Usability for the Web : Designing Web Sites That Work

Every stage in the design of a new web site is an opportunity to meet or miss deadlines and budgetary goals. Every stage is an opportunity to boost or undercut the site's usability.

This book tells you how to design usable web sites in a systematic process applicable to almost any business need. You get practical advice on managing the project and incorporating usability principles from the project's inception. This systematic usability process for web design has been developed by the authors and proven again and again in their own successful businesses.

A beacon in a sea of web design titles, this book treats web site usability as a preeminent, practical, and realizable business goal, not a buzzword or abstraction. The book is written for web designers and web project managers seeking a balance between usability goals and business concerns.

* Examines the entire spectrum of usability issues, including architecture, navigation, graphical presentation, and page structure.
* Explains clearly the steps relevant to incorporating usability into every stage of the web development process, from requirements to tasks analysis, prototyping and mockups, to user testing, revision, and even postlaunch evaluations.
* Includes forms, checklists, and practical techniques that you can easily incorporate into your own projects at http://www.mkp.com/uew/.

Tom Brinck is chief usability officer at Diamond Bullet Design, a firm specializing in web site design and usability consulting. Tom has M.S. degrees in computer science and cognitive psychology from Stanford University and the University of Michigan. He has done user interface research at Apple Computer, Toshiba, and Bellcore and is currently an adjunct faculty member at University of Michigan's School of Information.

Darren Gergle is a Ph.D. student in human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. Before beginning his graduate work, he was lead designer at Diamond Bullet Design.

Scott D. Wood is a senior scientist at Soar Technology, an R&D company focused on cognitive modeling, AI, and information visualization. He has more than ten years experience in software development, e-business consulting, cognitive modeling, and HCI. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science and engineering from the University of Michigan.