Making the Web Work: Designing Effective Web Applications [Paperback]

Baxley's _Making the Web Work_ is based on a single premise.
That premise is a "Unified Model" of interface design, presented
as a diagram that is constantly shown throughout the book. For
Baxley, the bottom of the diagram contains base-level concerns
like concepts, structures, and so on; the top contains things
like layout and color. This diagram, the foundation of the book,
is itself unappealing, cumbersome, and hard to use.

Baxley occasionally misuses terms. He constantly refers to
the "imagery" of a site...which means the symbolism. That's
not what he's trying to get at. He meant to use "images". But
"imagery" is a parallel term to "typography", so it probably
sounded okay. I think I know what he meant by "There is no
zero in design", (p. 366)...but my students don't.

Througout, the book manages to evade facts and details. The
most imporant points (like font size as a determinant of web
usability) are given scant attention. Mostly, the book presents
lists of terms and attributes that students cannot seem to
differentiate between. (As another reviewer mentions, Baxley
does not use the standard terms for "Exact" and "Ambiguous"
Schemes.) The writing style is vaguely pompous. The book
feels hollow and useless, as there are not enough clear examples
of general principles.

It is true that the book presents two cases studies at the
end, but by the time you get there, you are exhausted,
disinterested, and utterly convinced that there may be no
Unified Theory of Interface Design. Or perhaps there may be
one, but this certainly isn't it.

If I had to base an entire web design class on a single book this would be the one. Bob Baxley's "Making the Web Work" is easily the most comprehensive manual for applying good design to create a great user experience on the web. This book has both breadth and depth-just look at the table of contents. Regardless of your level of web design proficiency you will find more than your money's worth of useful insight here (even if you have already read just about every other web design book!).

One thing I especially like about this book is that Bob doesn't provide a single solution for a design challenge, but takes time to present and evaluate (pro/con and why) several alternatives. He doesn't just feed you the "right" answers the way Jakob Nielsen does in his "Designing Web Usability." Bob's approach will help you gain a thorough understanding of the options and make informed design decisions.

The two case studies of Amazon and Ofoto included at the end of the book are the most comprehensive I have seen: they're about 30 pages each!

About the only gripe I have is that Bob takes the liberty of using lesser known versions of some terms without providing their more known synonyms. For example, while Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville have all but established the terms "ambiguous" and "exact" for the two types of classification schemes, Bob prefers to call them "subjective" and "objective," respectively, without providing the alternative terms. Similarly, "organization scheme" is replaced by "classification scheme", and "organization structure" with "model of association." My IA students have enough difficulty keeping one set of terms straight!

Overall, however, this one serious web design book. Highly recommended. Other books I liked: "Interface Design for Ecommerce Applications" by Paul Gokin (search for this one on the web), "Designing Web Site Interface Elements" by Eric Eaton, and "Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites" by Andrew Chak.