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Web ReDesign: Workflow that Works
There are books that attempt to impart the divine wisdom of consulting. There are books that detail best practices in graphic and usability design. There are books that detail the intricacies of software development. There are books that detail project management and surviving the technology lifecycle. But there are very few books that explain how all of these pieces work together successfully. Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler have pulled it off with masterful perfection in their new book Web ReDesign: Workflow that Works.
People, projects, technology, and clients do not work in a vacuum from one another. Process is the magnet that holds them all together. Goto and Cotler offer professionals a comprehensive "Core Process" to guide them through their Web projects. While other books may explain some of the tricks of the trade no book has really placed all of these best practices under the umbrella of a process or methodology. Perhaps that's because a lot of these processes have been closely guarded secrets in the highly competitive interactive services industry. It's almost as if Goto and Cotler are on a humanitarian mission to save clients and projects from future punishment under the hands of companies using poor or in some cases no processes at all.
Web ReDesign's Core Process is a five-step approach to producing successful Web projects. The five steps are Defining the Project, Developing Site Structure, Visual Design & Testing, Production & QA, and Launch & Beyond. And each phase is broken down further into steps and checkpoints in splendid detail. As someone who started out doing this kind of work I found myself making mental checkmarks throughout the book. "Did that. Did something like that. Man, it took me years to learn that I should do that. Where was this book six years ago when I needed it?"
Perhaps a book like this wasn't really possible until now. The profession had to go through its ugly duckling stages where individuals and companies tried to figure out what worked and what didn't. Grafting parts from consulting, marketing, project management, and software development into some freakish process monster that often resulted in turning clients into an angry torch-carrying mob. Thankfully Web ReDesign has finally arrived and it is certainly no Bride of Frankenstein. The processes are spelled out in clear language and the authors repeat certain key points in case you missed something along the way.
It's easy to get sidetracked reading Web ReDesign with all the sidebars, charts, sample forms, and interviews. But this is a good thing! The tips and sidebars along the way spell out in greater detail how to put the process into action, and what to do when trouble arises. The forms and charts are some of the most thorough ever published, and thankfully you can download most of them on the companion website located at www.web-redesign.com. Throughout the book Goto and Cotler call on experts like Lynda Weinman, David Siegel, Jeffrey Zeldman, and Jakob Nielsen to offer their perspective on a given topic. The overall design and layout work done by the folks at New Riders is phenomenal and the visual presentation of the book is really first rate.
The one big question I have about the books is its title: Web ReDesign. That's because this is a book that can be used for first time Internet initiatives just as well as for redesign projects. Perhaps the authors had some dual purpose in mind for the title: If you're doing this for the first time, you need to rethink the conventional wisdom that Web projects are a black art with no best practices. Or if you didn't use a process the first time, then you've probably learned how valuable it is to have a proven methodology to avoid repeating mistakes.
Goto and Cotler have produced a book that no Web professional, whether they're a consultant, project manager, designer, programmer, or specialist, should be without. Web ReDesign is one of those books that should be kept close at hand during projects of all shapes and sizes. It won't take long before your copy is either severely dog-eared or has post-it flags sticking up throughout it. Get your hands on a copy before the competition does.
You can purchase this book at Fatbrain. Have your own book review to contribute? Check out the book review guidelines, then write away!
-sting3r
Cleaning toilets, thats a very important service and support business :)
Sure, but the article's top paragraph has the book title linking to Amazon.com. Is the boycott over, or is that link there so people can check out the reviews on Amazon, then buy the book from someone else (as I do)?
Java is the blue pill
Choose the red pill
I am biased, but the books I've looked at often are gibberish or common sense. As others have stated, anyone who is a serious professional focused on producing quality already has a good grasp of project development.
People tend to confuse bad developers and managers with a lack of process. If a person is focused on getting the job done and fluid operation, process isn't critical. Sure process helps improve metrics of performance and efficiency, but a process is only as powerful as the people using them. I've seen the implementation and lack of process kill projects. I've also seen situations where process was organic and worked fluid. At the core of it all is "who" you work with and now "how". Of all the MBA's I've met, those who stick to text books fail miserably. The best managers I've had didn't get a MBA degree, nor do they hold to a set of rules like pilars of heaven. As Lao Tzu said, "the only certainty is uncertainty." More people should read classical literature(all languages) and realize none of these problems are new.
I haven't read the book, but from the description, I wouldn't bother. Get a job and learn first hand. That's the real way to figure out what works for you and those you work with. No book can teach you how a real person works.
Think about it, if you design software that has a UI, communications protocols, and a backend of some kind, you already have done everything a designer for a major web site.
And just to preemptively deal with all of the replies that will tell me I don't "get it" - I have spent five years developing major sites for the busiest web site in the world.
Steve McConnell wrote some great books about software project management that are surely more worthwhile than this dumbed-down approach that somehow tries to distinguish HTML as its own beast.
Project planning, design, test, debug....how is this different than a software project????
The companion web site of the book (at www.web-redesign.com) fails to validate as standard HTML when tested by validator.w3.org. What else needs to be said?
That it's a clear, well-organized, visually pleasing, fairly low-chartjunk site. W3C validation is a good thing, but it is not the defining standard of what makes a good site. Most sites that I've seen with the "W3C Validated" sticker are messy, ugly, unnavigable sites that have "geek with no design skill" written all over them.
So yes, standards compliance is a good thing. But I think the point of the book was making a web site that actually succeeds with real people, not validators. There own site seems to be a decent example. That's what else needs to be said.
You're utterly right. Standards have done nothing for us, and won't ever.
... not prevent us. Learn about the stuff. Don't just stick to HTML 3.2 ... the Web has moved on.)
I know that I love testing my pages in all the different flavors of IE on Win, Mac and Linux. And, its even better making sure the NN 4.x and Netscape 6 work too. I mean, some people like being creative with their time, but me, I like screwing with different CSS, JS and HTML flavors of the different browsers.
I also agree that XSLT is a total waste of time. Its not like its supported by any browsers. Well, it is supported by numerious server technologies, and is used to render content in HTML lots of places on the Web. And, I guess if you really look at it, it probably never was intended for the browser anyway. But, you're right! Just because I don't fully understand it, its a total waste of time!
And, you are so dead on with the W3C. I mean, any organization that could produce XML 1.0 is a bogus waste of time. What is XML ever going to do for us? It doesn't even have a FONT tag!
(Come on man, I hope you were kidding. Standards allow us to do our job
--Mark.
It seems this book is aimed at advertising and graphic designers who are still attempting to dabble in website design. In that sense, this book will probably be successful: there are thousands of shops out there skimming this surface, and who would welcome a book about basics like this.
davejenkins.com |
they may change details.
look - take bridges as an example.
we use new materials, new techniques, new requirements, but the basics are still the same.
what you are talking about is exactly the problem that i'm trying to expose. You THINK that every time you sit down to a computer that what you're doing has no relation to anything that anyone has ever done before, so you make up a new technique to get it done, instead of standing on the shoulders of the really smart (tm) people before you.
you're project, isnt different, it isnt new.
... hi bingo