Great Web Architecture (... Secrets (IDG))

List Price: $49.99 Discount Price: $0.63

Customer Reviews:

Not an architecture book [Posted on 2000-06-09]
This is an incredibly disappointing book - all style no substance. I wonder if the author actually understands the basic concepts of web architecture.

This book provides a tour of some okay sites, and does point out a couple of nice features, but it doesn't go into any real architectural issues, either from an information or infrastructure standpoint.

It's ironic that Mr. Andres recognizes "Content is King" for web sites, but has failed to provide any real content for his book.

First it hurts, then it makes you sick... [Posted on 2000-09-02]
This is quite possibly the worst book I've ever read in my life.

I didn't realize someone could create something so self-congratulatory that they lost any and all vision of contradiction. There are examples of 'great architecture', complete with content hierarchy diagrams, that were obviously poorly thought out, if thought about at all. Common problems like separating support and marketing information, or placing/labeling company wide information have no formal identification or treatment.

Essentially this is a tour of 'sexy' sites made in 1998 - which wasn't really that much of a break through year for usability or architecture. If you want to see what happened when a mass of CDROM designers started making websites - this is the read for you...

Personally, I stole this book from the office just to ensure that some producer wouldn't read it and take it seriously... It's that nonsensical.

Not about Architecture, but glad I got it anyways [Posted on 2000-11-19]
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.

The pictures can stimulate some creativity [Posted on 2001-03-21]
Since any designer wants to keep on top of what's going on in the industry, I thought it good to take a look at this book. I've gone from cover to cover a few times, but not to read it. After beginning I quickly realized the information is pretty basic and can pretty much be found by speaking with other's in the industry.

However, I did like some of the screenshots of various sites considered "great architecture." Often times, I flip through the book to generate a few ideas when putting together suggested views for sites in development.

In all, not much new information, but may be worth it if you're just starting out and just need to know or need information reinforced.

All Flash...Little Substance [Posted on 2002-08-04]
This book contains lots of great pictures of web sites that have been completely re-designed since the writing of the book. Voila. If this is what you're looking for, then you'll be pleased with this book. However, if you're looking for more than that, look elsewhere. This book is a real disappiontment.

It seems that many of the more "flashy" designs described by Andres have given way to more usable designs that actually make sense to real people using / desiging sites today. While that book states that author has web design experience - it doesn't seem like he shares much of that with us. For example, the author will generally state that a particular site uses flash or uses animated gif's but give's little detail about how animated gif's could be best used in site design and site architecture.

The author spends most of his time criticizing sites and pointing out what he likes and doesn't like, which is fine. However, the author's tone is arrogant and self-absorbed. Additionally, the author ends chapters abrubptly, failing to guide the reader to the point that he might have been trying to make in that particular chapter. The only decent chapter in the book quite frankly is the chapter on hierarchical site organization (chapter one) and it's all downhill from there.

This is one of the worst books I've ever read on the subject of web design.

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