Deliver First Class Web Sites 95
Michael J. Ross writes "Experienced and conscientious Web developers, in their efforts to learn from the mistakes of others and to avoid repeating them on their own projects, tend to accumulate tips and recommendations for the many aspects of successfully creating Web sites. These best practices take the form of bookmarked Web pages, saved articles, downloaded PDF files, scribbled notes on scraps of paper, and hastily created documents that will be better organized one of these days, when the developer's schedule becomes less hectic (sure...). Being difficult if not impossible to find later, these pearls of wisdom are rarely consulted before or during each new Web site project. What the developer needs is a book that brings together as many of these best practices as possible, without being overwhelming. Deliver First Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists may be the answer." Read the rest of Michael's review.
Deliver First Class Web Sites | |
author | Shirley Kaiser |
pages | 331 |
publisher | SitePoint |
rating | 8 |
reviewer | Michael J. Ross |
ISBN | 0975841904 |
summary | A collection of Web site development best practices. |
Authored by Shirley Kaiser, this book was published by SitePoint in July 2006, under the ISBN 0975841904. The publisher maintains a Web page devoted to the book, where visitors will find the book's table of contents online, a free preview (chapters 6, 12, and 14, in PDF format), editorial and customer reviews, a link to download all of the checklists (also in PDF) for all customers, links and an FAQ for ordering directly from SitePoint, and errata (none reported, as of this writing). The fact that SitePoint is willing to allow readers to post unmoderated comments and ratings of their books, suggests that it has real confidence in the quality of the book's material and readers' evaluations of it.
The aforesaid Web page also offers an online version of the index, but without any of the book's page numbers. At first glance, this might seem rather odd, but it does make some sense: Page numbers online would be of little use without the book itself, which of course already contains the index. Perhaps the index keys are offered to supplement the table of contents in helping the prospective customer learn what topics are covered in the book. In any case, this is the first time that I have seen a book's index online, and it will likely not be the last, if other publishers see the value in following suit.
In the preface, Shirley Kaiser explains that the book is intended to be "...a single source of solid information on best practices for everything from planning, designing, developing, and testing, to launching a web site and maintaining it in the long term. By compiling all this information into checklists, we've turned a vast wealth of detail into convenient, easy-to-scan, simple-to-use chunks organized by topic." A technical reader quickly scanning the book, would likely conclude that the author's goal has been achieved, because the book's 101 checklists comprise over 500 checkpoints, and almost all of them are expanded with at least a paragraph of more detailed explanation; many have accompanying code or images to illustrate the checkpoint.
The book's 331 pages of material are organized into 16 chapters, followed by an appendix that focuses on e-commerce advice. The topics covered in the chapters are: how to get started on a Web development project; planning the Web site with a client; assembling the site's content; managing that content; site usability; color schemes and functionality; information architecture; designing the site's navigation; W3C standards and recommendations; site accessibility; optimization of site performance; search engine optimization; design principles; site testing, including accessibility and usability; launch preparation and execution; post-launch follow-up and maintenance.
In terms of the specificity and usefulness of the checkpoints, they are not all consistently stellar, which arguably would have been an impossible expectation anyway. They range from the obvious (e.g., "Use consistent markup") to the not-so-obvious but equally valid (e.g., "Perform content audits"). Some of the checkpoints may on the surface appear mundane, but they could be a lifesaver further down the road, should a project turn sour (e.g., "Archive a copy of the handover package"). Some of them may seem painfully obvious to any decent developer (e.g., "Check all hyperlinks" and "Test all scripting functions"), but even the majority of those are violated on a daily basis, even by major Web sites, which have no excuse for such sloppiness.
The primary value of this book is how it neatly consolidates a considerable amount of worthy advice culled from the author's research and decade in the trenches of the Internet. The book probably will not replace all of the best practices that any top-notch developer will have assembled over the years — especially as none of it addresses advanced topics — but it could easily serve as a solid foundation upon which to add any supplemental recommendations that the book does not cover. Moreover, the book's material is presented in a fairly concise and quite readable format, making use of what appears to be a font slightly larger than is found in the typical computer programming book.
My only complaint with this title is the way that SitePoint continues to include a growing number of advertising pages, at the end of the book, with the bulk of each page black (sometimes even a bit smeared), and containing absolutely no details about the books being advertised. When SitePoint first began publishing books, if memory serves, they would only include one or two such over-the-top pages — possibly because they had so few titles to advertise at the inception. But now they are truly overdoing it. In Deliver First Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists, no fewer than a dozen pages are wasted on this unwanted advertising. It would have been far more effective and efficient to simply list the 11 books' titles with a brief summary of each. Whoever decided to waste all that paper and ink, clearly did not read and understand some of the most basic checkpoints presented earlier in the book concerning type size and page content.
But overall, Deliver First Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists is a much-needed book that brings together a wide range of valuable Web development best practices.
Michael J. Ross is a computer consultant, freelance writer, and the editor of PristinePlanet.com's free newsletter."
You can purchase Deliver First Class Web Sites from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Deliver First Class Web Sites? (Score:1)
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The Secret to Web Design (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The Secret to Web Design (Score:5, Informative)
For example, I've had a photographer once who wanted tons of high res pictures one below the other blanketing the first page of his site (like 100 of them). He thought it would be "cool".
That vision would not meet the objective the photogrpaher had of showing his work off and growing his business. It would have just irritated people and turned them off to his site.
Frankly, my company overcharges for our sites, but we can do that because the client gets the results they wanted. They are willing to pay for our insights and vision for them even though they don't always see it right away. The clients vision of the design doesn't always line up with the objective for the site.
Its your job as the expert to guide them. I don't go to the mechanic and tell him how to get to the fan belt. He is the expert and that is why I pay him, I might have ideas on how to do it, but he is the one who knows, not me.
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If your clients get the results they wanted, you haven't really overcharged them, especially if their original vision was impractical or unworkable. One of the things they're paying for is your ability to turn their ideas into something that works and does what they need.
tnx! (Score:1)
thankslot for the PSA!
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Haven't heard about "alot"? As in "your alotted time on this earth"?
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Probably would help to create a better shameless plug if you proofread the login page before you invited the world...
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That said, there are some clients who's ideas are so far from yours that you should refer them out. You can't do a good job for someone you seriously disagree with.
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That said, there are some clients who's ideas are so far from yours that you should refer them out. You can't do a good job for someone you seriously disagree with.
So true, and many client's have a vision that is changed very often and you have to adapt, and some just don't know what they want at all so you have to rapidly produce examples and elicit the idea from them and their team. It is not an easy task gathering requirements.
Re:Book's available elsewhere cheaper (Score:5, Informative)
For some reason Slashdot links to B & N, but if you look at the Amazon listing [amazon.com], you can see that some sellers are offering the book considerably cheaper.
http://slashdot.org/book.review.guidelines.shtml :
Speaking of links, please do not include links in your reviews to online bookstores. Slashdot has an linking arrangement with Barnes & Noble; that's why when bn.com carries a particular book, you'll see a link to it at the bottom of the review.
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Experienced and conscientious Web developers? (Score:3, Insightful)
Surely by definition, a conscientious web developer would be exactly the person who wouldn't, in fact, have all their heuristics and guidelines lying around on pieces of paper/mental notes/etc?
Not to discount the book, but I know in at least the case of the firm I work for, we wikify such matters, and they're regularly converted to a more formal procedures manual. Is this unusual for web development?
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JOhn
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Wouldn't a formal procedure that specifies "No required functionality dependent upon javascript" help in that situation? Preferably fleshed out to include "or Flash" as well.
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I don't mind Flash when it's there for a good reason. What bugs me is when Flash is used to display static images.
Part of my morning routine is following various comic strips at several sites. At one of them, three of the strips are displayed in Flash. Why? It's not like the images are going to change as you watch them or anything? I use FireFox with FlashBlock, meaning that I have to click on the box to see the strips, so it's more apparant to m
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When you've got other tasks or responsibilities at hand it's not easy to find time to organize your notes.
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It's a great idea, but, ah, to have the luxury of that much extra time. Books like this and Web Redesign: Workflow That Works, http://tinyurl.com/y3kajb [tinyurl.com] (Amazon/TinyURL link) that provide good checklists are a godsend for the small shop.
They may not fit your firm's policies and workflow exactly but are better than nothing and cheap compared to the number of hours maintaining a wiki would entail. And they're way better than nothing at all, which is what too many design firms have.
samples (Score:5, Insightful)
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I couldn't agree more. Makes you wonder about the reviewer's connection to the writer. Anyone who has a clue about web-dev would not reccomend this writer.
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Those who can't, teach.
Those who can't teach, write books.
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Those who can't review books argue about reviews on Slashdot.
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And then there are those of us^h^h^h^h^h who have no time for arguing about reviews because we are way too busy sorting through pdfs, URLs of snazzy web sites (in multiple browsers and directories labeled "URLs"), out-dated guides downloaded from a.b.e-books.etc, scraps of paper, Photoshop tips in soft covers (great bathroom reading material, by the way, uh, someone 'told me'), Webstractored si
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Those who can't, teach.
Those who can't teach, write books.
Those who can't write books, write silly little message on slashdot.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Why buy a book? (Score:1)
Use memorable URLS (Score:1)
You know, foo.com/contact, foo.com/about, not foo.com/bar.xyz?asda1=324324324324324324&fds=3247
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Why? It makes sure that old links don't fall into the realms of 404 simply because you made all your url's 'friendly', or renamed a file so
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Right. This is why my web pages have links to download applications that users can just run on their own desktops. It's great for security, too, because running arbitrary executables is perfectly safe.
AJAX has its place. It's just not every place.
GMAIL? (Score:1)
First rule of good web design (Score:4, Insightful)
Nothing short of an excessively annoying car commercial which perpetually runs on local radio stations makes my hand move faster than to get away from a site where Flash is required to see what's there.
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ok, if it's annoying it's probably Flash or animated Gif (thats why firefox has Adblock)
However, the use of Flash doesn't *have* to be annoying?
does it?
would people object against a well designed Flash site?
Flash can do so much more than plain HTML (olthough usually used for bad things, though)
I can't find the answer in the free sample of this book (to make it a little more on-topic)
it does mention useless splash screens, and using text besides Flash for search eng
Splash Pages (Score:1)
"Welcome to My Web Site! Click to Continue!"
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http://www.newfangled.com/contentmgr/showdetails.
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http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html [useit.com]
Speaking of first class websites... (Score:1)
http://www.pcbeginner.com/tools/pcdoctor.htm [pcbeginner.com]
I wish this website booted into DOS.
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here [zombo.com]
What a great way to sell a book! (Score:1)
Does Slashdot at least get pay-per-click referrals?
"First Class"? (Score:3, Interesting)
My suspicion, based on lots of other similar examples of advice on building web sites the Right Way, is that "first class" means flashy and entertaining. Maybe I'm wrong, but experience here says to expect the worst.
Not that I'm objecting to that. There's a demand for entertainment on the web. But there's also a demand for informative sites, and the design criteria for information and entertainment are very different.
Most of the web sites I've been involved with are of the informative type. For such sites, the canonical "first class" site is google.com, not (for example) yahoo.com. For a more complex site, news.google.com works pretty well.
But I didn't get a feel from the review or the author's web site what their criteria for "first class" might be. Unless I get a clear idea what sort of web site is being pushed, I probably won't be spending my money on any book of advice.
(I might also obsever that most entertainment sites are really in need of good advice on how to do the job right. But I probably don't need to tell that to anyone who visits them often.
Who are these people... (Score:4, Funny)
Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/ [digitalelite.com]
author qualifications? (Score:1)
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Are SEO guide included? (Score:1)
Need more keyboard shortcuts (Score:3, Interesting)
Most people perceive "new web technology" as an end in itself, and will rewrite all their software to be web-based without realizing the strengths and weaknesses of the new platform. When this happens, you get is really really bad software. For example, I know some people who work in customer service who were moved off of a telnet based support system to a web gui and lost their minds when a single command line entry became 5 mouse clicks and lots of scrolling with 1 second page loads.
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Right... and who's going to educate users about such schemes, which will undoubtedly vary from one site to the next? Outside of involved "web apps", there's probably a trade-off in development time in building out something along these lines given how few users to whom this will appeal, who are willing to take t
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When you pay someone to spend 40 hours a week using a web application, is it unreasonable to assume that someone could take the time
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My point with respect to training had to do with "websites" not a particular web application backed as you describe. Again, that's a narrow case taken in the full context of your original statements.
Your original post blurs distinction between what's advantageous for "web developers" (unqualified, as a general class) relative to more specialized "web gu
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Learn that countries are different (Score:2, Insightful)
One thing that really bothers me about many web sites is this: If I have to enter my name, address etc., I frequently find that the web page designer thinks that all countries are the same.
I may find that I am required to write in which state I live. My country doesn't have states.
Or I may be required to write a 10-digit phone number. My phone number has 8 digits.
Or I may be forced to put the postal code after the city. In my country, the postal code goes before the city.
Dear web form
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Dear web form designers: It is not unreasonable to expect that people know how to write their own address correctly.
You must have different users than I do.
and the solution to this is... (Score:2)
90210
ca
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The commonest problem is that they insist on a state or a region as well as a city. In most countries this is not usual. I have never lived at any address that required a state or region.
I have also lived in a flat that did not have a street address: I had a flat number, the name of the building, and the name of the complex (which could be entered from several surrounding streets) and the city and post-code.
Finally in Britian it used to be
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(But I'll buy the book. For some reason, I can program anything well except web sites.)
1998 called, they want their book back... (Score:3)
All kidding aside, based on the Table of Contents this seems to be just an updated version of "How to Design A Website", albeit it looks a bit more detailed than those versions of the past. I like that they mention things like "backups" and other useful topics for the serious mom-and-pop sites (at least they will know what a backup is!)
Still, imagine what those books from the 90's would look like to a modern website developer...
The reviewer mentions that "none of it addresses advanced topics" which to me indicates that yeah, it's great for getting started (as the title suggests) but you should read it fast... the content is probably already out of date. In my opinion, the dead-tree versions of "How to Design a Website" are a bit of an anachronism in this day and age [google.com].
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Front Page (Score:2)
Web design and development are two different things, everyone can design but only a few can develop.
There are plenty of books for web developers (Score:2)
This is probably an excellent resource, but at this point it is one of many. The persistent problem is not developers, but clients. Internal or external, it doesn't matter. When marketing managers and O-level executives have a resource that tells them that they need to stop making decisions based on what their favorite colors are, or what websites their kids like to visit, we'll all be better off. In the mean time, at least there's Don't Make Me Think [sensible.com]. But if the decisionmakers who have the pursestrings don
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Or confusing attention grabbing, and a good website. Managers seem to confuse websites (which aer an information source) and advertising (which primarily has to grab people's attention).
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Managers seem to confuse websites (which aer an information source) and advertising (which primarily has to grab people's attention).
Excellent point. There's also a helluva lot of "if our competitors are putting orange starbursts on their websites, we should be doing it too!" Further proof that most execs are faking it, just like the rest of us. They just get paid more and have golden parachutes in case they fail. ;-)
What the developer really needs... (Score:1)
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oh wait, maybe I'll just tell you.
Drumroll please!!!!!
Use comments!!
Tada, thank you folks, I'll be here all night.
Ben
PS. I charge extra to actually show how they work in js.
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Why pimp this book? (Score:1)