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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Learn from examples, September 4, 2003
This review is from: Designing Websites for Every Audience (Paperback)
Many people learn by example. When reading documentation explaining the features of functionality, it doesn't always make sense until seeing it in action. For instance, in CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) font type is explained as: {
font-family: <font face>
} That isn't going to make much sense to many of you even if you know CSS. What if I gave you an example of: {
font-family: verdana, arial, georgia, sans-serif;
} Obviously, the <font face> is represented by the font names separated by commas with the first font taking priority. If the user's computer doesn't have verdana, then it tries arial and so on until it finds a font loaded on the user's computer. Designing Websites for Every Audience starts with a chapter on usability with a focus on understanding users and the principles of usability. That's the only lecture of the book and the rest is case studies. The book has 25 case studies sorted by user goals, which include learners, shoppers, connection-seekers, transactors, business browsers, and fun-seekers. Each case study covers the old site and the transition to the new design. Essentially, a before and after, which is popular these days with interior design TV programs. The case study pages are easy to scan. Every one has the company information, site information, users with their goals and tasks, goals of the redesign, and pictures. Benum uses a variety of Web sites for the case studies and discusses the problems with the old design. Then, she analyzes the new design explaining the common traps that have been disposed of and the action taken to improve the user experience. The book is beautifully colored including color screenshots of the designs. This is a good and a bad thing. Some of the side notes have a color background with black font making it hard to read, but this is the only negative thing in the book after all it impacts the usability of reading the book. We have plenty of excellent books on how to improve the user experience when designing Web pages, but there are few that guide you through actual examples. Any Web designer who learns by example will want this one on the desk for referencing when working on a redesign.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Introducing Designers to Web-Design Issues, September 9, 2003
This review is from: Designing Websites for Every Audience (Paperback)
First of all let it be said that this clearly IS an attractive, creatively designed book. Judging from the reviews (below) it has a lot of appeal for professional designers. Keep in mind that it is NOT primarily a technology how-to book. And yet there ARE some helpful clues to get a designer-new-to-web thinking about issues of how to implement pleasing, effective web sites: what is "Flash"? a "blog"? CSS? (cascading style sheets) ...there are "browser compatibility" issues? But once you've been alerted to some of these technology quandries you'll quickly need to turn to further education elsewhere. Fortunately, Benun has a nice selection of sites, forums, and publications listed at the back for your reference. If you are already well-versed in the technologies of the web, you may find that you can learn most of what Benun offers through a cursory scanning at the library. Certainly the sites (25 of them) discussed here are NOT analyzed "in depth" -- the book is only 144pp after all. Offering a new way to think about the TYPE of audience(s) for which a site is designed is a nice contribution on Benun's part (see elaboration in others' reviews). If you are just beginning your design enterprise you may be upset to have laid out this much money for just a few starting ideas. For economy's sake you may want to browse a wide selection (and it is wide) at a library or book shop.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One for every web designer's/developer's library, May 5, 2003
This review is from: Designing Websites for Every Audience (Paperback)
I consider myself a print designer. But, over the past couple of years, website design has grown to account for almost 50% of my business' revenue. So, I guess it may be time to change the way I see myself. During that transition, I learned that web work demands a different approach. Sure, print and web design share a lot of stuff. Typography, images, concept and layout among other things. The difference lies in how people use it. Print tends to be static. As such, folks often take their time mulling over the material. The web is a load more dynamic. People want and expect ease-of-use, instant information, intuitive navigation and aesthetics with functionality. If you're like me, you've found that many of the rules you were taught in art school don't all together apply to the web. That's where Ilise Benun's new book, Designing Websites://For Every Audience comes in real handy. This little tome is jam-packed with great info about usability, form, function and resources. It's found a comfy home on the table next to my Mac. You've all seen design books out there that promise the world, but don*t teach you anything you can use in real life. You've likely shelled out your fair of moolah only to be disappointed. Designing Websites://For Every Audience delivers the goods and is worth every penny (or currency du jour). Ilise starts off by addressing usability Ð what it is and why it's important. The nice thing is her approach. It's not a boring dictate of rules, but more of a discussion with comments from real-world designers and usability experts. The pages that follow contain a wealth of great information about what works and what doesn't along with all the whys. She writes about research and audience profiling, understanding memory, audience demographics and more. Perhaps the biggest point she makes is that the audience isn't just faceless "users," they*re people. They're your mother, father, siblings, neighbors and co-workers. We need to see the audience as such and not simply nebulous "clicks" and stats on our site logs. Beyond that, she distills web audiences down into six groups: learners; shoppers; connection seekers; transactors; business browsers and fun seekers. I found this very valuable in understanding what folks want and need during their visits to sites. The chapters begin with a typical audience profile that features their demographic, web habits, preferences and pet peeves. When you get into a site design, it can be easy to stray from the path if you're not careful. These profiles are a great way to keep you on the straight and narrow. They also serve as a good start when developing a typical audience profile for your web projects. Each audience group section contains case studies that go into great detail about the hows and whys of the design. For instance, the "Learners" section covers a wide span of topics: The Organization; The Site; The Users and Their Goals; Goals of the Redesign; Navigation and Typography. The words come straight from the horses' mouths - the client, the designer/developer and the audience. No guessing games here. The information is presented in a clear, digestible manner from the people in-the-know. Ilise sums up with featured site URLs and a page of additional resources that include web sites, books, organizations, forums and blogs, magazines and a list of the design and consulting firms featured within the book. All in all, a very thorough job. This one*s a mandatory addition to any web designer*s library. Good beat. Easy to dance to. I give it a 9 out 10. Neil Tortorella
Tortorella Design
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