 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Web Design and Usability For the Bookshelf Major Keary |
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Some interesting titles have been recently released on a subject that is attracting quite a body of literature.
Web Design Workshop
Robin Williams - the good looking one, not the actor - has written many books on the principles of graphic and Web design. In this instance she teams up with two other designers to present a "guide to more advanced design and Web principles", Web Design Workshop, which is a visually impressive book. Looking good attracts attention, but it is content that holds the reader or viewer. Here the content has substance, not just fairy floss.
To design a good Web site requires more than knowledge - just as singing lessons won't make someone who is tone-deaf into an opera singer (or anything other than an embarrassment). However, aspiring Web designers can derive ideas from the work of others.
The book is for "working or aspiring" designers who want to know what they should be considering when planning and designing a Web site. It does not just address the rules of good design, but also examines mechanical and management issues. Furthermore, it explains by example why one thing is good design and another thing is poor design.
This is amongst the best all-round, practical texts on Web design that I have seen. Its scope is broad, but it is detailed and delves into many issues that are not usually addressed in design-centric books.
| Tollett, Williams, and Rohr: Robin Williams Web Design Workshop ISBN 0-201-74867-3 Published by Peachpit, 369 pp., RRP $84.95 incl. GST |
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Fresh Styles
Those of us who lack the genes of artistic excellence usually rely on the work of others as a model. Fresh
Styles for Web Designers has the sub-title, eye candy from the underground. I am sure that has
some meaning for American readers, but when an author talks about "gothic organicism" (I have to check and
recheck the spelling to avoid any Freudian slip) it suggests deep, creative art.
If you don't belong to the usability school, which holds that "a site requires more than front-end
style to succeed", but see "design on the corporate Web [as] bland, passionless, and unengaging", this book
should interest you. It examines ten styles:
Gothic Organic; Grid-Based Icon; Lo-Fi Grunge; Paper Bag; Mondrian Poster; Pixelated Punk Rock; SuperTiny
SimCity; HTMinimaLism; Drafting Table/Transformer; and 1950s Hello Kitty. Each style is described and
illustrated with case studies (many URLs are listed). The discussion is not just about artistic
considerations, but covers details of the particular mechanics involved in achieving the end results -
the focus is not just on art.
I have to declare being in the Nielsen Web usability camp, and that the designs presented in Fresh
Styles don't especially attract me. At the same time Curt Cloninger puts forward good arguments. Even if
you are not tempted by "eye candy from the underground", this is well worth reading for its approach to Web
design style issues -both the ideas and techniques (who would have thought of scanning an old paper bag for
an interesting background). Who knows, perhaps you will be able to slip "gothic organicism" into a
conversation without stumbling.
Curt Cloninger's fresh styles are not as diametrically opposed to the formal, management-oriented,
structured approach to Web design as a superficial reading of the book might suggest; his concern is that the
usability approach can lead to bland, colourless design. It's all a matter of balance and tradeoffs, as
readers are constantly reminded in the `usability' literature. The problem is that if he who pays the piper
is a Philistine, then discordant sounds that pass as music may well be result.
| Curt Cloninger: Fresh Styles for Web Designers ISBN 0-7357-1074-0 Published by New Riders, 211 pp., RRP $73.95 incl. GST |
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Usability for the Web
A formal, management-oriented, structured approach to Web design does not have to stifle artistic
initiative, but not all designers have the luxury of time to experiment. Designing a Web site for an
enterprise requires careful planning on many levels, of which aesthetic design is just one, and the design
team is expected to get it right the first time.
In this professional text from Morgan Kaufmann "art" does not appear in the index, but "cost" does. However,
"graphic design" has a number of references and the authors have this to say: "Graphic design for the Web
requires an understanding of the goals and tradeoffs involved in the development of a relevant graphical
display. It should support the user and facilitate communication of the intended message".
Designing Web sites That Work: Usability for the Web, is about managing the design process, the term
design being used in its widest sense. The aim is to design a site that satisfies usability criteria:
functionality, efficient, easy to learn, easy to remember, error tolerant, and subjectively pleasing. One
notes that 'pleasing' is last on the list. However, Later on the authors list ten Web guidelines in which
visual design comes fifth.
This is a practical, systematic examination of the real world in which Web designers and Web project managers
have to work. It addresses non-aesthetic issues, such as forms and checklists, that are essential to a usable
commercial Web site. It is not a text for those who want to put up their own personal home page, or a small
business that wants no more than to have a Web presence that advertises a limited, static product line.
For the person who commissions a Web site, or who is responsible for supervising a site design project, this
is a valuable resource for keeping up with what the design team is supposed to be doing. For the project
manager, or a designer who is putting forward a proposal, it explains in detail what an enterprise client
wants by way of accountability, progress reports, and quality control.
A thorough coverage of all the issues, from management considerations to the mechanics of the Web, that
deserves to be read by executives, managers, project leaders, designers, and anyone who aspires to a
professional level of Web design.
| Brinck, Gergle, and Wood: Designing Web sites That Work: Usability for the Web ISBN 1-55860-658-0 Published by Morgan Kaufmann, 481 pp., RRP $126.50 incl. GST |
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Reprinted from the July 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
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