If you don¿t understand the information design principles that guide content display on the Web, all the bells and whistles on the planet can¿t guarantee a return on your Web investment. What can is Return on Design: Smarter Web Design That Works. In these pages, the focus is on the information design essentials that can determine a Web site¿s success or failure. In seven chapters author Ani Phyo outlines her seven-step process for designing successful Web sites, from "Understanding Requirements" to "Ongoing Testing and Revision." Along the way, this designer/instructor covers a range of topics, including assembling the right team, settling on (and then collecting) visual content, usability testing, and more-using lots of personal insights, examples, and anecdotes to make her points resonate. Through it all, the book never loses its focus on returns: the critical cost-cutting techniques and choices that will enable you to deliver more impact for less outlay in today¿s cost-conscious economy.
| Foreword | ||
| Preface | ||
| Acknowledgments | ||
| Introduction | ||
| Basics of User-Centered Interaction Design | 1 | |
| Step 1 | What Does Your Site Really Need? | 25 |
| Step 2 | Developing and Writing User Scenarios | 63 |
| Step 3 | Designing User-Centered Content | 77 |
| Step 4 | Developing a Site Map and User Workflows | 119 |
| Step 5 | Creating a Navigation Scheme and Page Layouts | 145 |
| Step 6 | Testing a Functional Prototype | 177 |
| Step 7 | The Ongoing Process of User-Driven Enhancements | 225 |
| Glossary | 257 | |
| Learn More | 269 | |
| Index | 275 |
Anonymous
Posted December 18, 2003
As a student of Multimedia and Web Design, I have found this book to be an invaluable resource in planning and implementation of my various projects. I will continue to use these ideas as I graduate and go on in my career.
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Posted June 17, 2003
Ani's book is the first time that I've really seen someone step back and put together all the pieces to create a step-by-step approach to building web sites that really work. The problem that I've seen over and over again is that books on web design tend to approach the subject from a single angle from the perspective of a visual designer, a technologist, a user interface designer or a marketing person. This book defines the correct role for all participants and shows how web sites need to meet everyone's goal so that they look good, serve the user and fulfill the business objectives that brought them into existence in the first place. The message is more relevant than ever. Although the term 'user centered design' seems to have been around forever I still encounter sites all the time that seem to have been designed to feed their creator's egos rather than assist me in finding the information I need. What I really like about this book is the clear series of steps which is so much better than the typical leaps and half steps back which is too often the reality of different players attempting to work together on a web project. I particularly like the concept of 'user scenarios', something that is typically skipped in favor of preconceived notions of what the user needs but is in fact an extremely valuable and instructive step.
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Overview
If you don¿t understand the information design principles that guide content display on the Web, all the bells and whistles on the planet can¿t guarantee a return on your Web investment. What can is Return on Design: Smarter Web Design That Works. In these pages, the focus is on the information design essentials that can determine a Web site¿s success or failure. In seven chapters author Ani Phyo outlines her seven-step process for designing successful Web sites, from "Understanding Requirements" to "Ongoing ...