Customer Reviews

Return on Design: Smarter Web Design That Works

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I'm working on a re=design of a non-profit site and had expected this book (based on the title) to give me some real-world design advice. Instead, the book focuses on the design PROCESS itself. Things like knowing who your users / customers are and what they need from your site, getting buy-in from the site owners, prototyping, testing, etc. And even then the amount of real "take-away" information is scant (in my opinion). I had used another book (The Design of Sites - highly recommend) and must have bookmarked (the old fashioned way) 100 or more pages. On Ms. Phyo's book I found only 6 pages to be valuable (to me). If you're in the market to set up a web design team or business, this is a good book. If you're looking for decent web design help, look elsewhere. My 2-cents.

I have to admit I had some skepticism about this book when I read the title. Don't let that stop you from picking up a copy. Ani Payo's engaging content is far from the kind you would hear at a typical marketing seminar. The book starts out defining a new process for creating sites, a workflow if you will. From there you hit the ground running. Topics that are covered range from defining the difference between print collateral content and web content, to the difference between designing for a product and designing for those that use the product. Every page of this book is packed with information that can help you create a successful site that not only meets the business objectives, but surpasses them by explaining how to get the most out of the site once it's up and before the next redesign or enhancement is added. It clearly explains every aspect of the task involved with creating a site from information design to usability engineering. If you could put the top 20 most successful sites along side of each other and take the one most effective characteristic of each site and put it within the confines of a book chapter you would have Ani Phyo's Return on Design. This book defines what it takes to create a good and successful web site. I would recommend this book to any web professional from armatures to seasoned experts.

If you ever wanted a 7-step recipe for designing applications for Web delivery, this is the book for you. I appreciate the time and money I am saving on my current Web project by following a tested process that really works.
Regardless if you are responsible for site management, defining system requirements, Web content development, visual design, back-end programming, or usability testing of Web-delivered applications, following this process is both cost effective and fun. Return on Design is a gourmet meal consisting of step-by-step procedures, supportive examples, visuals, resources, and a consistent information design approach, which all serve to differentiate this Web design book from the others.
The bottom line is: do you want your site to be revenue generating? Your chances for success are better if you follow a user-centered design "recipe" for success.

This book is great for anyone interested in creating a successful, professional looking USER-ORIENTED websites. It outlines a clear seven step process from beginning to end in a straightforward and easy to understand language and there are plenty of graphics to help readers visualize the concepts. She really makes professional looking websites attainable for everyone. What I especially liked about this book was that it was very comprehensive thus allowing individuals to access as little or as much information depending on their level of knowledge. In sum, this book is highly recommended for anyone whose goal is to create a website that will be user friendly and accessed over and over again!!

Ani's book is the first time that I've really seen someone step back and put together all the pieces to create a step-by-step approach to building web sites that really work. The problem that I've seen over and over again is that books on web design tend to approach the subject from a single angle from the perspective of a visual designer, a technologist, a user interface designer or a marketing person. This book defines the correct role for all participants and shows how web sites need to meet everyone's goal so that they look good, serve the user and fulfill the business objectives that brought them into existence in the first place.

The message is more relevant than ever. Although the term "user centered design" seems to have been around forever I still encounter sites all the time that seem to have been designed to feed their creator's egos rather than assist me in finding the information I need. What I really like about this book is the clear series of steps which is so much better than the typical leaps and half steps back which is too often the reality of different players attempting to work together on a web project. I particularly like the concept of "user scenarios", something that is typically skipped in favor of preconceived notions of what the user needs but is in fact an extremely valuable and instructive step.

Ani, way to go! Great book and really needed in todays' market. No one knows better the need to focus on the basics of design more than someone that has their own company. Except maybe someone trying to kep their job in difficult time.

This book will help anyone understand and develop their own methodology and production processes that clients are looking for. User-centered design has always helped me land clients and keep visitors happy and Ani's proven examples will give you direction and insight into what's working out there.

If you don't have a lot of time to spend on learning information, interaction and usability, this book wraps it all up in a nutshell. I especially liked the endless feedback loops described in the book. Afterall, the second job with the client is what keeps the money coming in. :)

If you know me, you know I'm all about the money and this book helps you make money. More money = more surfing, right?

aloha,
-Brent

This book distills the best practices for designing Web sites to meet agreed-on goals. This book gives readers guidance on how to make high-level decisions needed to achieve a successful Web design or redesign. It gives 7 steps to be done in order to define a site and implement the design.

The author compares Web design with other design projects, such as software design. People think of Web site design as artistic and creative, but imagine if a software company assigned a team to create an application with no precise guidelines early on, no feedback along the way. There's no way the finished product will meet any vaguely-defined objectives. The author convincingly demonstrates that there are repeatable steps that are essential for Web design also.

The book is filled with practical, hard-won advice undoubtedly won over many projects for many types of organizations. There are anecdotes that will help you spot "red flags" and myriad questions to ask at each phase and ways of gleaning what needs to change for redesigning a site and forms and wireframe examples and techniques on how to test and refine a design. There was an interesting story about how the author found what was most lacking to a site's users. This information could have been available to anyone who knew how to find out what users really thought, but was obviously not recognized by the company! It's no wonder that web sites during the 1998 - 2000 era so often failed.

There are no snippets of HTML, nor recommendations on fonts or styles, but this book thankfully does not try to introduce the topic of what is a JPG, etc. Too many books try to leave no child behind, thus diluting their amount of useful info. The amount of wisdom per page is substantial.

Most of all, the author stays focused on the USER and how to see things from their point-of-view. She defines different types of users, even sometimes giving a persona a name, age, occupation and reason for using the site. Lots of organization decisions become clear when you realize typical things a user would want to do or search for. Her commitment to users comes through in her writing. The appendix lists some additional books of interest, and the author's "I welcome user suggestions" rings sincere.

Having a complete understanding of a topic allows one to explain very complex ideas to people who not as expert. Ani Phyo has done an excellent job of breaking everything down into their most simple forms and showing, through examples, how these concepts lead to creating amazing web sites.

People working in the internet industry today will fully understand how everything works and what everyone's role is after spending some time reading this book. Those hoping to work in the industry also will get a complete overview of what it takes to create some of the best web sites of the internet.

Finally, someone has written the book that describes the best way to think about designing interactive media. As a professional web designer/architect, I've found Ani really nails it in terms of process, and will help me cover my bases better. I recommend this book for beginners, who can now start out right the first time. And for veteran web people, this is a comprehensive, clear document of the methodology you might have been using for years, but may have cut corners on. My copy is going to have lots of dog-ears...

There's so much practical information in this book that after reading it I was tempted to start a book group at my company, buy everyone a copy and start discussing. I've been involved with web design for many years, and I still found the book valuable. Definitely recommended!