Great Web Architecture

I've been reading all the rants about this book, and I only kind of disagree. It's certainly not about "Architecture" of web sites, as the name would have you believe. I bought it for its intended (but mis-named) purpose: I wanted to learn about UI and navigational considerations. It's an excellent book for that. It discusses solutions to different types of web site goals and how the site designers approached these challenges. One particularly useful example was Andres' evaluation of the (pre-redesign) Salon.com site. Andres considers each navigational element on the site (the home page's article layout, the bar navigation along the top, the related article information on the sides, and the base navigation along the bottom) and explains the reasoning behind each choice. Another example that specifically helped me in the design of my own website was the Braun/Gilette example. Andres discussed the virtues of having each sub-brand be in a page-style all its own.Web UI books are difficult to write well, largely because the information is so timely and becomes outdated so quickly. The book has fantastic, full-color screenshots of each page in discussion so that, even if the page is no longer live on the web, it's still available for discussion.It's probably the most valuable UI book on my shelves (and there are a lot). People who didn't like it had purchased it under the false pretense that it was an Architecture book. Well, it's *absolutely* not that. It's a Web UI Design book, and a really good one.

Real world solutions to the challenges every Web designer faces when developing an efficient, user-friendly navigation system. Great color illustrations support the text, plus excellent insight into the thought processes that should be a part of the site development process. This book has a lot to offer the new, as well as seasoned, Web professional not just from an organizational/navigation standpoint, but also in the development of graphical themes and color schemes that add visual interest and identity. The only downside I found is a number of the sites used as examples in the book have already changed, so it's difficult to go on-line and study some of the sample sites in-depth. But, then again, change is the nature of the Web.

Great overview of solid web site design. Many of the books in this category are too focused on flashy graphics and effects. This books features good design that doesn't go overboard. This book has a lot of examples that are genuinely useful sites not just sites with lots of gratuitous eye candy.