important one btw! Read more

Published 7 months ago by Gaston Draque

4.0 out of 5 stars Good
This book was very informative. I received the book just in time for my class.

Published 9 months ago by Debonaire

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid and thorough
This is a helpful resource for new and experienced designers, though it is not groundbreaking. It's more of a compendium of approaches. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Weston Thompson

4.0 out of 5 stars Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User Experience
This book provides a great overview of basic navigation concepts (such as "berry picking"), navigation artifacts (menus, tabs, bars, text links etc) and usability research done in... Read more

Published 15 months ago by Eric Jain

5.0 out of 5 stars Your users will thank you for reading this...
The ability to navigate a web site can make or break your user's experience. I learned far more than I thought even existed in the book Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Thomas Duff

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Colorful and Insightful Resource
In today's day and age where the Internet is a part of our everyday life, there has never been a time more appropriate now then to have really good navigation on your or your... Read more

Published 18 months ago by Kyle D. Hayes

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad design, light on content.
This book is shockingly below O'Reilly's usual design and quality standards. It's full of pointless little 'design'-elements, such as lines, colored backgrounds and entirely... Read more

Published 19 months ago by Rodrigo Culagovski Rubio

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource For Web Designers
'Designing Web Navigation: Optimizing the User Experience' is a great resource for web designers and developers that are looking to create and/or improve web navigation for new or... Read more

Published 19 months ago by Daniel McKinnon

4.0 out of 5 stars These books aren't written in Dutch
Superb overview of all the aspects of navigationdesign. Well structured with superb colour pictures of recent websites. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Cam Oving Kuijt

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