Adobe Master Class: Web Site Redesigns (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Each Web site in need of redesign, to paraphrase Anna Karenina, is in need after its own fashion. Sometimes it's a graphic facelift, sometimes a structural reorganization. Some need to completely readdress the relationship between content and audience. And most need a mixture of all three. Web Site Redesigns relates the stories of nine redesigns, from the one-man operation RefDesk.com to the multinational corporation IBM. From both the client side and the design side, readers are privy to the back and forth each site went through before its rebirth.

This is another Adobe Master Class book, a series which focuses on top designers and how they resolve some of their toughest projects. The designers here include Post Tool Design, who bring Chroniclebooks.com up-to-date with a fresh-looking Flash-based interface and a database back end. The design studio Method completely revamps Trip.com's site architecture. And Hot Studio creates a hip site for San Francisco's Glide Church, one that allows church staffers without any HTML skills to update content.

Readers get the inside scoop on the why, when, and how of each case study: a history of the client and the site, a profile of the chosen design team, requests for proposals, "understanding" phases, whiteboard schematics, user profiles, focus group results, intermediate sketches--whatever went on behind the scenes. Whether it's the fun icons and flash preloader quizzes of the BrainPop.com creative team or the corporate colored circles and fashionably colored hexagons of Adobe.com and Adobe Studio, respectively, devised by hillmancurtis.com, readers get a feeling for what it was like to toil on each project without actually having to do any of the heavy lifting.

The book is fun to read, especially if you're someone who enjoys problem-solving, even when you may not agree with the decisions or methodology. If the joys/agonies of Web design enrich/plague your life, you may find yourself reading this book all in one sitting. --Angelynn Grant

From Library Journal

Redesigning a complex site can be more difficult than starting from scratch. This behind-the-scenes look at the makeover process demonstrates a variety of approaches, but the message emphasized throughout is that of the primacy of user-centered design: structuring a site around the needs and habits of visitors. Larger public and academic libraries supporting design programs should buy in conjunction with Web Redesign: Workflow That Works (New Riders, 2001), a more general how-to guide to site redesign issues.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: Pearson Education; 1st edition (December 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201758644
• ISBN-13: 978-0201758641
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,591,425 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautiful and fascinating book, December 3, 2001

By A Customer

Instead of telling you what's wrong with a zillion websites, the author has picked a few good ones, and lets you see behind the scenes how they got that way. The sites range from big business to one-man shop, which is refreshing -- you can apply the principles here without a huge budget. You get to see how these sites have changed for the better over time. Very nice.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable insights!, June 16, 2002

By	Satya Witoelar "Tulakom" (Jakarta) - See all my reviews

I didn't expect a book with only 9 case studies can be quite comprehensive and enriching. Other books can provide 24 or 50 cases, but Web Site Redesigns was more useful to me, because the websites are all unique from one to another, well researched, with all kinds of issues from user profiling, content architecture, the design itself, and even programming. Each story is well written, along with sketches, diagrams, screenshots, and there are even several small ideas that we can quickly put into our websites. Good addition to my collection.