Product Description

The dot.com crash of 2000 was a wake-up call, and told us that the Web has far to go before achieving the acceptance predicted for it in '95. A large part of what is missing is quality; a primary component of the missing quality is usability. The Web is not nearly as easy to use as it needs to be for the average person to rely on it for everyday information, commerce, and entertainment.

In response to strong feedback from readers of GUI BLOOPERS calling for a book devoted exclusively to Web design bloopers, Jeff Johnson calls attention to the most frequently occurring and annoying design bloopers from real web sites he has worked on or researched. Not just a critique of these bloopers and their sites, this book shows how to correct or avoid the blooper and gives a detailed analysis of each design problem.

Hear Jeff Johnson's interview podcast on software and website usability at the University of Canterbury (25 min.)

* Discusses in detail 60 of the most common and critical web design mistakes, along with the solutions, challenges, and tradeoffs associated with them.

* Covers important subject areas such as: content, task-support, navigation, forms, searches, writing, link appearance, and graphic design and layout.

* Organized and formatted based on the results of its own usability test performed by web designers themselves.

* Features its own web site (www.web-bloopers.com)with new and emerging web design no-no's (because new bloopers are born every day) along with a much requested printable blooper checklist for web designers and developers to use.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109393 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 344 pages

Review
"Jeff Johnson's sharp eye for usability, coupled with plenty of examples and recommendations, can transform even the dullest and most complicated site into a sleek example of Web usability."
--Nina Malakooty on Firstmonday.org

"Engaging, Educational, Enjoyable, Erudite: Excellent!"
--Dr. Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group

"Many of the examples are priceless - just reading them made my blood boil with recognition."
--Howard Tamler, Principal, HT Consulting

"If you are part of a Web team, Web Bloopers is a must-have book. If you know anyone who is developing Web sites, give them this book as a present. It's fun and it's informative...Get and read this book. Give it to your favorite Web developers--and to your least favorite Web developers. You'll all learn from it."
--Ginny Redish in Technical Communication

"Each section puts a name to a common mistake, gives several real-world examples of its occurrence, and then explains what the site's designers should have done instead." - C/C++ Journal

From the Back Cover
Engaging, Educational, Enjoyable, Erudite: Excellent!

Many of the examples are priceless - just reading them made my blood boil with recognition
Will your web site pass the test? Or will site visitors be gnashing their teeth and shaking their fists? Will any customers ever come back to your site? Save yourself the embarrassment and don't be caught with your Web Bloopers showing. Read this book and find out now if your web site commits any heinous bloopers.

This book is not just about how to make web sites pretty, nor is it just another tirade about what is wrong with the web. It goes in-depth and grapples with challenging usability issues at the heart of many web bloopers. It offers solid sound advice on avoiding or fixing these problems. It is written with a sense of humor and is sprinkled with relevant cartoons along with numerous screen images illustrating the problems and their solutions. Reading this book will help make your web sites better.

Features:
* Discusses in detail 60 of the most common and critical web design mistakes, along with the solutions, challenges, and tradeoffs associated with them.

* Covers important subject areas such as: content, task-support, navigation, forms, searches, writing, link appearance, and graphic design and layout.

* Organized and formatted based on the results of its own usability test performed by web designers themselves.

* Features it's own web site (www.web-bloopers.com)with new and emerging web design no-no's (because new bloopers are born every day) along with a much requested printable blooper checklist for web designers and developers to use.

About the Author

Jeff Johnson is president and principal consultant at UI Wizards, Inc., a product usability consulting firm (www.uiwizards.com). He has worked in the field of Human-Computer Interaction since 1978--as software designer and implementer, usability tester, manager, researcher at several computer and telecommunications companies, and consultant. In the course of his career, he has written many articles, cowritten several books, and given numerous presentations on a variety of topics in Human-Computer Interaction.

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Customer Reviews

Other usability books are better
I found this book to be a bit lacking. I have read most of the usability books on the market, and this book did not cover anything new. The author did not go into the science behind the bloopers and does not cite any studies that were conducted. Rather, he uses pictures to back up each blooper. The book is 60-70% pictures. The layout of the book made it hard to read, since the pictures constantly interrupted the text flow.

You can find the list of bloopers on the author's Web site and I do not think this book adds much additional value, since most experienced Web developers have already seen examples of each blooper. You can find better descriptions of usability problems by doing a Web search. This book would be appropriate for a new Web designer/developer, or someone who has not already read much about usability.

In conclusion, most Web developers would be better off with the book Don't Make Me Think, a Jakob Nielsen book, or an Information Architecture book.

An excellent reference and check-list
If you get paid to develop a website, you should have this book. As the title says, "Web Bloopers" details 60 of the most common (and annoying) design mistakes committed by web developers and then tells you how to avoid them.

Each blooper is explained in words as well as in pictures (snapshots are taken of various sites around the web), and then the author explains why the blooper is so bad and how to avoid it. As with any design, there are trade offs, sometimes you have to commit one blooper to avoid another, but as long as you realize that's what you're doing, you're gold. This book is very well organized. The title of each blooper is a good summary of the problem. The index in the back helps you to quickly find examples both good and bad (and it also lets you see if you're company has been made an example of). The author even points out some blooper's in his own publisher's website.

If everyone who is responsible for creating websites took the time to read this book, think about the user, how intuitive their site is, and how easy it is to glean information from it, the Internet would be a much nicer and friendlier place. I highly recommend this one.

Valuable concepts, presented in a fun-to-read way
I saw the author's presentation at SD West 05, and that made me even more interested in reading this book. Jeff obviously understands the material very well, and he explains the issues eloquently. Fortunately, his book is at least as impressive as his verbal presentation.

As a Web/database developer (and small business owner) I have been steadily working my way through his "Web Bloopers" book. It's great stuff, and I enjoy reading it slowly and carefully pondering each issue. The more I read, the more I realize how desperately my own company's Web site needs to be improved.

One of my clients is tasked with improving an intranet site at a large Bay area computer company, and I've just recommended this book to the client. If the senior stakeholders read the book, it's likely to greatly the odds of project success.

Many IT-related books have good ideas. What makes Jeff's book so special is that he makes the learning process so enjoyable, with his interesting and funny real-world examples.