Web Application Design Handbook: Best Practices for Web-Based Software

It is very hard to find books that go beyond ABC. This is one of a few.

This book helped me a lot as in my day-to day work. I used it as powerful guide for the construction of the "nice and pleasant" presentation layer for our applications. Our customers were happy - and it is the best feedback somebody can give. I would definitely recommend this book to the wide range of Software Designers, Developers and Managers. Profession GUI always makes a difference!

As a technical writer in the computer industry, I can only say that I wish every application engineer would have this book on their shelf so that, inbetween downloading music, videotaping the next cubicle and creating web applications, every once in awhile they could take it down, read a few pages and learn to design better programs. The usability of a web application can make or break a rollout and when it's a badly designed system, it can confuse hundreds of people, require separate training, and just plain waste money. Perhaps managers of web application efforts should get this as a "gift" for their designers.

It has been stated that the majority of people creating maps today have little in the way of formal cartographic education or background. If this statement is true, then this is the ideal reference book for developers assigned the task of building web-based mapping applications. Although the Web Application Design Handbook is much more than a guide for developing interactive maps, its chapters on mapping will be especially helpful to developers who need to understand when to use geographic maps and how best to accomplish that. Beginning with basic map design concepts such as data formats, appropriate use of colour, scale, projection and dealing with map error; the authors then give the reader something further to consider while looking at the various uses of spatial statistics and discussing data classification and geographic distribution methods. This section then concludes with examples of various types of maps and how each can be used, which if nothing else, should serve to get a developer's creative juices flowing. Overall this should be an excellent reference for anyone designing and developing web-based applications, and as such, developers would be well advised to make sure they always have their own personal copy handy.

What is a web application? This is not such an easy question to answer, and rather than simply muddy the water further or leave the definition as an undirected exercise for the reader as do some of the other web application books available today, Fowler and Stanwick devote a chapter to it. Not only do they deliver a matrix that helps you to figure out where your project fits, they also get to the meat: based on where it fits, what design differences do you need to keep in mind? They then give you worksheets to fill out for yourself. After you decide where your project falls on the page-to-application continuum, you're ready to start figuring out its data architecture, layout, navigation, and presentation details. The first half of the book deals with these issues, including how the controls work for web applications, the differences between them and the controls used in more standard applications, and when to use which. Also, special topics such as searching, filtering, browsing, which have been honed and refined-and sometimes broken-by the size and breadth of the Web, are here summarized and presented in a way that makes them approachable and usable design achievable. For those with real-world responsibilities, there are excellent discussions of internationalization and accessibility, as well as techniques for appropriate use of HTML and CSS (cascading style sheets). Web-based software poses some real challenges, especially if it's going to be coded in straight HTML and HTML/forms (even if you use a little JavaScript on the side). Java Applets and Flash pose a slightly different set of challenges. Fowler and Stanwick wade right in, devoting chapters to all the critical things you'll need to know to design a usable application, from the browser framework through advice on input, data retrieval and output, through how to set it up for reasonable user interaction with output. And then they get to my favorite part, which is an excellent reference on what kinds of graphics you can use and when to use which. This part of the book covers graphs and charts, diagrams, and geographic maps. This is a better coverage of this subject than I have seen anywhere else, and it's only half of this book! In addition to being an impressive researcher, Susan Fowler is also an expert on the use of graphics in applications. Anyone who's attended a seminar by Edward Tufte or read one of his books knows how badly people misuse graphics. If only more designers of web applications (any applications, actually) will spend time with this book, we'll finally start to come out of that era into one in which meaning is quickly and easily understood from a graphical presentation. I'll be delighted when that happens. Until then, make yourself one of those who knows: read this book.