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Designing Web Navigation Optimizing the User Experience

By James Kalbach
August 2007
Pages: 412
ISBN 10: 0-596-52810-8 | ISBN 13: 9780596528102
(Average of 3 Customer Reviews)

Description

Thoroughly rewritten for today's web environment, this bestselling book offers a fresh look at a fundamental topic of web site navigation design. Amid all the changes to the Web in the past decade, the basic problems of creating a good web navigation system remain. Designing Web Navigation demonstrates that good navigation is not about technology-it's about the ways people find information, and how you guide them.
Full Description

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Featured customer reviews

A real eye-opener!,  November 25 2007
Submitted by Edwin V.   [Respond | View]

This is really a fabulous book! It puts exactly under words what each designer tries to do every day. The screenshots are very nice and are a real enrichment of the content. Also nice to see is that new web applications are used, with all innovation that these applications tend to introduce. This makes the book a book of this time, reflecting not only the experiences of the past, but also the new techniques from the last years.

A real recommendation for everyone trying to build web navigation!


Improving navigation,  November 06 2007
Submitted by Stéphane (NamurLUG)   [Respond | View]

In the book "Designing Web Nagiation", James Kalbach explains what makes a website usable for Humans. In order to achieve this goal, he has separated the book in 3 parts. Pay attention to remember during the reading that the subject of the book is navigation and not the creation of websites.

Before having a brief view of the content of each part, you should understand that the navigation is the first mechanism that we face when we are surfing on websites. It is very important because it generates the first feelings that we will associate with the website. For example, if it is frustration, there are less chances that you will visit this website again.

In part I, we find a lot of interesting information on the theory of navigation. There are explanations on why people try to find information and how they do that. The beginning of the book is more theoretical than the end. I say so because there is a deep presentation of every navigation mechanism used on Internet. In conclusion, this part is really interesting to find arguments to criticize the navigation of websites.

In part II, we find a framework to construct the navigation mechanisms of a website. Each activity in the framework (analysis, architecture, layout) has an equivalent in software engineering (analysis of the domain, architecture, implementation). It is valuable for people that are used to the creation of softwares. There is also an interesting chapter on the presentation of the solution to people involved in the project (customers, graphical designers, etc). The main problem in this part is that there are different examples for different activities. The understanding of the framework and how to use it would have benefited from an unique example evolving through the activities. There is also a lack of links with the first part, which could be interesting as arguments for the presentation activity.

Part III is less important, navigation is presented in different contexts (web applications, social tagging systems).

A special attention was attached to issues related to people with visual disabilities.

The book is made from 400 pages in color and there are a lot of up-to-date examples. It is really impressive.

In conclusion, it is a nice book to read if you want to have a successful website. I had a lot of good ideas emerging from the reading of each parts. To avoid forgetting them, I advise you to have always a sheet of paper not too far from you.


Mr. Kalbach thanks for a great read.,  September 18 2007
Submitted by joshSVUG   [Respond | View]

As an application developer, I found the book extremely useful as it provides a vocabulary which one can use to discuss the User Experience on one’s web site/application. The many examples (screen-shots) of web sites from around the world are extremely helpful as they demonstrate the design concepts discussed in the book.

The sections regarding Accessibility and Internationalization are indispensable. These two topics are critical for a successful web site or application.

I would have liked to see more content regarding web applications as used in the enterprise like Client Relationship Management. These applications aren’t necessarily Rich Web Application (Web 2.0) as covered in chapter 13.

The full color print lends itself to the many screen-shots and diagrams, but the use of font type and color may be excessive (light gray on light blue doesn’t really work, page 24).

The only upset I have is the page width; your eyes scan the text in an uncomfortable manner causing “eye fatigue”.

All in all – this book is a must.

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Media reviews
"Designing Web Navigation seems to have it all in one place, including practice discussion at the end of each chapter and further reading recommendations. The amount of information is impressive. There is not a page without a visual aid of some sort. I certainly like having lots of screenshots of real sites with the commentary of the author...This book is chock full of the right material that belongs on your shelf for when you need it, and you will. "
-- Brett Merkey, Amazon.com


"This isn't a book in which the author has thrown in a grab bag of his experiences together and presented them with splashy graphics. Instead, Kalbach breaks out concepts, often presenting conflicting points of view (he mentions Alan Cooper's call to dispense with navigation entirely) and embellishes it with research from the fields of usability and human factors. This approach makes the book feel academic but it doesn't take away from the readability of the text at all...Congratulations to O'Reilly and the book's design team."
-- Aspi Havewala, Desicritics.org


"This handsome volume will help web designers learn how to analyze their business needs and translate them into a workable navigation system for their users. Unlike some other design books, James Kalbach doesn’t shove his own design principals down the reader’s throat. Instead, he cites use cases and usability studies that will help readers figure out which design approach will best suit their needs."
-- Susan Prosser, author of Filemaker Pro 9: The Missing Manual, Amazon.com



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• Table of Contents
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"This book is chock full of the right material that belongs on your shelf for when you need it, and you will. "
--Brett Merkey, Amazon.com