Amazon.com
Anyone who has managed the process of developing or redesigning a Web site of significant size has likely learned the hard way the complexities, pitfalls, and cost risk of such an undertaking. While many Web development firms have fantastic technical expertise, what sets the topnotch organizations apart is the ability to accurately manage the planning and development process. Web Redesign: Workflow That Works directly addresses this crucial area with a specific, proven process.
This brief but important book lays out a specific five-step strategy--called the Core Process--that can always be applied to the development of Web sites and fine-tuned to almost any type of project. Each step--defining the project, developing site structure, visual design and testing, production and QA, and launch and beyond--contains three related but distinct tracks. The text begins with a brief overview of each of the steps, then delves deeper into each with detailed explanations as well as specific forms and project-management strategies. This book does not cover back-end, server-side programming. Instead, it focuses primarily on the visual, conventional components of a Web site.
Authors Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler compiled this book in an attractive, easy-to-read format. This process guide uses numerous full-color screen shots to illustrate site examples, as well as plenty of site diagrams and sample forms. The book even has a companion Web site with downloadable forms in PDF format to put the Core Process into immediate action. --Stephen W. Plain
Topics covered:
- Step 1--Defining the Core Process: discovery, planning, and clarification;
- Step 2--Developing site structure: content-view, site-view, and page-view;
- Step 3--Visual design and testing: creating, confirming, and handing off;
- Step 4--Production and QA: prepping, building, and testing;
- Step 5--Launch and beyond: delivery, launch, and maintenance.
Book Description
If anything, this volume's premise--that the business of Web design is one of constant change-has only proven truer over time. So much so, in fact, that the 12-month design cycles cited in the last edition have shrunk to 6 or even 3 months today. Which is why, more than ever, you need a smart, practical guide that demonstrates how to plan, budget, organize, and manage your Web redesign - or even you initial design - projects from conceptualization to launch. This volume delivers! In these pages Web designer extraordinaire
Kelly Goto and coauthor
Emily Cotler have distilled their real-world experience into a sound approach to Web redesign workflow that is as much about business priorities as it is about good design. By focusing on where these priorities intersect,
Kelly and Emily get straight to the heart of the matter. Each chapter includes a case study that illustrates a key step in the process, and you'll find a plethora of forms, checklists, and worksheets that help you put knowledge into action.
Customer Reviews:
Good Book .......2007-04-11
This book is a good intro into how to manage a website implementation or redesign from the prospective of a designer. I am not a designer, but still found the book useful because it does cover all the steps; not just the ones that designers are concerned with. The book takes a good approach and is easy and interesting to read.
The best treatment of the web design process around.......2007-02-06
I have my quibbles with this book, but they are all very minor. It could stand an update, but what web book over 6 months old couldn't. I have to give it five stars because it is head and shoulders above anything else.
Thoughtful yet a little dated.......2007-01-12
Despite being the best book I have read thus far on this topic, it's content now is a little dated. Certainly a worthwhile purchase, it outlines a typical site development workflow and now having deployed portions of this methodology in my workplace I know it works.
Great Guide for Web Redesigns.......2007-01-09
This is a good detailed process for designing and redesigning web sites. Great re-usable documents and worksheets to help you on your way. Details and describes the process very well with good examples.
Worth the buy........2006-09-28
I found it a very useful book, especially with all the downloadable forms. I felt it was a little light on user testing - but otherwise, very good. It felt a bit repetitive and that things were presented in an odd order sometimes, but it's still worth the buy.
Average customer rating:
|
Furniture 2000: Modern Classics and New Designs in Production (Schiffer Design Book)
Leslie A. Pina
Manufacturer: Schiffer Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Furniture Design
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Furniture
| Antiques & Collectibles
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Furniture & Carpentry
| Woodworking
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Decorating
| Interior Design
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Interior Design
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0764304968 |
Book Description
Many of the great modern classic furniture designs of the twentieth century are still in production and available to the public in America and abroad. There are also many recent designs destined to become classics, because they share many of the same qualities of modern furniture already in museum collections and sought after by collectors. This volume, with 600 color photographs and detailed captions of a representative sample of the best modern furniture available, is the first source book to focus only on designs that are currently in production, and to present them in full color. It is both a history of modern design and an international shopping catalog. The indexes of 250 designers and companies and the list of sources will enable the reader to locate each item for purchase or for additional information. This book will serve as an indispensable and handy reference for decorators, interior designers, architects, and collectors, plus acquaint the general public with extraordinary designs that are generally only known to the trade.
Book Description
Praise for Scott Meyers' first book, Effective C++: "I heartily recommend Effective C++, to anyone who aspires to mastery of C++ at the intermediate level or above." -- The C/C++ User's Journal
From the author of the indispensable Effective C++, here are 35 new ways to improve your programs and designs. Drawing on years of experience, Meyers explains how to write software that is more effective: more efficient, more robust, more consistent, more portable, and more reusable. In short, how to write C++ software that's just plain better.
More Effective C++ includes:
Proven methods for improving program efficiency, including incisive examinations of the time/space costs of C++ language features
Comprehensive descriptions of advanced techniques used by C++ experts, including placement new, virtual constructors, smart pointers, reference counting, proxy classes, and double-dispatching
Examples of the profound impact of exception handling on the structure and behavior of C++ classes and functions
Practical treatments of new language features, including bool, mutable, explicit, namespaces, member templates, the Standard Template Library, and more. If your compilers don't yet support these features, Meyers shows you how to get the job done without them.
More Effective C++ is filled with pragmatic, down-to-earth advice you'll use every day. Like Effective C++ before it, More Effective C++ is essential reading for anyone working with C++.
Customer Reviews:
good, but not as good as its predecessor.......2007-02-22
A sequel to Effective C++. Unlike the prequel, which got a third edition in 2005, this has only been updated via the addition of footnotes in a few places (my copy is the 22nd printing from 2006), so some of it feels a bit dated: the items on templates and keywords such as explicit and mutable are somewhat rudimentary.
The material is a mixture of items of a similar level to Effective C++, plus some more advanced topics, like how to find out if your object is allocated on the heap or not, how to prevent an object being allocated on the heap, and the mechanics of the object model, about which C++ users (or the authors of C++ books) seem inordinately fond, at least compared to Java users and Smalltalkers. As a result, the more advanced material has slightly narrower appeal than that in Effective C++ - many of the techniques seem more hassle than they're worth.
That said, a good deal of the material is still universally important, such as exceptions and the new-style casts, which were new at the time of publication, but which are no longer considered 'advanced'. By now, though, this material is covered elsewhere, e.g. in the likes of C++ Coding Standards and Thinking in C++, or in modified form in the third edition of Effective C++. The last item in the book, on the use of the STL, has been superseded by the author's own book-length excursion, Effective STL.
There's also a slight difference in format. The items are in general longer than those in Effective C++. For some topics, it works very well. For example, there's a great treatment of writing a 'smart' pointer and using it for reference counting that takes up 60 pages. That entirely merits the extended format. On the other hand, in some places, the book could have done with editing. Meyers' witticisms are welcome as always, but are sometimes a little too chatty, compared to Effective C++, where the writing is tauter.
It's still a pleasure to read, and this has established itself as another C++ must read, but from the perspective of 2007, it's not quite as genre-defining as Effective C++.
More of the same good thing.......2006-12-06
Like every sequel, in my opinion, this book is less good than the original as if the topics covered in this book are the ones that did not make it into the original book. However that being said, this book is still very good and is just more of the same good stuff that made the original book a bestseller. If you liked Effective C++, there is not risk at all that you will not like this one and will get new knowledge out of it.
Good Reference, Worthy Sequel For More Advanced Topics.......2006-07-15
Describing more advanced topics of c++, such as - things you should know before overloading special operators, inner works of exception-handling (and what you should avoid while using them), how the virtual table is built when using RTTI & Inheritance, general efficiency issues (such as the works of temporaries and multiple inheritance) and few Design-Patterns related techniques.
The style of this book is light and easy to understand, which makes it a fine sequel to the first book.
The author does tends to get carried away in some of the chapters into describing topics in too much detail (overloading operators ||/&&, forcing heap allocations, smart-pointers/refrence counting) and there are few duplication issues between this book and the previous one (I found myself thinking "hmmm... didn't I read that before?") several times.
All said - although it's often a bit less practical and a bit more advanced than the previous book - you would definately gain new insights from reading it, plus it might be used as a useful reference as well.
A good supplementary reference.......2006-02-16
It provides even more explanation than the first book and they both have similar advantages: easy-readable, explained in detail, large and useful topics covered.
use the STL and string objects.......2006-01-28
Scott Meyers continues in the vein of his earlier successful "Effective C++". If you benefited from the insight presented in that book, you may well want to follow up with a study of this text. It assumes a general familiarity with C++, though not necessarily with all the obscure details. It continues in the style of the earlier book by collating useful advice garnered from the C++ community. Which is probably one of the largest groups of programmers in the world.
Two items in the book stand out for the sheer likelihood that you will find them useful. First, install the Standard Template Library on your machine. And whenever possible, call routines from it, instead of writing these yourself. Faster and safer. Those routines have been heavily debugged. STL routines implement many of the common data structures used in computing. Like hash tables, linked lists and sets.
Second, instead of using char*, try string objects. Far safer and thus easier to handle.
Just doing the above two practices can greatly benefit your code.
Customer Reviews:
What are We to Make of Computers, and Computers Make of Us.......2002-04-20
Winograd and Flores' `Understanding Computers and Cognition' proposes that the rationalist tradition in AI must be replaced by a hermeneutic approach. Associating the rationalist tradition with the goal of building a human mind, the authors propose that a hermeneutic approach must adopt the goal of constructing prostheses which magnify the human mind. This paper argues that what AI needs is not so much a hermeneutic approach as a better appreciation of biology and psychology. Understanding Computers and Cognition is a groundbreaking book that presents an important new approach to understanding what computers do and how their functioning is related to human language, thought and action. Byte Magazine has recognized Understanding Computers and Cognition as one of the all-time 20 most influential books on information technology.
Thank you!
Not Just Another Pretty Face.......2001-07-24
A few years ago Byte Magazine named this one of the 10 most important books in the history of the computer industry. Flores was asked to keynote the 50th anniversary meeting of the ACM on the strength of the work he has done, some of which is shown here.
I am a little surprised not to find a review here that shows awareness of what this book is and was intended to do -- to turn those concerned with the design of the role of computers in society into a new direction. The book offers a fundamental enrichment and extension to the traditional engineering-based foundations that are used for designing computer systems that is drawn from philosophy and biology. It opens the development of a rigorous new design milleau to the reader. This is NOT yet another multi-disciplinary rumination.
I would say this is not a "helpful" book, and it was never intended as an easy read. It is a book to turn to when one has learned enough about what is really at issue in putting computers to work in human life to discover that the likes of input, process, output, "friendly" interfaces, attractive graphical presentations, and logical flow charts are vastly insufficient distinctions for doing work that really makes a contribution to your clients and colleagues. The book challenges the reader strongly, and is not simple to read. I guess that the best way to read it is with someone else, having discussions as you go along.
This is a book to engage and grow with -- a must-read for those serious about designing and building systems that will affect the lives of those who engage with them.
A little disappointed.......2000-03-24
I read the 1986 or 87 version of this book and am of a software/AI background. I didn't follow the biological material that well - either I was being dense or it just wasn't clearly written. I thought the book was repetitious (my chief complaint). Some of the concepts discussed include: "breakdown" (humans become aware of thing X only when something goes awry in which the X is involved), "thrownness" (humans don't rationally consider all possibilities and make perfect decisions because situations they are put in don't permit such cognition and/or we simply we aren't capable of it), "blindness" (we are always somewhat blind to the prejudicies/assumptions that guide our thinking...and we can't totally escape this predicament. Also discusses the co-routine effect (per the software world) of human affects environment and environment affects world circularity.
Illuminates the concept of a user-system system.......1999-03-31
The authors' theme is that we each react to and are changed by our environment which in turn reacts to and is changed by each of us. In the end, one can design computers only within a particular consensual domain that entails at least some commonly understood rules and concepts. The authors rely heavily on the philosophical works of Maturana and Heidegger. Difficult to read as some word meanings are developed through usage and demonstration (e.g., "throwness"). Also, quotes from references are used endlessly to substantiate their theme. This is nice but I wonder after all is done, what contributions the authors' have made and how much is simply a rehash.
Biological dependencies for cognition.......1997-11-14
This is an excellent text which describes an approach to using computers to perform an enabling role within corporate enterprises by using their ability to allow clearer understanding between participants in the workplace. The other aspect of this book looks at current methods of creating AI systems and their fundamental weaknesses. Having read this as part of my MSc. in Information Technology I have re-read it several times and I would recommend it to all those involved in complex system design, implementation and support. In addition a book such as Checklands Soft Systems Methodolgy will give a good introduction to how the systems described in Understanding Computers and Cognition can be designed to meet the demands of "real world" environments.
Customer Reviews:
Insights into using patterns.......2007-10-18
This book gives an excellent insight into using some of the patters described in the classic book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series). It explains the reasons why particular patterns are useful and how they can be implemented to solve real-world problems.
Truly a new perspective on an old topic .......2007-10-09
IMHO, if you ever wanted to understand Design Patterns and most of the basic OO concepts way much better than you do now, then this is the book. It is well written, easy to read, and the authors convey the information very well. They even stick to the same real-world examples throughout the book while explaining the various concepts and patterns. This book treats the GoF Design Patterns book like the catalog that it should be with lots of references into it.
I randomly decided to bring it along on my recent business trip. I found the book engaging and have studied (not just scanned) almost half of it now. I found it to answer so many questions I had about OO all these years. It provides a strong foundation into thinking about design, OO, and patterns. I highly recommend it. The book's subtitle states, "A new perspective on OO design" and I totally agree with the authors. So far I have covered the Adaptor, Façade, Bridge, and Strategy patterns. They are highly useful and very powerful patterns that allow for easy communication among the designers, the implementers, and the unit testers.
For experienced software engineers, you may find this just a concise repackaging of what you already know and have learned. But you too may still find some new golden nuggets here and there within these pages. Plus, I believe you may find this new perspective enlightening as to why you use design patterns not just how or the pattern as a cookie cutter.
To address all the other prior reviews (especially those with low ratings), this book is in fact a new perspective. If you miss that point then this book will look like just another rehash of the topic of design patterns. But if you really study it and look for and understand this new perspective, you will find it very useful. The authors are trying to have you see design patterns as much more than just a common diagram. It is a better way to conceive of designs and communicate them, with much more understanding behind them. Design patterns are like any other tool; you may understand what a hammer and nail is for, but you may not know all the proper techniques in using a hammer and nail, and therefore your final product will be reasonable but not the best. This book goes a long way to achieving the best.
should be called "Design Explained".......2007-07-14
This book is great. It goes way beyond patterns. It starts with what design patterns are and the main principles behind them (coupling, cohesion, testability, ...). It does this in an interesting manner. We first solve a problem in the way we most likely would. The book then takes us through patterns and shows us a couple of better solutions using patterns and other techniques discussed in the book that are consistent with patterns.
The book also discusses the motivations of the GoF patterns - they manage variation in our problem domain. Variations in our problem domain (i.e., changes) is what makes our life as programmers difficult.
Then the killer- the authors talk about two techniques they use (one in analysis - the analysis matrix; and one in design - commonality - variability analysis) which are awesome. These techniques go way beyond patterns but relate to patterns which is why I guess they are in this book and not in a general design book (which is where they could very well be).
What's also interesting is throughout the book they talk about how patterns relate to eXtreme Programming which gives insights into both.
A must buy!
Recommended for anyone new to patterns.......2007-01-18
Although usable as a reference, this book has immense value to anyone new to patterns willing to give a cover to cover read. This book is a great complement to the original Gang Of Four book (which is in need of some touching up). The authors try to offer some insight into places where GOF was lacking. The sections on modular decomposition and principles of applying patterns provide a gateway into the world of effectively applying patterns in your projects.
Finally, I appreciate the authors' use of a uniform case study throughout the book to solidify the intent of a pattern through useful application.
Best introduction to patterns by far!!.......2006-11-27
Whilst the 'GoF Book'(Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software) is the bible of patterns, this is undoubtably the Magna Carta of patterns. It should rather be called 'Design Patterns for mere mortals'.
I found this book a true pleasure to read, and recommend it above the original GOF book. It really makes patterns incredibly easy to understand and apply in the right context, instead of just blindly using them because they are the next cool thing in Software Engineering.
Whilst the 'GoF book' is still a vital book, it is more of reference than something that should be read cover-to-cover. Buy this book first, and then get the 'GoF Book', once you have read this book.
Book Description
Do-it-yourself home projects have become a national pastime, and nothing satisfies that urge more then creating built-ins. The fact that they are a permanent part of a house makes it more critical that they be done with as much skill and imagination as possible. That's where the New Built-Ins Idea Book comes in. Written by Sandor Nagyszalanczy, a former senior editor of Fine Woodworking magazine and an acknowledged expert in the field, this illustrated guide shows step-by-step how to create built-ins that are both practical and appealing. Here are hundreds of design ideas for projects for every room of the house, including kitchens, bathrooms, libraries, kids' spaces, dining rooms, bedrooms, and the increasingly popular media spaces. The book shows a wide range of possibilities for incorporating built-ins, from niches to bookcases to spaces that replace those stacks of clothing in the closet. Complete coverage of materials, lighting, color, and hardware, along with careful, comprehensible drawings and photographs, is included.
Customer Reviews:
Not what I expected ..........2007-01-29
Taunton has a very good reputation for their publications so I thought this would be a great book to help me with several projects I will be undertaking. It was a disappointment. There was nothing innovative or unique about the ideas presented. The cabinet styles were either very basic or so custom they did not provide realistic options. If you are looking for innovative or creative ideas for a realistic cabinet project ... look elsewhere.
Fell short.......2006-10-30
I felt the sample of this book was not a good indication of it's contents. Most of the built-ins shown in the book are from a Room-View with the built in partially obstructed and with little detail shown. I wasn't looking for plans to build, but I would have expected more. If you like the details level shown on the cover of the book, then this will be right up your alley, other wise, the book will probably fall short of your expectations.
Great ideas! .......2006-07-22
To make the most of our new home, I was looking for ideas for custom made cabinetry and other storage options.
Although the style of quite a few examples are not to my taste, I still got enough ideas and inspiration. Also a plus; the book gives you tips for matching built-ins to the rest of the room, to get a coordinated look.
My favourite chapters: Passages (great storage options to be found there!!) Window seats (you will see small window seats as well as really large ones) Workspaces (they show you practical workspaces even in tiny closets) and Utility Areas. In the kitchen chapter I liked the small details, like the pantry and appliance garage.
Petra (from the Netherlands)
Great ideas.......2006-05-18
I want to install severeal built-ins in my older home, as space is limited. This book definitely gave me lots of ideas. The pictures are excellent and really provide inspiration - whether you copy exactly or adapt the ideas to meet your needs. Full of ideas and inspiration - not a how-to.
Talk about IDEAS!.......2006-03-20
This book, by far, exceeded my expectations! It is full of wonderful photos - cover to cover. We are getting ready to build a new home and we will definitely use a few of these creative ideas.
Stephanie from Cincinnati, Ohio
Book Description
"Raymond Chen is the original raconteur of Windows."
--Scott Hanselman, ComputerZen.com
"Raymond has been at Microsoft for many years and has seen many nuances of Windows that others could only ever hope to get a glimpse of. With this book, Raymond shares his knowledge, experience, and anecdotal stories, allowing all of us to get a better understanding of the operating system that affects millions of people every day. This book has something for everyone, is a casual read, and I highly recommend it!"
--Jeffrey Richter, Author/Consultant, Cofounder of Wintellect
"Very interesting read. Raymond tells the inside story of why Windows is the way it is."
--Eric Gunnerson, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation
"Absolutely essential reading for understanding the history of Windows, its intricacies and quirks, and why they came about."
--Matt Pietrek, MSDN Magazine's Under the Hood Columnist
"Raymond Chen has become something of a legend in the software industry, and in this book you'll discover why. From his high-level reminiscences on the design of the Windows Start button to his low-level discussions of GlobalAlloc that only your inner-geek could love,
The Old New Thing is a captivating collection of anecdotes that will help you to truly appreciate the difficulty inherent in designing and writing quality software."
--Stephen Toub, Technical Editor, MSDN Magazine
Why does Windows work the way it does? Why is Shut Down on the Start menu? (And why is there a Start button, anyway?) How can I tap into the dialog loop? Why does the GetWindowText function behave so strangely? Why are registry files called "hives"?
Many of Windows' quirks have perfectly logical explanations, rooted in history. Understand them, and you'll be more productive and a lot less frustrated. Raymond Chen--who's spent more than a decade on Microsoft's Windows development team--reveals the "hidden Windows" you need to know.
Chen's engaging style, deep insight, and thoughtful humor have made him one of the world's premier technology bloggers. Here he brings together behind-the-scenes explanations, invaluable technical advice, and illuminating anecdotes that bring Windows to life--and help you make the most of it.
A few of the things you'll find inside:
- What vending machines can teach you about effective user interfaces
- A deeper understanding of window and dialog management
- Why performance optimization can be so counterintuitive
- A peek at the underbelly of COM objects and the Visual C++ compiler
- Key details about backwards compatibility--what Windows does and why
- Windows program security holes most developers don't know about
- How to make your program a better Windows citizen
Customer Reviews:
"casual read".......2007-08-21
Let me quote some the reviews: "casual read", definitely; "interesting reading", somewhat; "essential reading", not much for programmers until Chapter 7.
Perfect insight.......2007-07-25
I absolutely recommend this book to every geek interested in Windows history. It sheds perfect light on some "Why is it?" aspects of Windows and also has some nice low-level-stuff related reading.
You will love Raymond's writing style!
Definitely enjoyable.......2007-04-03
As an old C++ programmer, I can appreciate some of the pearls of wisdom in this book. If helps you to understand why some things work they way they do in Windows and other Microsoft software. It has some code in it, but you needn't be fluent in C or C++ to understand it. Chen has excellent storytelling ability, and it's a very enjoyable read. For "long time" developers - this is a "must read". For newer developers, this should be required reading to help understand the guts of Windows and how things operate. I highly recommend this book for all Microsoft developers. Use this as your "fun reading material", for it's not a programming book.
The true insiders guide to Windows.......2007-03-06
Raymond Chen's book is a technically deep, thoughtful, and delightful view of writing great programs for Windows. He brings the history of the world's most widely used APIs to life and offers first-hand insights as to the why and how APIs do what they do. It is a great book for current programmers using Vista or old-hands just wanting to remember some of the fun of original Windows programming. Read this book and put it to use to make your Windows programs even better!
Filled with great articles on useful Windows bits.......2007-02-25
This book is full of highly-entertaining articles on everything from why you can't install Windows via XCOPY to the evolution of Win32 dialog templates. OK, maybe I don't find the bits about dialog templates so interesting, but the rest of the book is full of very interesting topics on how Windows has come to be what it is.
Chen has been in the Win32 world at Microsoft for a very long and really, really knows his stuff. He's very skilled at what he does and is very forthright about what he doesn't know. His show on DotNetRocks was much along the same lines as this book: lots of very deep dives into areas of his expertise with clear disclaimers "That's out of my realm."
So what use will this book be for folks who are outside the Win32 arena? First, it's a nice background on some basic Windows behaviors like why the Shutdown option is under the Start menu, what overlay icons do, why registry files are called hives, and odds and ends about internationalization. There's also a lot of content which is applicable to folks in any domain: taking appropriate care with world-writable files, the impacts of server paging, or general bits about developing sort routines.
Secondly, the book is just plain entertaining. Chen writes in a light, humorous fashion and manages to make most of his articles very interesting. (It's impossible to make a couple pages of example machine code immensely exciting, but Chen comes close.)
Overall the book's a good skim for folks like myself. I'd say it's extremely important if you're involved with Win32 development -- and that means .NET folks who are doing a large bit of Interop programming.
Book Description
This book provides a unified approach to the different skills and media of new media design. The book is divided into four sections; first issues that arise from designing with new and developing technology are discussed, then the role of the building blocks of new media (sound, color, and animation) in design is explained. The third section of the book covers interaction design, and finally the book concludes with the presentation of the process of design in a practical step-by-step way. For Web and multimedia designers who want to learn about interaction design and how new media can be used today.
Customer Reviews:
Lots of Common Sense Advice.......2004-02-04
A nice, nontechnical discussion on how to design an interactive system that typically
is a website. Barfield goes easy on the
jargon. Not your typical acronum-laden
computer book. Some issues of usability
will be familiar to those harking from the
field of industrial design. There, of
course, you design and build something
tangible; that can be seen, touched, moved,
driven or worn. Currently, if you design a
web system, it can only be seen or heard.
Leaving aside haptic (touch) applications,
which are still rare and in their infancy.
But note this. Of all the ways that we get
sensory input, vision has the highest
bandwidth. Which is why the new media
design in the book has so much relevance to
industrial design.
The book has tons of common sense advice.
One item is instructive, because if you
only know English, you may NEVER even be
aware of it. An application should have a
consistent tone of voice. In all other
European languages, there is a format
second person 'you' (eg. 'vous' in French),
and an informal 'you' ('tu'). If your
application addresses the user, it should
use only 1 tone. The closest approximation
in an English application might be between
a formal, pedagogic style and a chatty use
of vernacular.
The only quibble I have is with his use of
'spiritual ergonomics', which he defines as
'the design of all aspects of a system with
the spiritual parameters of the human
mind'. Please! [Eyeball rolling.] The
examples he cites are how you might feel
when using an application, like enjoyment,
humour, fear, prestige. I suggest that
given the examples he cites, a better term
might be 'emotional ergonomics'. It seems
more accurate and does not convey some of
the implications, possibly divisive, of
'spiritual'.
Lots of Common Sense Advice.......2004-02-01
A nice, nontechnical discussion of how to design an interactive system that typically is a website. Barfield goes easy on the jargon. Not your typical acronum-laden computer book. Some issues of usability will be familiar to those harking from the field of industrial design. There, of course, you design and build something tangible; that can be seen, touched, moved, driven or worn. Currently, if you design a web system, it can only be seen or heard. Leaving aside haptic (touch) applications, which are still rare and in their infancy.
But note this. Of all the ways that we get sensory input, vision has the highest bandwidth. Which is why the new media design in the book has so much relevance to industrial design.
The book has tons of common sense advice. One item is instructive, because if you only know English, you may NEVER even be aware of it. An application should have a consistent tone of voice. In all other European languages, there is a format second person 'you' (eg. 'vous' in French), and an informal 'you' ('tu'). If your application addresses the user, it should use only 1 tone. The closest approximation in an English application might be between a formal, pedagogic style and a chatty use of vernacular.
The only quibble I have is with his use of 'spiritual ergonomics', which he defines as 'the design of all aspects of a system with the spiritual parameters of the human mind'. Please! [Eyeball rolling.] The examples he cites are how you might feel when using an application, like enjoyment, humour, fear, prestige. I suggest that given the examples he cites, a better term might be 'emotional ergonomics'. It seems more accurate and does not convey some of the implications, possibly divisive, of 'spiritual'.
Average customer rating:
- Very Relaxing
- Very nice!
- Great Book!!! Thanks!!
- Just do it!
- Love It!
|
Everyone's Mandala Coloring Book Vol. I (Everyone's Mandala Coloring Book)
Monique Mandali
Manufacturer: Mandali Publishling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Art
| Arts & Music
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Coloring Books
| Activity Books
| Sports & Activities
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Puzzles & Games
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Stress Management
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
Psychology & Counseling
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
| Adolescent Psychology
| Applied Psychology
| By Topic
| Child Psychology
| Clinical Psychology
| Cognitive
| Counseling
| Creativity & Genius
| Developmental Psychology
| Education & Training
| Ethnopsychology
| Experimental Psychology
| Forensic Psychology
| General
| History
| Hypnosis
| Industrial Psychology
| Logotherapy
| Medicine & Psychology
| Mental Illness
| Movements
| Neuropsychology
| Occupational & Organizational
| Pathologies
| Personality
| Philosophy of Psychology
| Physical Illness & Psychiatry
| Physiological Aspects
| Psychiatry
| Psychoanalysis
| Psychobiology
| Psychopharmacology
| Psychosomatic Medicine
| Psychotherapy, TA & NLP
| Reference
| Research
| Sexuality
| Social Psychology & Interactions
| Statistics
| Suicide
| Testing & Measurement
Crafts for Children
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Adult Coloring Books
| Papercrafts
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Art
| Arts & Photography
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Ages 4-8
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Art
| Arts & Music
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Coloring Books
| Activity Books
| Sports & Activities
| Children's Books
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
General
| Puzzles & Games
| Entertainment
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Stress Management
| Self-Help
| Health, Mind & Body
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Crafts for Children
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Adult Coloring Books
| Papercrafts
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
All 4-for-3 Deals
| 4-for-3 Books Store
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Everyone's Mandala Coloring Book Vol. 2 (Everyone's Mandala Coloring Book)
-
Everyone's Mandala Coloring Book Vol. 3 (Everyone's Mandala Coloring Book)
-
Coloring Mandalas 1
-
World Mandalas: 100 New Designs for Coloring and Meditation
-
Peace Mandala Coloring Book
ASIN: 1560440147 |
Book Description
These original mandala designs by wholistic therapist Monique Mandali appeal to both children and adults. Mandalas have been traditionally used as a source of wisdom and meditation.
Customer Reviews:
Very Relaxing.......2007-09-28
I enjoyed this book very much. I kept it on my coffee table and would color in it to relax. Now that each page is colored I have moved it to my bookshelf.
Very nice!.......2007-06-12
Out of the half dozen coloring books we bought last year this one was our favorite. Every design felt well thought out and was quite fun to color. My only complaint is that there weren't more pictures to color. This is well worth buying if you're looking for a challenge to your coloring skills.
Great Book!!! Thanks!!.......2007-01-25
This is a very unusal book,...I think I am going to really enjoy this one!!! Thanks again!!! Arcrystal
Just do it!.......2007-01-13
The book sat around for awhile, the markers I used didn't work well with the paper. Then I started with colored pencils, now I'm addicted!
Love It!.......2006-11-28
I ordered 6 coloring books on the same day, and out of all of them, this one IS my FAVORITE. The designs are more than meaningless geometric shapes. They're really pretty!! And the pages are nice and big, and you can tear them out!! So you don't have to worry about that annoying bump getting in the way when you're trying to color.
MAIN POINT the designs are pretty :) I recommend.
Book Description
If you design and develop products for people, this book is for you. The Persona Lifecycle addresses the how of creating effective personas and using those personas to design products that people love. It doesnt just describe the value of personas; it offers detailed techniques and tools related to planning, creating, communicating, and using personas to create great product designs. Moreover, it provides rich examples, samples, and illustrations to imitate and model. Perhaps most importantly, it positions personas not as a panacea, but as a method used to complement other user-centered design (UCD) techniques including scenario-based design, cognitive walkthroughs and user testing.
John Pruitt is the User Research Manager for the Tablet & Mobile PC Division at Microsoft Corporation. Tamara Adlin is a Customer Experience Manager at Amazon.com. For the past six years, John and Tamara have been researching and using personas, leading workshops, and teaching courses at professional conferences and universities. They developed the Persona Lifecycle model to communicate the value and practical application of personas to product design and development professionals.
Features
* Presentation and discussion of the complete lifecycle of personas, to guide the designer at each stage of product development.
* A running case study with rich examples and samples that demonstrate how personas can be used in building a product end-to-end.
* Recommended best practices in techniques, tools, and innovative methods.
* Hundreds of relevant stories, commentary, opinions, and case studies from user experience professionals across a variety of domains and industries.
Customer Reviews:
Theory, Case Studies and Practice.......2007-10-09
Finally, someone has produced a 'definitive guide' to personas.
I really liked Cooper's idea of personas when I first came across it. In human factors, we use varying techniques of modelling users but this one seemed to stand above the rest due to its exploitation of our affinity with stories.
Unfortunately, over the years I've noticed personas being used in a haphazard fashion in industry - and for good reason. Practitioners had very little in the way of good references, how-tos or theory behind how to properly implement personas. Well, this book neatly solves all those problems in one shot. Pruitt and Adlin have put together an impressive tome that can be used either as a spot reference, or a definitive guide to implementing personas effectively. I highly recommend it.
One of THE HCI Resource Books for Your Shelf.......2007-03-23
I should admit my bias up front. There are those who like little short books that make one point and make it over and over. There are many popular books in our field that are like that, filled with stories that all basically make the same point and are just a couple of hundred pages long. They are heavy on fun reading and pithy quotes, and light on meat. If my company doesn't buy them for me, I usually like to borrow these, read the first chapter and last chapter and skim the rest.
The Persona Lifecycle is the other kind of book. It is a book that is large because it is packed with information and ideas. It is big, because the topic is big. It is organized in a way that lets you take it down from the shelf and just read the bits that are relevant to the problem you have at the time. Are you trying to figure out how to get started? Are you trying to figure out how to engage your organization in the effort, and in user-centered design through the use of personas? Are you trying to figure out how to make your personas more effective? Are you trying to figure out how to drive more business value out of them? There is something for every situation.
There isn't just one way to get value from personas, and so a checklist or cookbook isn't appropriate. What are appropriate are principles that can be used to figure out an approach for a particular context, and lots of examples.
Furthermore, it is a book that doesn't just live in the world of theory, or pontificating about a point of view in order to justify a consulting business. It is a book that is filled with practical advice and the experiences of those who are using personas in their jobs.
This is a must-have resource for the HCI professional's shelf.
The authors missed the boat. One of the few books I cannot recommend........2007-02-14
(I've been doing personas since 2000, right after reading Cooper's Inmates are Running the Asylum).
I had great expectations for this book, but was sadly disappointed. There are a few good "models" in this book, like the fact that it uses a single case study carried through the book to continually try and tie things together. However, the book is a very difficult 700pp read. They've thrown in everything including the kitchen sink in this book, which is not a good thing.
They have stories from the field, handy details, bright ideas, the G4K case study - all woven throughout the writing of the book. It breaks to book up too much and makes it less useful.
There's an entire chapter on reality maps. They don't have anything to do with personas, really. They're a great tool, kind of like the Task Analysis grid [...], but I wouldn't put that in a personas book.
They should have created some personas for the book to guide their design and limit the amount of writing they did. The writing style isn't engaging. The interior design of the book is confusing. They have a number of different elements threaded through the book, which dissects the pages up too much, making it more difficult to read.
Personally, they could have just stuck with the chapters from their contributing authors and had a better book.
This was very disheartening for me, as I was really looking forward to this book. However, of the 300+ books on my shelf, this is one that I simply could not recommend.
[...]. The authors really missed the boat here. This is not a how-to book. It is very thorough, too thorough. They seemed to take everything related to personas and try and pack it into one book. The execution simply missed the mark.
This book is for you if you design and develop products and services for people........2007-01-22
If you are involved with designing and developing products and services for people, you know the importance of keeping the user (people) in mind throughout the product design. Designing for the users without involving real users is pointless. If you cannot involve the users, you can imagine them and create a personality to each and every one of them. Welcome to the next frontier for user-centered design: personas. If you want how to create and use personas to design products that people love I encourage you to read The Persona Lifecycle.
The Persona Lifecycle describes the value of personas, and offers detailed techniques and tools to conceive, create, communicate, and use personas to create [great] product designs. John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin provide examples, samples, and illustrations for persona practitioners to imitate and model. It is important to emphasize that the use of personas is a method that compliments other user-centered design techniques, including user testing, scenario-based design, and cognitive walkthroughs.
Personas are not always successful as a design solution, as the authors readily admit. That is why Pruitt and Adlin wrote The Persona Lifecycle: to provide solutions to some of the common problems practitioners have experienced when trying to create and use personas. The book begins with an introduction to personas (Chapter 1), followed by an overview of the persona lifecycle (Chapter 2), and five core chapters (Chapters 3 through 7) that cover the phases of the persona lifecycle.
In addition, the leading usability, Human-Computer Interaction, and customer experience experts have contributed the following chapters to this book:
- Larry Constantine: "Users, Roles, and Personas" introduces user roles in the context of usage-centered design and explores the relationships between user roles and personas. I found this chapter of particular interest because I am learning how to create use cases as a method of identifying system requirements. Giving the actors (users) personalities makes the use cases and tasks (roles) more meaningful.
- Whitney Quesenbery: "Storytelling and Narrative" provides guidelines to create a story, the elements of a good story, and the techniques to craft a story. A well-crafted story helps the design team to establish a situation or context, illustrate a problem or a positive experience, and propose a new solution for personas.
- Tamara Adlin and Holly Jamesen Carr: "Reality and Design Maps" describe how to create artifacts that help the design team to understand and communicate information about the ways that people achieve their goals and the ways they could achieve their goals with new tools.
- Jonathon Grudin: "Why Personas Work: The Psychological Evidence" describes the relationship of personas to the practice of marketing. Primarily, how to get the most from personas you have created to inform product design by looking for ways they can contribute to marketing and suggestions on how to create personas for marketing purposes.
- Bob Barlow-Busch: "Marketing Versus Design Personas" compares and contrasts the use of personas in marketing and design. Simply stated, a marketing persona tells the story of someone deciding to purchase a product, and a design persona tells the story of someone using it: one is a customer and the other is a user. The main purpose of a marketing persona is to understand the factors that influence people's purchase of products.
Each chapter is supported by testimonials from corporate presidents, handy details (important reminders, useful definitions, and a running case study that connects all of the lifecycle phases; and concludes with a summary that revisits key topics to prepare the reader for the next phase of persona development.
What I like about this book is that it is wholly dedicated to the personas. Pruitt and Adlin have been researching and using personas, leading workshops, and teaching courses at professional conferences and universities. They developed the Persona Lifecycle model to communicate the value and practical application of personas to product design and development professionals, and became the inspiration for this book. I should mention that since the publication of this book in April 2006, Steve Mulder and Ziv Yaar have published The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web (VOICES).
If you want to learn the techniques to inject accurate information about real users into the chaotic world of product development, you will find The Persona Lifecycle essential reading and a must have for your library.
Quite simply the best book available on personas.......2007-01-20
Tamara and John got it right. Finally a book that goes beyond evangelization and provides real information on how to successfully produce personas within almost any organization. Packed with useful tips and tales from the trenches it's clear that Tamara and John have done their homework and are the leading experts in the field.
I've personally used the reality and design mapping techniques described inside in large organizations and start-ups and found them to be hugely beneficial in moving past analysis paralysis and getting to consensus. Buy this book - you will not be disappointed.
Books:
- Whatcha Mean, What's a Zine?
- Wide Open: Inspiration & Techniques for Art Journaling on the Edge (Book & Card Kit)
- Zag: The Number One Strategy of High-Performance Brands
- 1,000 Greetings: Creative Correspondence Designed for All Occasions
- A Passover Haggadah
- Adobe Photoshop CS2 Classroom in a Book
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers,The (Voices That Matter)
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers,The (Voices That Matter)
- Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become
- Applying UML and Patterns: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Analysis and Design and Iterative Development (3rd Edition)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- When She Was White: The True Story of a Family Divided by Race
- Seneca, VIII, Tragedies I: Hercules. Trojan Women. Phoenician Women. Medea. Phaedra
- Fools Crow
- Garrett Investigates
- Is Belief in God Good, Bad or Irrelevant
- Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Engineering
- The Devil's Dominion: Magic and Religion in Early New England
- Chuck Jones: A Flurry of Drawings, Portraits of American Genius
- FOOD, ECOLOGY AND CULTURE: Readings in the Anthropology of Dietary Practices
- Taiwan Business Intelligence Report
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites
The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning
Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity
