A few minutes ago the FedEx man dropped off one small-to-medium sized box with the smiling Amazon logo printed on the top and sides. I knew this was coming; I'd planned to work from home today so that I could rip open the box and immediately start soaking in the knowledge contained within the pages of Designing Web Navigation.
As I just got the book, I can't provide a full review yet. But after scanning every page and reading a few snippets here and there, I can assure you this is a book you're going to want. Maybe not right away, but make sure Santa doesn't let your chimney scuff his reindeer fur without leaving one of these beauties under the tree.
I found the book on a recent Amazon binge and was disappointed in myself for not knowing that the book had been out for more than a month. Personally, I've always struggled with designing "great" navigation. I have a tendency to overthink these matters, but still: I think we have quite a way to go before we can say that we've uncovered all the fundamentals in navigation design. Sure, it's a natural part of the information architecture process. But wayfinding is so important, and yet the attention given to the topic is scattered throughout the planning and design process. We don't need another job title dedicated to thinking about these issues, but giving this topic more time to study and develop can only bring about better websites that result in increased usage, sales, subscriptions, etc.
It is my hope that this book will shed some light on ideas I hadn't considered and refutes or supports ideals we've long held as "biblical" in the online design word.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
i am sure that it is the book i had in hand at Boders in Ann Arbor on friday ... but after 10 mins of waffling i bought another book. damm it! I now regret my choice!
You're shitting me right? Did this post come before or after my email?
vanni, go back and get it, you'll thank me later.
Ray, It's hours old dude!
Thanks for the book recommendation, Greg.
I like your point about having quite a way to go before we can say we've uncovered all the fundamentals of navigation design. I can't agree with you more. Many information architects, for example (but also others), are moving out of design roles into management positions these days. Sure, this might be a good career move and may bring more money. But at the same time I also hear things like, "We know how to build websites already." This kind of been-there-done-that attitude misses the deeper, finer aspects of navigation design (and web design in general) yet to be uncovered.
What's more, things change. Tag clouds present new challenges and opportunities. And I'm certain we're just starting to understand how to design mashups and how to design FOR mashups. There's still lots of interesting things to learn and explore here.
Cheers!
> Tag clouds present new challenges and opportunities.
I can't stand tag clouds and I can't wait for someone to come up with a better scheme. It's a horrible way to navigate anything that was presented as an idea and embraced raw, without improving on the idea.
This book has been on my drooling list since it came out. Guess it's time to shell out the cash.
BTW, Greg, I agree with your sentiment on tag clouds.
How does the book fare with empirical evidence? So much of web navigation seems to be based on old wives tales like 'no more than 3 clicks...no more than 7 options' rather than hard evidence.
Also, when did O'reilly start going full color with the animals?
And one more vote for 'not a fan of the tag cloud' navigation.
Greg, you have planned my lunch break. I'll be heading down to the book store to grab this.
Just got into this blog, so I thought I'd open fire on everything I've read so far...so if this is off-point, well, I'm trying to work out a lot of frustration at the moment:
I think if you don't create a completely new form of navigation for every single site you do, you're either stagnating or moving backwards. And I mean something you wouldn't find in a book or a tutorial, because it never existed before. By the same token, any client who requests an interface that looks like some other site they send you a link to needs to be cut loose on the spot, I don't care how much money they have. Let 'em hire a template jockey from Bangladesh, and see how far their brilliant, once-in-a-lifetime, billion-dollar scheme gets 'em then.
I'm so sick of these people with their brilliant ideas, completely detached from reality or business plan or design sense or coding ability or even what people actually want or need, when my job is to execute them and try to make 'em work while dragging the client kicking and screaming toward something that doesn't look like the complete pile of crap they're "envisioning," if that isn't too strong a word for what happens when you hit your head and acquire a fervent belief you're going to become an internet millionaire if you can just find someone who knows what FTP stands for and is willing to slave away for little or no money so that one day everyone will be able to order plungers delivered to their door while they're still sitting on the toilet or some such garbage...
I MEAN, FOR EVERY VENTURE CAPITALIST WITH AN IDIOTIC SCHEME, THERE ARE PROBABLY A DOZEN CODERS WHO KNOW HOW TO EXECUTE IT, WHO ARE EACH TWICE AS SMART AS THE VC GUY...IF IT WAS GOING TO WORK, WOULDN'T WE HAVE DONE IT ALREADY?
Thanks for letting me vent...can't sign this, I'll lose business...it's been a rotten day, after two weeks of work collapsed when the client said they wanted "more of a Google anti-design look"... can't do much with bad taste... and so searching for "google non design sucks" brought me here =\
Wow.
Bitter. Insightful. Leading.
Idealistic? Anti-trend? Struggling to be unique?
I don't know. Honestly. But he's chewing on something meaty.
[thinking]
Thanks, "JS"
Thanks for the reference Greg. Are you planning on writing a brief review of the book when you finish it?
CycU8l fgb21nlkfgb09834bfv
-----
I think if you don't create a completely new form of navigation for every single site you do, you're either stagnating or moving backwards.
-----
@JS, I understand the frustration, but let's not go crazy. Creating new fangled forms of navigation for every site probably isn't the best idea. It's more likely to hurt usability than help.
There's oodles of data that tells us how humans interact with signs, maps, navigation, etc. Change for the sake of change is not a good idea. You wouldn't build a wheel that wasn't round simply because you were sick of all wheels being so darn round and you wanted your wheel to be different, would you? But that's exactly what some designers do, just to be different.
I get the sentiment though, we should always work to improve.
"I think if you don't create a completely new form of navigation for every single site you do, you're either stagnating or moving backwards. "
You said a lot, but didn't explain 'why'. So, I ask...'why'?
Why would a designer NOT look at human factors research? Usability testing? Isn't that part of what a designer does?
Why would a client benefit from introducing a new form of navigation to their clients? Maybe they would. Maybe tried and true would be better.
Your statement seems a bit absurd to me without any context. It's like telling a cartographer to not design a map like every other map. Maybe it'd look 'cool' but could anyone use it? Maybe. Though likely not.
Design isn't about being different and unique. It's about making good decisions based on good data.
I can't stand tag clouds and I can't wait for someone to come up with a better scheme. It's a horrible way to navigate anything that was presented as an idea and embraced raw, without improving on the idea.
A-freakin-men. I'm glad to hear someone of stature come out and say this. Tag clouds look terrible and are terrible to use. The tried-and-true descending list welcomes all takers.