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Constructing Usable Web Menus
 
 
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Constructing Usable Web Menus (Paperback)
by Andy Beaumont (Author), Dave Gibbons (Author), Jody Kerr (Author), Jon Stephens (Author)
  2.7 out of 5 stars 6 customer reviews (6 customer reviews)  


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Editorial Reviews
Product Description

When developing a web site, one of the most important things to consider is the navigation menu, to allow your users to find their way around it. It needs to usable, informative, and well implemented, but this can take time. This book will take all the hassle out of implementing web menus, in whatever style and technology you wish, by providing full code samples, along with walkthrough tutorials on how they work to allow easy customisation for your own needs. This book covers: a. Guidelines on designing usable web menus, with 12 common-sense rules to follow b. Information Architecture for menus (including identifying your target user), and user testing c. Easy to Follow tutorials on building menus with HTML, JavaScript, CSS and Flash d. Advanced tutorials on dynamically populating menus from XML and databases with server-side scripting, including PHP and ASP e. Extensive Web support including fully adaptable downloadable code for your own use, and a gallery of working menu examples. From the Publisher This book is for intermediate to advanced web professionals who need to implement a navigation menu on a web site as quickly as possible, with the minimum of hassle. About the Author Andy Beaumont is a freelance interactive developer/designer based in central London. As a firm believer in the "sharing of knowledge" ethos that has made the Flash community so strong, Andy writes Flash tutorials for the likes of pixelsurgeon.com and Computer Arts magazine, teaches Flash and ActionScript at Mac Uni in London, and runs a personal Flash help site. As something of an ActionScript mercenary Andy has worked with many top design agencies including magneticNorth, Conkerco and Broadsnout. Dave Gibbons is a writer and web designer from Beaverton, Oregon, US. He recently worked for five years as a writer, Web/Intranet Designer and programmer, and usability tester at Intel.When not losing sleep over proper menu design, Dave writes humor ("humour" in the rest of the English-speaking world), novels, and screenplays. Jon Stephens is a site developer, writer, and consultant living and working in Scottsdale, Arizona, Jon Stephens works with JavaScript, PHP and in producing technical documentation for area firms. He's an original member of CNET's Builder Buzz developers' site, and has served there as a Community Leader since 1998. Jon has co-authored two books on HTML and JavaScript for Wrox Press.



From the Publisher
This book is for intermediate to advanced web professionals who need to implement a navigation menu on a web site as quickly as possible, with the minimum of hassle. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details
  • Paperback: 200 pages
  • Publisher: A-Press; 1 edition (January 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1590591860
  • ISBN-13: 978-1590591864
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars 6 customer reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,840,423 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
    (Publishers and authors: Improve Your Sales)
  • Also Available in: Paperback (1st) |  All Editions

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Look Inside This Book
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

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28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Copious Code, April 11, 2002
By Andrew B. King (Ann Arbor, MI United States) - See all my reviews
Aimed at intermediate to advanced developers, "Constructing Usable Web Menus" homes in on what works, and what doesn't when designing menus for the Web. Chock full of copious amounts of code and screenshots, the book offer a good, albeit incomplete, overview of available menu options for webmasters and guidelines for effective menu design.

The book is one of the first in a series of how-tos from Glasshaus, a new imprint from Wrox Press. This new series is designed to teach "web professional to web professional" and is slanted towards the more proficient practioners of the craft.

The first two chapters of the 227 page book offer guidelines for good menu design (rules, info architecture) while the final four chapters show how to create various types of menus through JavaScript, DHTML, Flash, and PHP/MySQL to populate client-side menus.

The first part of the book deals primarily with usability and information architecture. Here's a list of the "12 Rules for Web Menu Usability" from the first chapter:

1. Menus must be considerate of the user's main task
2. Menus must be distinct from content
3. Menus must be clearly readable
4. Menus must be easily scanned for information
5. Menus must be easily operated
6. Menus must behave as your target user would expect
7. Menus must load quickly as possible
8. Menus must be consistent across a site
9. Menus must put a higher premium on usability than branding
10. Menus must be localizable
11. Menus must be accessible to the handicapped
12. Menus must work on multiple browsers

All good advice. On the last point the authors do an admirable job, claiming their code works on most modern browsers, including IE4+, Netscape 4+, and Opera 5+ for the PC and IE4+, Netscape 6+, and Opera 5+ for the Mac. They make some good points, especially that menus be clearly readable and fast loading. I've seen many a site with slow loading, tiny text menus that are difficult to use, especially for users with older eyes or motor impairments. Designers would be well-advised to follow their guidelines.

However, the authors' coverage of menu designs is somewhat incomplete, and their research needs a refresh. They don't cover simple CSS menus that don't require JavaScript. Perhaps this was because they decided to include Netscape 4 among their target browsers. They also cite Miller's 1956 7+-2 paper, then say it is out of date, but offer no more recent data on the limits of short term memory and menu design (Microsoft's depth versus breadth research for example).

Expandable menus are covered, but hierarchical menus get just one screen shot, from MSDN. While some may question the use of slow-loading