|
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details
|
A step-by-step guide to explain the process of creating an underlying structure for a web site. Topics covered include: Setting and achieving website goals; translating the site's goals into meaningful content; organizing the content so that visitors can find what they're looking for.
I wrote this book for people who have a direct influence on the content and structure of a website - sites created for their personal use, for their employer, or for a client organization. Although the market abounds with books on HTML programming and graphic design, very little exists to tell people how to create a "flow chart" for their website - one that helps define and arrange the site's content so visitors can quickly and easily find what they're looking for. Although this isn't a particularly glamorous subject, information architecture is often the single most important step in the creation of a successful website.
As far as possible, I've tried to put together a nuts-and-bolts, hands-on guide to the subject. I've been using and refining the techniques I describe since the late 70s and have been involved in the creation of interactive media on a daily basis since the late 80s - from primitive menu-based DOS applications to the latest in glitzy e commerce sites.
It may come as a surprise, but the problems I've faced over the years have not changed very much, even though the individual programs and interfaces have. That's because the issues of information architecture are generic in nature and are thus largely unrelated to technological advances. A simple analogy: safer cars may keep us from getting killed on the highway, but they don't make us better drivers.
I'm not a theoretician. I'm not a programmer. I'm not a hot-shot designer. Rather, I'm a content provider who, like those I'm addressing, has to solve here-and-now problems that are directly related to the usability and ultimate acceptance/success of a website. This book explains how I think and how I work - my tricks of the trade.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
not enough depth here - merely confirmed what I already knew,
By Bruce Metelerkamp (Hastings, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Information Architecture Handbook: A Hands-on Approach to Structuring Successful Websites (Paperback)
It seems books on this topic are very thin on the ground, and good books even more scarce! I was looking for some meat on the hows and whys of whether to use frames, navigation links, how to "regionalise" a web site - where to put banner ads and how to start incorporating dynamic components into my static pages. None of this did I find. The book only served as a quick read to confirm what I already knew from several years of surfing, creating less an less amatuerish websites and the odd intranet site. The good points of the book are its attention to the procedure of getting teams onside to actually create the site from a concept plan through to finished article, complete with testing, revision and restructuring - and the various pitfalls to watch out for. Formalising the distinction between the oddly name functional and topical sites, cemented a design choice I am currently making. Various other design blunders are mentioned and compared, but no solution is really presented. Overall, worth a quick read, but not the design bible I was hoping for.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The most useful handbook Ive purchased all year!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Information Architecture Handbook: A Hands-on Approach to Structuring Successful Websites (Paperback)
Along with Don't Make Me Think, this book ought to be required reading by anyone working with interactive media. Mr. Reiss' clear explanations of complicated problems combined with good illustrations (sadly not in colour) make this the most useful handbook I've purchased all year. I was also pleased to see that the author lives on our side of the Atlantic, which provides a more well-rounded perspective than most other web publications. Quite frankly, don't design another site before you have read your Reiss!
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A classic in the making!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Information Architecture Handbook: A Hands-on Approach to Structuring Successful Websites (Paperback)
A treasure trove of practical info in an easy to read package. I would strongly urge everyone who has a Web site or is thinking about doing one to read this book as it will save them untold grief during development. No graphic design stuff that will be out of date in two months; this book deals with arranging Web information sensibly so people can find what they are looking for, which should be the most important design consideration of all. I suspect this book will go on to become a classic in the field. Great stuff!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
|