This unique new book looks at the various stages of development and decisions to be made in creating an effective web site. A running case study takes users through planning, idea generation, implementation and maintenance.
Written for composition, business and technical writing, and other courses across the disciplines in which students write for the World Wide Web and create web projects, this text teaches the ... crucial principles of web design. -Back cover.
The ultimate guide to UX from the world’s most popular resource for web designers and developers Smashing Magazine is the world′s most popular resource for web designers and developers and with this book the authors provide the ideal resource for mastering User Experience Design (UX). The authors provide an overview of UX and User Centred Design and examine in detail sixteen of the most common UX design and research tools and techniques for your web projects. The authors share their top tips from their collective 30 years of working in UX including: Guides to when and how to use the most appropriate UX research and design techniques such as usability testing, prototyping, wire framing, sketching, information architecture & running workshops How to plan UX projects to suit different budgets, time constraints and business objectives Case studies from real UX projects that explain how particular techniques were used to achieve the client's goals Checklists to help you choose the right UX tools and techniques for the job in hand Typical user and business requirements to consider when designing business critical pages such as homepages, forms, product pages and mobile interfaces as well as explanations of key things to consider when designing for mobile, internationalization and behavioural change. Smashing UX Design is the complete UX reference manual. Treat it as the UX expert on your bookshelf that you can read from cover-to-cover, or to dip into as the need arises, regardless of whether you have 'UX' in your job title or not.
Why attractive things work better and other crucial insights into human-centered design Emotions are inseparable from how we humans think, choose, and act. In Emotional Design, cognitive scientist Don Norman shows how the principles of human psychology apply to the invention and design of new technologies and products. In The Design of Everyday Things, Norman made the definitive case for human-centered design, showing that good design demanded that the user's must take precedence over a designer's aesthetic if anything, from light switches to airplanes, was going to work as the user needed. In this book, he takes his thinking several steps farther, showing that successful design must incorporate not just what users need, but must address our minds by attending to our visceral reactions, to our behavioral choices, and to the stories we want the things in our lives to tell others about ourselves. Good human-centered design isn't just about making effective tools that are straightforward to use; it's about making affective tools that mesh well with our emotions and help us express our identities and support our social lives. From roller coasters to robots, sports cars to smart phones, attractive things work better. Whether designer or consumer, user or inventor, this book is the definitive guide to making Norman's insights work for you.
Successful web design teams depend on clear communication between developers and their clients—and among members of the development team. Wireframes, site maps, flow charts, and other design diagrams establish a common language so designers and project teams can capture ideas, track progress, and keep their stakeholders informed. In this all new edition of Communicating Design, author and information architect Dan Brown defines and describes each deliverable, then offers practical advice for creating the documents and using them in the context of teamwork and presentations, independent of methodology. Whatever processes, tools, or approaches you use, this book will help you improve the creation and presentation of your wireframes, site maps, flow charts, and other deliverables. The book now features: An improved structure comprising two main sections: Design Diagrams and Design Deliverables. The first focuses on the nuts and bolts of design documentation and the second explains how to pull it all together. New deliverable: design briefs, as well as updated advice on wireframes, flow charts, and concept models. More illustrations, to help designers understand the subtle variations and approaches to creating design diagrams. Reader exercises, for those lonely nights when all you really want to do is practice creating wireframes, or for use in workshops and classes. Contributions from industry leaders: Tamara Adlin, Stephen Anderson, Dana Chisnell, Nathan Curtis, Chris Fahey, James Melzer, Steve Mulder, Donna Spencer, and Russ Unger. “As an educator, I have looked to Communicating Design both as a formal textbook and an informal guide for its design systems that ultimately make our ideas possible and the complex clear.” —Liz Danzico, from the Foreword
Speak to the world with your very own custom website! Creating a Web Site is the kids' guide to learning basic website design! From planning to perfecting, this book walks you through the entire process of building your own website, with easy-to-read instructions and plenty of pictures every step of the way. Good planning saves you a ton of work, so you'll begin by getting your ideas out of your head and onto paper. Next, you'll find a template that already has the basic features you want, so you can start working on the fun stuff right away. You'll learn all the HTML and CSS you need to make your site look and act the way you want it to, and you'll learn how to add video, images, widgets, and more to make the design your very own! Before you know it, you'll have your own custom-built website showcasing your talents and interests for the world. If you want your own website, why settle for a basic template that makes your page look like everyone else's? You don't need to build it from scratch—with a few simple lines of code, you can transform a basic template into the site of your dreams. This book shows you how to have fun from page one as you: Figure out just what kind of site you want to build Create a mood board to bring your ideas into reality Choose your favorite template and customize it with CSS and HTML Add widgets, pictures, video, and more to make your site your very own Easy instruction with a dose of humor have made the For Dummies books a leading resource for adults around the globe. The Dummies Junior series brings that learning to kids, with projects designed specifically for your interests, skills, and abilities. Creating a Web Site helps you build your digital home base, with fun instruction every step of the way.
This book demonstrates the step-by-step process involved in designing a Web site. Readers are assumed to be familiar with whatever Web publishing tool they are using. The guide gives few technical details but instead focuses on the usability, layout, and attractiveness of a Web site, with the goal being to make it as popular with the intended audience as possible. Considerations such as graphics, typography, and multimedia enhancements are discussed.
Thoroughly rewritten for today's web environment, this bestselling book offers a fresh look at a fundamental topic of web site development: navigation design. Amid all the changes to the Web in the past decade, and all the hype about Web 2.0 and various "rich" interactive technologies, the basic problems of creating a good web navigation system remain. Designing Web Navigation demonstrates that good navigation is not about technology-it's about the ways people find information, and how you guide them. Ideal for beginning to intermediate web designers, managers, other non-designers, and web development pros looking for another perspective, Designing Web Navigation offers basic design principles, development techniques and practical advice, with real-world examples and essential concepts seamlessly folded in. How does your web site serve your business objectives? How does it meet a user's needs? You'll learn that navigation design touches most other aspects of web site development. This book: Provides the foundations of web navigation and offers a framework for navigation design Paints a broad picture of web navigation and basic human information behavior Demonstrates how navigation reflects brand and affects site credibility Helps you understand the problem you're trying to solve before you set out to design Thoroughly reviews the mechanisms and different types of navigation Explores "information scent" and "information shape" Explains "persuasive" architecture and other design concepts Covers special contexts, such as navigation design for web applications Includes an entire chapter on tagging While Designing Web Navigation focuses on creating navigation systems for large, information-rich sites serving a business purpose, the principles and techniques in the book also apply to small sites. Well researched and cited, this book serves as an excellent reference on the topic, as well as a superb teaching guide. Each chapter ends with suggested reading and a set of questions that offer exercises for experiencing the concepts in action.