Book Review - Defensive Design for the Web by 37signals
Book Review – Defensive Design for the Web
Defensive Design for the Web – 37signals
1st edition, 2004, 246 pages, New Riders
Web site designers/developers who need to learn how to reduce the frustration factor in their sites.
This book covers the subject of how to code web sites that gracefully handle unexpected conditions encountered by visitors.
The book is divided into the following chapters:
Understanding Defensive Design; Show The Problem; Language Matters; Bulletproof Forms; Missing In Action; Lend A Helping Hand; Get Out Of The Way; Search And Rescue; Out Of Stocks and Unavailable Items; The Contingency Design Test; Contingency Design
We’ve all visited web sites that promise cool things. But somewhere along the way, you do something that is not quite what the program expected. Maybe you entered an incorrect date or missed a required field. Your joy quickly disappears as the site makes you jump through a number of hoops to correct the data or get back on track. They end up losing a customer without even knowing it. If you’re a web developer, this is a critical issue for you, and the book Defensive Design for the Web is what you need to start correcting these issues.
The authors present 40 guidelines that cover different aspects of defensive design, or contingency design as they call it. Some are pretty basic, such as “Always identify errors the same way”. Others require a bit more thought in the coding of the site, such as “Assist form dropouts by saving information”. But instead of just stating the guideline and moving on, they take it a step further. Using familiar and popular web sites, they provide “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” examples of each guideline. By seeing the guidelines actually applied in real-life, you are much more likely to understand the problems associated with it. I know if my site was used as a “thumbs down” example, I’d be motivated to get it fixed post haste.
At the end of the book, there is a contingency test you can apply to your site. You start by taking the test yourself as a baseline. After you think you’ve cleaned up the site, then have some real visitors use the site and take the test. If you can do well in both these scenarios, then your site is better off than most others out there. You’re probably also seeing a high rate of repeat traffic.
The book is easy to read, but you’ll most likely return to the guidelines over and over. This is a book that is going to be no more than an arms-length away.
This is a “must have” if you develop web sites. The concepts and tips in this book can make the difference between one-time and repeat visitors.