Customer Reviews

Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Sociability

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I turned to this book looking for (a) ideas to improve my own online community (photo.net), and (b) ideas to teach to my students at MIT. I was disappointed on both counts. Preece has a long section on online education but misses a main advantage: new opportunities for people to teach (the offline world already has a lot of opportunities for learning at any time of day or night). Preece talks about what she calls "technology". The mention of VRML in a book published in 2000 will please nostalgia buffs. But there is no discussion of the role of the relational database management system. Preece uncritically quotes various scholars of the female experience online, dwelling on the alleged fact that revealing oneself to be a woman is a passport to ill treatment (in fact, our experience on photo.net is that women who ask questions are answered more promptly and treated more gently if they violate community norms such as "search before you post").

You'll learn a lot more from surfing the Web site of Amitai Etzioni, the world's leading offline communitarian sociologist, than from reading this book.

This extremely well documented book brings readers up to date with all we know about online communities (except for their economics). Preece's concept of community-centered design takes a big step toward bringing systemization and structure to the free wheeling world of online development. Business people will find many helpful "how to" guides, techniques and examples for community needs analysis, design, testing, monitoring and evaluation. Academics will relish her study documentation, references, articulation of continuing issues and recommendations for further reading. Students can learn much from the well documented case studies of several different online community applications.

I thought this book was GREAT! Sure, it's dated, but every book about the Internet dates quickly. That's because the Internet is growing and changing faster than the book publishing business can publish a book.

The author takes us through many aspects of community building and group dynamics point-by-point. I had to take notes, I found it so useful. Ideas are taken from sociology and applied to the Internet. Dry in parts, yes, but very useful as far as clarifying one's ideas about online communities.

As the manager of a small women's community online, I found this book very useful. Much more practical than Amy Jo Kim's similar book, which mainly focuses on the monster-sized for-profit communities.

The ideas in this book can be applied to any size online community. It's clear thinking will help you understand participant/leader roles in order to delegate responsibility. There are also wonderful hints for keeping a community thriving and successful.

As a graduate student in HCI, I found this book to be a travesty. The author did not do her homework when preparing this text, many of her statements were either dated or just incorrect. Professor Preece also has a tendancy for making broad sweeping statements that are for the most part unsupported and questionable.

This does not mean the text is completely without use. As a framework for a text on online communities the design of the book is good. Several of the further readings are also worthy of examination.

The text is recommended for graduate use. It is much more appropriate for the advanced high school or an introduction to online communites at the undergraduate level.

I believe there can and will be a book on online communities with substance and meaning. This book is not it.

Jenny Preece's book thoughtfully links social interaction with interface design. Too many online ghost towns result from those who don't grasp the linkage and the importance of both aspects. Online community developers need to be aware of the impact of interface decisions, such as the simplicity of the login process or the ease in searching for background info on participants, on the effectiveness of a medical support group.

This book also builds an important bridge between theory and practice. For example, network theory from sociology suggests who should be participants in an online community and common ground theory from psychology is linked to interface design decisions.

While some wide-eyed technology promoters believe that immersive environments are the ultimate goal, Jenny Preece makes a compelling case that asynchronous environments can produce higher levels of engagement and empathic support.

Her broad review with references are thorough and help readers see the emergence of a new discipline. This will be appreciated by established researchers and developers and a useful guide to novices and students.

This is by far the best book out there on online communities. Not only does Jenny address the most needed topic on online communities, usabaility, but offers explainations and concerns for running online communities in the business corporation, as opposed to the majority of online community books relating to internet or gaming communities.

I have deeply benefited from this book and recommend it for anyone interested in managing or an online community or laying out an online community strategy.

Jenny Preece's new book addresses what is one of the most important considerations in the spread of Internet use (or intranet, for that matter), and that's usability -- a necessary, fundamental adjunct to the function of being able to connect together successfully through this medium. Sites and activities with poor usability will vanish from the scene as people find other places and activities easier to use. Developers beware, and students take note! We have convinced those who are eager to adopt new technologies because they are interested in them. Now we need to entice with those who just want it simple, straightforward and helpful or fun as a phone call to friends. This book abounds in techniques for achieving that.

The internet has changed a lot since this was written but it is still a good book on the basic concepts of Online Communities. I'm not sure if there is a better resource out there yet. I would hope the author would write another version to keep it up-to-date.

In Online Communities, Jenny Preece offers an excellent framework for considering how to design, work in, play in or just muse about the new world of communities "out there" on the internet. There are many people teaching and learning in this area now - the book is most timely and offers ideas for designers and researchers and a valuable approach to teaching and learning. Her section on community-centred development is a key part of the book along with her emphasis on usability and sociability. These concepts, especially that of sociability, offer her continuing research results to beginners and longer-term researchers and developers. The book is comprehensive in the way it covers many important topics. It is valuable for designers and developers and also offers considerable resource material though its web site. Use it! I already use Jenny Preece's book (written with others) on Human-Computer Interaction for teaching that subject. Her new book extends her support for the design and academic community in a significant way. My students have been using this book since it arrived at our bookshop at the University of Canberra (September 2000)- I can tell you they really appreciate it, of course because they are designing online communities.

I found this book a great combination of concepts and practical ideas that I know will have a great impact on my work as an online teacher and researcher. I especially appreciate the absolute focus on the interaction between people and how to achieve it (as opposed to person:computer). To me, it puts as all at the heart of what the Internet IS and what it will be. There's something for everyone from commercial to not-for-profit contexts of all kinds. Gilly Salmon.