Designing Websites for Every Audience

by Ilise Benun

An excellent resource for all emerging and established Web designers, this book provides detailed analysis about what works and what doesn't when it comes to usability. More than 20 examples of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 158180301X
• ISBN13: 9781581803013
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation
• Length: 143 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.6" x 11.0"

Customer Reviews

Designind websites tailored to your users

There are a lot of books on the market today that teach website design. Very few teach the importance of creating a web site that is friendly and usable so the visitor has a positive experience and wants to come back. "Designing Websites for Every Audience" falls into that second category. It does not teach HTML or CSS or anything like that but what it does teach is much more important - how to create a website that people can use and want to return to time after time. The beginning of the book covers pretty typical usability information, but starting with Chapter 2 the book separates itself from the crowd. At this point Ilise Benum starts several chapters that not only discuss web site design but also tailors that discussion to specific types of users. A website designed for learners should be different from one designed for shoppers, or one designed for transactors, or one designed for business browsers. Ilise Benum goes through these and other user types as she discusses how websites should be designed just for them. Using specific examples from existing websites, she discusses usability factors before and after changing them. Complete with multiple detailed illustrations and analysis it is a highly recommended book.

Tremendously useful book!

This 144-page paperback is tremendously useful for web designers looking for both inspiration and instruction. The before-and-after redesigns of 25 different real-world web sites are examined in depth, with the design goals, user profiles, thoughtful observations, and unexpected discoveries enhanced through the use of full color screen shots. The chapters are organized by six different audience profiles, so no matter what type of site you're developing--commercial, community, educational, entertainment--you're bound to find tons of applicable ideas and expert knowledge upon which to draw.

One for every web designer's/developer's library

I consider myself a print designer. But, over the past couple of years, website design has grown to account for almost 50% of my business' revenue. So, I guess it may be time to change the way I see myself. During that transition, I learned that web work demands a different approach. Sure, print and web design share a lot of stuff. Typography, images, concept and layout among other things. The difference lies in how people use it. Print tends to be static. As such, folks often take their time mulling over the material. The web is a load more dynamic. People want and expect ease-of-use, instant information, intuitive navigation and aesthetics with functionality.If you're like me, you've found that many of the rules you were taught in art school don't all together apply to the web. That's where Ilise Benun's new book, Designing Websites://For Every Audience comes in real handy. This little tome is jam-packed with great info about usability, form, function and resources. It's found a comfy home on the table next to my Mac. You've all seen design books out there that promise the world, but donÃ*t teach you anything you can use in real life. You've likely shelled out your fair of moolah only to be disappointed. Designing Websites://For Every Audience delivers the goods and is worth every penny (or currency du jour).Ilise starts off by addressing usability Ð what it is and why it's important. The nice thing is her approach. It's not a boring dictate of rules, but more of a discussion with comments from real-world designers and usability experts. The pages that follow contain a wealth of great information about what works and what doesn't along with all the whys. She writes about research and audience profiling, understanding memory, audience demographics and more. Perhaps the biggest point she makes is that the audience isn't just faceless "users," theyÃ*re people. They're your mother, father, siblings, neighbors and co-workers. We need to see the audience as such and not simply nebulous "clicks" and stats on our site logs.Beyond that, she distills web audiences down into six groups: learners; shoppers; connection seekers; transactors; business browsers and fun seekers. I found this very valuable in understanding what folks want and need during their visits to sites.The chapters begin with a typical audience profile that features their demographic, web habits, preferences and pet peeves. When you get into a site design, it can be easy to stray from the path if you're not careful. These profiles are a great way to keep you on the straight and narrow. They also serve as a good start when developing a typical audience profile for your web projects.Each audience group section contains case studies that go into great detail about the hows and whys of the design. For instance, the "Learners" section covers a wide span of topics: The Organization; The Site; The Users and Their Goals; Goals of the Redesign; Navigation and Typography. The words come straight

The visual side of Web marketing

This is a solid book on Web site design and online marketing, but of course there are many solid books on these topics already published. What distinguishes Ilise's book is its emphasis on the visual. Oversize pages and four-color printing on glossy stock allow you to really see what the Web sites she is analyzing look like much better than a conventional black and white book. Each site review presents the inside story on the strategy of the site plus tips you can glean from the sites and apply to your own Web work. A+.

Design around your user and thier tasks

Designing Websites:// for every audience is not the typical web design book. The organization and typography are different then most books, but lend themselves quite well to looking at web sites, good web site design and selected web site audiences. Designing Websites indicates that a good web site is one that meets the needs of its user not is designers. The first chapter is a general introduction to the importance of and the components that make up web site usability.After chapter one the book continues to look at usability from the eyes of six different types (categories) of site users and what they are trying to accomplish when using a site. The six categories of users that the book examines are as follows:Learners - seek education on either a specific topic or general categoryShoppers - to acquire all the information needed for a purchase and make a purchaseConnection Seekers - to meet people with varied backgrounds and culturesTransactors - to streamline daily tasks like banking by using online servicesBusiness Browsers - to dispense or gather information relating to their businessFun Seekers - to spend leisure time exploring quality entertainmentOne interesting point is that these categories of users are not necessarily limited by demographics, but the role that person is playing at a point in time. For example, maybe someone is a learner before work in the morning, after work they maybe a shopper looking for needed gift and after that a fun seeker. What you learn is that the same person plays different roles and is likely using different sites for different activates during the course of a day. Designing Websites talks about the factors leading to good site design such as a user centric design process and personas. The book mentions factors that go into good design like fonts, colors, structure, navigation and methods for achieving consistent look and feel like style sheets. This book is not a technical reference (and that is part of what is so good about it). Finally the book uses a case study (many case studies) approach to look at sites and why design and redesign decisions where made to meet the needs of the user. The template approach used to analyze each case study makes comparing cases easy and shows you how to identify key factors in site design and redesign.This is a great resource for business owners, managers and non-technical users to use to make sure their site really addresses the needs of their users and perhaps helps them figure out who their users really are and what they want to do. I highly recommended this book.