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You are browsing the subject "Books and Papers" in which 11 posting(s) was found
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DigitalWeb has a review ready of the book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (2nd edition), by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville. Here’s the conclusion of reviewer James McNally:
"Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is an introductory course in a discipline of which we are all slowly becoming practitioners. That it is such an enjoyable course is due entirely to the knowledge and experience of the authors. Their humility, evident in their willingness to point the reader to other sources of information, is also refreshing. The mixture of theoretical and practical material is particularly useful, especially the chapter on "selling" the need for information architecture in a skeptical, post-"Bubble" economy. I'm confident that this book can teach almost anyone the beginnings of what they need to know about how to define a web site's structure to facilitate information retrieval. Or, to cut the jargon, to make a web site work."Links:
 | Review of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Second Edition
| | Order the book at Amazon.com
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Henrik Olsen | August 29, 2002
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In case you haven’t noticed, Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville’s excellent book Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is soon available in a 2nd edition. You can download free previews of the table of content, chapter 1 and chapter 4 to 8. Links:
Henrik Olsen | August 12, 2002
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This fairly short article about paper prototyping covers how to do them but is more concerned with why they work. The interesting aspect of this technique (fmm) is the notion of 'playing' the computer; I have experienced students creating fairly complex interactions that they could simulate 'by hand'. The article also highlights some of the problems with hi-fi prototyping - the time it takes, the fact the users tend to focus on the gloss and the understandable resistance on the part of developers to change them. This kind of technique is akin to the performance design method (interactionary) which also seems like a brilliant technique to use with students (so there is no hiding from the comments of your peers or tutors). It is a shame though that the scan is of such poor quality! Links:
ben hyde | July 18, 2002
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Klaus Kaasgaard talks with Bonnie Nardi, Jakob Nielsen, David Smith, Austin Henderson & Jed Harris, Terry Winograd and Stephanie Rosenbaum.
this unusual approach is rewarding for this very fact. the answers given to a similar set of questions are often contradictory, but again this is one of its strengths (unlike the near arguments found in titles such as Information Design, Jacobson Ed.) this book provides a very accessible starting point for those new to the field whilst at the same time pushing the boundaries of the discipline (admittedly some interviewees more than others ;-). another interesting aspect (fmm) is the language used (which of course is the interface of a book), probably caused by non-native english but this adds a certain edge to the dialogue.Links:
| publishers info (Copenhagen Business School Press)
| | amazon UK info
| | Klaus Kaasgaard (info on CBS Press site)
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ben hyde | July 16, 2002
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For a long time I wanted to write a review of Jakob Nielsen’s Designing Web Usability. But I knew it would be hard because the book is so controversial. On the one hand the book has a lot of important stuff to tell, on the other, it has to be taken with a grain of salt.
Instead of writing a review myself, I found a good one by Andy Ihnatko from NewMedia. Some quotes:
"Reading Designing Web Usability might make you collapse to your knees and repent your sins, taking up a tambourine and joining the preacher's crusade right on the spot. It might just as well further commit you to add increasing complexity and sophistication to your creations."
"Honestly, it's like we're the parents in a house full of unruly kids and Jakob Nielsen has mailed us a big envelope of pamphlets promoting military schools. Maybe we'll buy in, maybe we won't. But just considering it will make us into different parents."Links:
| Andy Ihnatko's review of Designing Web Usability
| | Read more reviews and buy the book at Amazon.com
| | Read more reviews and buy the book at Amazon.co.uk
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Henrik Olsen | July 12, 2002
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The Dotcom Survival Guide from Creative Good was published in 2000 but is still relevant and revealing. The 103 pages report shows how dotcom’s can survive by focusing on the customer experience, make it easy for customers to find and buy products, merchandise more effectively, and measure and improve the conversion rate.
The report includes reviews of thirty-one dotcom features, teaching by example the good and bad ways of creating the customer experience. Here you’ll find good and bad examples of registration, merchandising, navigation, labeling, product comparison, size charts, search, shopping charts, checkouts, and fulfillment.
It also has a case study describing how Creative Good doubled a client’s revenue by improving the customer experience.
Links:
| Download The Dotcom Survical Guide (PDF)
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Hernrik Olsen | June 13, 2002
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This is a book which graphic designers involved in web and application development should read, as it describes techniques used in communication-oriented visual design applied to graphical user interfaces.
Mullet and Sano's approach builds a bridge between the conservative web usability experts preaching their "speedy download" mantra, and the graphic designers who see the web as a media for artistic display. To Mullet and Sano "Communication-oriented visual design view these forces not as irreconcilable opponents, but as symbiotic components of every high-quality solution." As they say, "good graphic design can significantly improve the communicative value of the interface, leading to increased usability."
The book doesn't deal with the interactive aspect of interactive media, but describes principles and techniques to improve the aesthetic and functional aspects of screens and has lots of examples of good and bad interface design.
Links:
| Read more reviews and buy the book at Amazon.com
| | Read more reviews and buy the book at Amazon.co.uk
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Henrik Olsen | June 03, 2002
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Reading this book was like going to a party with designers from other web agencies chit-chatting about how our companies prefer to organize Web projects. Every agency has its way of doing things. You might be inspired to some degree, but mostly it's basically the same.
The book's subtitle "Workflow that Works" made me expect a guide telling me how to make the diversity of stakeholder in a web project work together - more systematic, more efficient and with better results. But I was disappointed.
One of the major drawbacks is that their development framework - the "Core Process" - is described almost entirely from the designers' point of view and show very little understanding of the interdisciplinary aspect of web development.
Worse is that Kelly and Emily go on and on telling the same stories, which we've all heard before: "think about download times", "mind screen resolutions", "test in browsers"...Links:
| Read more reviews and buy the book at Amazon.com
| | Read more reviews and buy the book at Amazon.co.uk
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Henrik Olsen | April 30, 2002
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Paco Underhill's Why We Buy is a primer to the anthropology of shoppers interacting with retail environments. The book deals with bricks-and-mortar shops, but has a short chapter about online shopping.
The most worthwhile aspect of the book is that it shows how detailed in-situ studies of shoppers shopping and subsequent refinements to the layout of a shop can raise sales significantly.
A pleasant surprise to me was that the art of making shoppers buy is not as much about seducing or bullying customers. It's more about usability: How to remove obstacles, how to help people find what they are looking for and how to make shopping more convenient and pleasant. This proves that usability isn't merely a nice-to-have – it's a business critical investment.
The book is written in a novel-like style and isn't very methodical or educational. Don't expect a how-to book. But it's fascinating reading.Links:
| Read more reviews and buy the book at Amazon.com
| | Read more reviews and buy the book at Amazon.co.uk
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Henrik Olsen | April 09, 2002
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