Customer Reviews

Web Usability and Navigation: A Beginner's Guide

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I'll admit it, I didn't expect to learn too many new ideas from reading this book, but I was pleasantly surprised. Unlike other books I've read on web usability, Web Usability & Navigation: A Beginner's Guide actively encourages you to develop an eye for usability through the use of various projects designed to give you the opportunity to practice what you've just learnt.

As you might expect, the usual topic of web site navigation and usability are covered... but before reading, I never really considered the problems surrounding the actual use of the web. I knew about the problems of browser compatibility and I am always curious as to how my site looks on other operating systems. Until now however, the difficulties and information overload experienced by the novice Internet user were long forgotten, and I'd never even considered how I could build my site to accommodate for different learning styles.

Like other usability books, Web Usability & Navigation: A Beginner's Guide does not go into the detail of exactly how you should implement what you've just learnt, rather it gives ideas on what to look for. So if you are expecting examples of code, there aren't any. One nice addition to the book is the case studies. Sure, other books have case studies, but rather than tell you from the outset what problems there are, you are encouraged to list any usability problems for yourself.

I particularly enjoyed the module on getting traffic to a site, it provided me with some fresh insight into just how closely linked web site usability and promotion usually are. After all, part of the experience of using a site is getting to it as quickly as possible, whether you type a name in the browser or search for it in the search engines.

Overall, this is a good introduction to web usability that is very easy to read, but as with other usability books, the nature of the information makes it difficult to use as a quick reference. For those who aren't new to the topic, there are quite a few things you could learn from reading this book, although perhaps the only way you'll find gaps in your knowledge is to read the book from cover to cover.

I think this book is "required reading" for anyone serious about designing usable websites.

I am the lead web developer for my department in an academic/scientific institution. Our scientists here have embraced the value of the Internet to market themselves and their research. Consequently, there is an effort to publish more and more of their scientific research material in an online environment as "web publications" instead of traditional hardcopy publications. But the scientists taking an active role in developing their own web pages realize that it is more to it than just knowing HTML. They have asked for books/resources to instruct them.

This book will be such a VALUABLE addition to our library!

Information is presented in a clear and straightforward manner with good writing style that does not overwhelm the beginner with technical jargon. This is a particularly poignant topic for me... I think any web developer can appreciate Holmes' observations on the "information anxiety" of website (and software) users.

I am impressed with Holmes' ability to present the "hot topics" (such as frames, plug-ins, etc.) and remain neutral. (It's so hard to find someone WITHOUT an opinion these days.) She offers a spectrum of examples with their pros and cons - allowing the reader to determine what would work best in his/her environment.

Some great features of the book:

Numerous examples!! A lot of people are visual learners (myself included) - it is easier for them to process new material if they can see the content "in action." The examples provided in the book are a refreshing break from the endless dry reading found in the typical web development book.

I really liked the Ask the Expert sidebars - I think the novice would find these sections extremely valuable. "Ask the Expert" exposes the reader to the ins and outs of professional website design: Practical solutions are offered for common and vexing usability issues by web professionals. (Why reinvent the wheel?)

I also recommend that readers spend the time doing the exercises provided in the book: the exercises will arm him/her with a good set of skills to develop usable websites.

More great features of the book:

Web Usability and Navigation: A Beginner's Guide is not just for beginners. Experienced website designers can benefit from the knowledge presented in this book as well.

Holmes has done her homework researching and collecting website usability facts and tips. Web professionals who lack the time or resources to research website usability in-depth (like me), will appreciate Web Usability and Navigation: A Beginner's Guide as a "usability cookbook."

For example: A usability checklist is provided to help novice and experienced web designers alike in making sure the most fundamental usability and navigation features are built in, or at least considered, during the design of a website.

The best thing I liked about this book: THOROUGHNESS!

Web Usability and Navigation: A Beginner's Guide is as comprehensive as it gets. Holmes takes the time to address important, yet often overlooked usability issues other web development books and guides fail to mention.

For instance, the affect different fonts (I.e., sans serif vs. serif) can make on the presentation/readability of a webpage. (Believe it or not, this has been a "hot topic" in my department for quite some time - right up there with frames and flash: that controversial!)

I think this book is "required reading" for anyone serious about designing usable websites. I am buying a copy of this book for my department.

Finally! Someone has translated the tangled World Wide Web into something even I can understand!

Ms. Holmes has created a book that is useful, well organized, pertinent, well written, and even pleasurable to read! So many of the internet books on the market today -- even those allegedly designed for beginners -- are of little use to anyone
but the seasoned professional. The Internet is a tool everyone can use and Web Usability & Navigation gives its readers the background they need to make the most of the Web.

I loved all of the examples -- I'm the type of person who learns best by seeing others' experiences. A good story will go a lot further with me than a bunch of technical jargon and Ms. Holmes has mastered the art of telling a good story with a purpose.

When I started reading Web Usability & Navigation, I had several
preconceived ideas about what I wanted in a web page. Ms. Holmes gently guided me through a variety of other options. This book is really useful for beginners and more advanced Web site creators as well.

Caroline Thomas-Jenson, CFRE
President / CEO
United Charity Services

Many high profile commercial sites, let alone those not informed by "professional" designers, would benefit from the clarity of purpose and practical methods presented in this book. In fact, the fundamentals of user-centered design put forward so clearly here are pertinent in many other fields, too. To top it off I found the writing style clear, informative and enjoyable.
I recommend it for individual designers as well as for schools, libraries and design shops.

This author's approach to the Web is one of encouraging a transfer of power; instead of following a traditional top-down business structure (i.e. in a business telling its customer base what it wants them to hear), it encourages listening to what customers want and providing that to them. On its most basic level, it is about the nuts and bolts of how to create web sites in bottom-up fashion.

Upon reading this book, I was struck by similarities between the author's propositions on web design and the economic history that is my field. Economic development has also been associated with a transfer of power away from kings, emperors, shoguns, and the church, and into the hands of merchants, farmers, and producers.

As the author proposes User's Spectacles in modules 2-3, or seeing matters from the other person's point of view, I thought of how this message is repeated in the historical movement from confrontation to negotiation and compromise. Where she calls on the designer to know the web better than the user, I recall the entrepreneurs of the Industrial Revolution in England, who had to know their customers. In module 7, where she writes of gaining the user's trust, I thought of how trade engendered trust during the period of the Enlightenment in Europe - and still does. In module 8, where she suggests organizing information from the user's point of view, I thought of how economic innovations depend on the needs of customers, not of despotic rulers. Where she speaks of the Internet as a web, I thought of the world economy as a web.

Having been surprised to find a book on web design that had so much interconnection with economic history, my mind wandered into other areas of interconnection among human beings in our vast worldwide web.

Finally, the author's conversational writing makes this book extremely easy to read.

John P. Powelson
Professor of Economics, Emeritus
University of Colorado