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Matthew Linderman

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Defensive Design for the Web: How to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points Paperback – 2 Mar. 2004

by 37signals (Author), Matthew Linderman (Author), Jason Fried (Author)

4.4 24 ratings

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Let's admit it: Things will go wrong online. No matter how carefully you design a site, no matter how much testing you do, customers still encounter problems. So how do you handle these inevitable breakdowns? With defensive design. In this book, the experts at 37signals (whose clients include Microsoft, Qwest, Monster.com, and Clear Channel) will show you how.

Defensive design is like defensive driving brought to the Web. The same way drivers must always be on the lookout for slick roads, reckless drivers, and other dangerous scenarios, site builders must constantly search for trouble spots that cause visitors confusion and frustration. Good site defense can make or break the customer experience.

In these pages, you'll see hundreds of real-world examples from companies like Amazon, Google, and Yahoo that show the right (and wrong) ways to get defensive. You'll learn 40 guidelines to prevent errors and rescue customers if a breakdown occurs. You'll also explore how to evaluate your own site's defensive design and improve it over the long term.

This book is a must read for designers, programmers, copywriters, and any other site decision-makers who want to increase usability and customer satisfaction.

Product description

From the Back Cover

Let's admit it: Things will go wrong online. No matter how carefully you design a site, no matter how much testing you do, customers still encounter problems. So how do you handle these inevitable breakdowns? With defensive design. In this book, the experts at 37signals (whose clients include Microsoft, Qwest, Monster.com, and Clear Channel) will show you how.

Defensive design is like defensive driving brought to the Web. The same way drivers must always be on the lookout for slick roads, reckless drivers, and other dangerous scenarios, site builders must constantly search for trouble spots that cause visitors confusion and frustration. Good site defense can make or break the customer experience.

In these pages, you'll see hundreds of real-world examples from companies like Amazon, Google, and Yahoo that show the right (and wrong) ways to get defensive. You'll learn 40 guidelines to prevent errors and rescue customers if a breakdown occurs. You'll also explore how to evaluate your own site's defensive design and improve it over the long term.

This book is a must read for designers, programmers, copywriters, and any other site decision-makers who want to increase usability and customer satisfaction.

About the Author

Chicago-based 37signals (www.37signals.com) is a team of web design and usability specialists dedicated to simple, and usable, customer-focused design. 37signals popularized the concept of contingency/defensive design in various articles and white papers and via the web site DesignNotFound.com. The team also has conducted workshops and presentations on the topic for a variety of conferences and companies.

37signals clients include Microsoft, Qwest, Monster.com, Clear Channel, Panera Bread, Meetup, Performance Bike, and Transportation.com. Work has been featured in the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Washington Post, on CNN, and in numerous other publications. Team members have appeared as featured speakers at AIGA Risk/Reward, Activ8, South By Southwest, HOW Design Conference, ForUse, and other conferences. Additional information can be found at www.37signals.com.

This book is authored by Matthew Linderman with Jason Fried. Other members of the 37signals team include Ryan Singer and Scott Upton.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Riders; 1st edition (2 Mar. 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 073571410X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0735714106
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 17.15 x 1.27 x 21.59 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 942,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 209 in Website Design
- 556 in Web Design Applications
- 688 in Graphics & Multimedia Programming

Customer reviews:
4.4 24 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

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Scott Matthewman

Clear, concise and inspiring

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 May 2004

Murphy's Law applies just as much in the online world as in the physical one: if something can go wrong, it will. How we deal with those situations is what makes the difference between good web designers and great web designers.
37signals' book throws its readers straight in there, no messing about: screen grabs of sites, pointing out the bad design decisions and highlighting the good. Simply laid out, 37signals' book allows the examples to speak for themselves, adding just enough information to back up their reasoning and no more.
Peppered throughout the book are a selection of "head-to-head" comparisons: on the left-hand page, a site that makes a fundamental mistake; on the right, a competitor that gets it right.
This book can't make a bad designer a good one. But if you're a good designer, it will help you improve no end.

17 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amsterdamned

Too little substance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 April 2009

This book points out the blatantly obvious, and that's not a problem in itself because common sense often only becomes obvious once somebody points it out; and if all these issues were so obvious to all but the novice we wouldn't be coming across them constantly.

However, this book has far too little substance to be worth anything like its cover price. It glosses over the problems of forms, particularly those to be filled in by non-Americans, and the rest is just too light. This information would be far better presented on a website or as a free to download e-book. Absolutely not worth the money - there are far better usability books out there.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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Sandip Kar

Very Useful Book for all the designers and developers

Reviewed in India on 25 November 2018

Verified Purchase

Very Useful Book for all the designers and developers

Marc Beaudry

A must if you designing web apps

Reviewed in Canada on 26 September 2013

Verified Purchase

This is an easy to read, easy to understand and logical book. If you are a web developer and have to make any decision related to user interface elements, this is a must in your reference library.

Mark Harmon

This Book Makes You Aware of Not-So-Obvious Issues Your Site Must Defend Against

Reviewed in the United States on 21 September 2012

Verified Purchase

As a former marketing consultant and current Internet marketing manager who does a lot of web site work, I can definitely say that this is a book that every web designer should read. It is very easy to overlook many of the points listed in this book while building or administering your site, unless you have read this book. You'll find yourself noticing a lot of flaws in other sites after reading this book. This insightful book will also point out to you (or at least it did to me) a number of web site errors that I never noticed, but now really bug me. This is an easy but very informative read that I recommend to every webmaster and web designer.

2 people found this helpful

stuckinamoment

ユーザビリティの入門に

Reviewed in Japan on 21 May 2008

Verified Purchase

本書では、筆者が、さまざまなサイトのよい例と悪い例と挙げて、トピック毎に説明しています。エラーメッセージや、フォームの配置、文言、レイアウト、画面遷移、サポートシステムのメールなどさまざまなことに言及しています。

筆者は37signalsというRuby on Railsでも有名な会社に勤めています。ユーザビリティという分野になかなか時間をさくことができない人でも、この本を眺めることによって、意識が高まると思います。

One person found this helpful

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O Daisy

Excellent for enhancing the user exprience

Reviewed in the United States on 8 November 2004

Verified Purchase

I've made this book compulsory reading for everyone involved in web or internal system projects. It does not answer the questions or give a perfect example for every situation that comes along, but it does get you thinking about what would the appropriate message be for my situation based on some solid principles.

I agree with some of the reviewers that it is very basic - but most people don't get the basics right! It's entertaining and enlightening and will quickly get you on the right path to providing a better user experience.

11 people found this helpful

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Defensive Design for the Web: How to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points Paperback – 2 Mar. 2004