Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context [Paperback]

Albert N. Badre (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201729938 | ISBN-13: 978-0201729931 | Publication Date: February 2, 2002 | Edition: 1

It's no longer enough to make your site easy to learn and use: Web designers need to help their users feel comfortable with every aspect of their site interactions: physical, mental, and emotional. Drawing upon advanced research in psychology and human-computer interfaces -- as well as extensive practical Web design experience -- Albert N. Badre shows precisely how to accomplish this. Badre goes beyond "mere usability," introducing a complete, Web-specialized framework that lets you "design for context," taking into account every aspect of the Web environment. Shaping Web Usability begins by reviewing essential human-computer interaction principles for the Web; then outlines a usability strategy that takes multiple contexts into account: extrinsic design, users, genre, site, and page. Badre offers deep insight into Web users themselves: their skill levels, personalities, and demographics; and presents a full chapter on the unique needs of older Web users. Along the way, he addresses the key issues that make Web usability so challenging, including security and privacy, platform independence, dynamic content, compatibility, and navigation. You'll learn how to ensure that aesthetics and usability complement each other; how to extend usability to handheld devices; and how to evaluate Web usability most effectively. For all Web designers, developers, usability specialists, marketers, and others concerned with the Web user experience.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

There is no shortage of material on web site usability (see Computer Media, LJ 3/1/02). Hot Text shines in its comprehensive coverage of online writing. One will find information on XML and writing for database-driven sites; creating FAQs, blogs and newsletters, and online r sum s; and becoming a web writer or editor. Although it does not break any new ground, Back to the User is a solid summary of current thought on the "user-centered" approach, covering both writing and design. It largely focuses on business sites, with additional information on e-commerce and branding. Both titles are appropriate for public libraries. Shaping Web Usability, while more academic, also addresses specific issues such as designing for older adults and handheld devices. Recommended for larger public and academic institutions.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover

"Al Badre's book is about an everlasting truth--a truth that many people, many companies, many organizations have learned the hard way. That is, when designing technological systems for people to use, one must take into account the characteristics of the users, and the nature of the task, and the knowledge, experience, biases, strengths, and weaknesses that the users bring to the task. In the case at hand, the task is using the World Wide Web."

--James D. Foley, coauthor of Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice

All successful computer applications have one thing in common: They are designed with the user in mind. Author Al Badre has for years contributed to the ideas and methods needed to make any computer application fully usable. In Shaping Web Usability, he adapts and applies this firmly rooted knowledge and practice specifically to the Web.

Badre recognizes that Web sites comprise a unique application, where designers face a host of complex issues, including dynamic content, a broad and diverse audience, multiple entry points, intolerance of steep learning curves, and one-click abandonment. And with the arrival of handheld devices, Web designers confront additional difficult issues. Offering a structured approach to Web usability, Shaping Web Usability describes several contexts in which each site must be viewed, from the genre to which it belongs to the individual page. The book then provides a concrete methodology for designing a site effectively for the convenience, practicality, and pleasure of its users.

Inside, Web designers will find useful information on such topics as:

• Links, buttons, site maps, and indexes for smooth site navigation
• Keywords and site search engines
• Effective design of home, content, and transaction pages
• Achieving a balance between Web usability and impressive graphics
• Retrofitting Web pages for small-screen and mobile devices
• Addressing users' information-processing limits
• Designing Web sites for older adults
• Addressing the international cultural context of the Web
• Specific guidelines to support design excellence
• Using an iterative design process with continuous testing to
• maximize Web usability
• Constructing storyboards and interactive prototypes
• Conducting task analysis to discover the sequence of events visitors use to reach their goals

Numerous real-world examples illustrate the book's concepts, techniques, and guidelines. This one book puts decades of knowledge and experience into the hands of every Web designer.

0201729938B12172001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (February 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201729938
• ISBN-13: 978-0201729931
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #956,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More about users than about web pages!, September 14, 2002

By 

David Unsworth (Hythe, Kent United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context (Paperback)

This is a serious work on Web Usability that attempts to define in detail the user context and to construct a user-centred methodology based on that context.

There are so many books on web usability these days and most of them are about web pages first and people second. Doctor Badre's approach, though, is firmly grounded on the human side of HCI and some of the material in this book is outstanding.

The chapter on "Older Adults" is a great example. Badre is fastidious enough to consider the different cognitive needs of people in this group and to consider the implications of those needs for the designer. Elsewhere he considers personality variations, the role of affect (or emotion), and many other individual differences.

In contrast, however, Badre has a strong leaning toward standards and predictability, which seems to contradict his comments elsewhere. Having identified the myriad reasons the web audience is uniquely diverse he nevertheless finds traditional HCI evaluation techniques attractive, and sometimes fails to bite the bullet.

For example, Badre insists that "Testing conditions ... should approximate the actual situation in which ...visitors are likely to find themselves." Yet he does not display any distrust of laboratory testing, questionnaires and all the artificialities of user testing that would suggest a more ethnographic approach.

The material on the test methodology is therefore somewhat weaker, but does not detract in any way from the main part of the book, where Dr Badre's experience in Human Factors allows him to illustrate with considerable skill the way design features can be adjusted to meet the cognitive abilities of real human users. In this arena, Dr. Badre is a leading authority, and it is for this, the main body of the work, that I would strongly recommend this book to web and usability professionals alike.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for people serious about Web design, February 5, 2002

By 

J. Garbers "jgarbers" (Roswell, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context (Paperback)

Clear and rigorous, Dr. Badre's book is an essential resource for the serious Web practitioner. Going beyond the usual lists of do's and don'ts, he gives the reader a strong grounding in the field of usability and how its principles apply to the Web. Web designers and implementors who read Shaping Web Usability will not only know what to do, but why -- so they can respond successfully to new and complex design challenges.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read book, February 15, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context (Paperback)

This book is unlike many other web usability books. It goes well beyond the cookie-cutter guidelines for fast web usability, and gets the reader thinking deeply about contexts of web usability. It focuses on the real important issues and concepts. However, it is not an abstract or theoretical book. The author illustrates the concepts and explanations with numerous real examples from the web. This book is a must read for web designers, information architects, and web usability engineers.