Defensive Design for the Web 06-04-2004
I recently picked up 37signals new book Defensive Design for the Web. The book offers some good insight into some of the more basic usability design issues on the web and while it is a quick read I wouldn’t recommend it to the more advanced designers. If you’re new to web design or finally realizing that there is more to creating web pages than just html this book is probably a good read.
I do still think that I will use it as a reference in my library of books. Defensive Design for the Web does one thing that most usability design books don’t and that is showing bad design. Many books out there exclaim how they are not writing a book to scold designers but to laud those which are designed well. Unfortunately that doesn’t always help because as humans we learn from mistakes and showing bad design helps us learn what not to do.
If you do get a chance to pick this up I highly recommend getting Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think as well since his book I feel makes a great companion to Defensive Design for the Web. Krug’s book shows a lot of great design and a lot great ways to make them even better which is something that the 37Signals book does not do.