Defensive Design for the Web: How to Improve Error Messages, Help, Forms, and Other Crisis Points

by 37signals

Description

Defensive design is like defensive driving brought to the Web. Good site defense can make or break the customer experience. This book shows the right (and wrong) ways to get defensive, offers guidelines to prevent errors and rescue customers if a breakdown occurs.It also shows you how to evaluate and improve your own site's defensive design.

Recommendations

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition

Steve Krug

Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman

Designing with Web Standards

Jeffrey Zeldman

Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook by Dan Cederholm

Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook

Dan Cederholm

Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS by Dan Cederholm

Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS

Dan Cederholm

The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web by Jesse James Garrett

The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web

Jesse James Garrett

Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity by Jakob Nielsen

Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity

Jakob Nielsen

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Louis Rosenfeld

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites

Louis Rosenfeld

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design by Jenifer Tidwell

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design

Jenifer Tidwell

The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web by Dave Shea

The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web

Dave Shea

Web ReDesign: Workflow that Works by Kelly Goto

Web ReDesign: Workflow that Works

Kelly Goto

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability {first edition} by Steve Krug

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability {first edition}

Steve Krug

CSS Pocket Reference by Eric A. Meyer

CSS Pocket Reference

Eric A. Meyer

Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become by Peter Morville

Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become

Peter Morville

About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper

About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design

Alan Cooper

Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction by Steve McConnell

Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction

Steve McConnell

Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide by Eric A. Meyer

Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide

Eric A. Meyer

Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices by Dan Saffer

Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices

Dan Saffer

Web Design in a Nutshell by Jennifer Niederst Robbins

Web Design in a Nutshell

Jennifer Niederst Robbins

About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper

About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design

Alan Cooper

Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design by Robert Hoekman Jr.

Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design

Robert Hoekman Jr.

Designing for the Social Web by Joshua Porter

Designing for the Social Web

Joshua Porter

Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed by Jakob Nielsen

Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed

Jakob Nielsen

Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design by Eric A. Meyer

Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design

Eric A. Meyer

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman

The Design of Everyday Things

Donald A. Norman

Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning by Dan Brown

Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning

Dan Brown

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web by Christina Wodtke

Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web

Christina Wodtke

The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites (2nd Edition) by Douglas K. van Duyne

The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites (2nd Edition)

Douglas K. van Duyne

Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen

Prioritizing Web Usability

Jakob Nielsen

Agile Web Development with Rails: A Pragmatic Guide by Dave Thomas

Agile Web Development with Rails: A Pragmatic Guide

Dave Thomas

Programming Ruby by Dave Thomas

Programming Ruby

Dave Thomas

CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd

CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions

Andy Budd

DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model by Jeremy Keith

DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model

Jeremy Keith

Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces by Carolyn Snyder

Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces

Carolyn Snyder

HTML for the World Wide Web, with XHTML and CSS by Elizabeth Castro

HTML for the World Wide Web, with XHTML and CSS

Elizabeth Castro

Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data by Stephen Few

Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data

Stephen Few

Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work by Tom Brinck

Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work

Tom Brinck

More Eric Meyer on CSS by Eric A. Meyer

More Eric Meyer on CSS

Eric A. Meyer

Bulletproof Ajax by Jeremy Keith

Bulletproof Ajax

Jeremy Keith

Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research by Mike Kuniavsky

Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research

Mike Kuniavsky

Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems by Steve Krug

Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems

Steve Krug

The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web by Steve Mulder

The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web

Steve Mulder

Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks by Luke Wroblewski

Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks

Luke Wroblewski

High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers by Steve Souders

High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers

Steve Souders

CSS Cookbook by Christopher Schmitt

CSS Cookbook

Christopher Schmitt

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity by Alan Cooper

The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity

Alan Cooper

Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age by Paul Graham

Hackers and Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age

Paul Graham

Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design by Andy Clarke

Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design

Andy Clarke

Usability Engineering by Jakob Nielsen

Usability Engineering

Jakob Nielsen

Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design by Bill Buxton

Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design

Bill Buxton

Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions by Bill Scott

Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions

Bill Scott

Complete Recommendations

Member Reviews

Featured Recent Thumbs

All Ratings
7
23
½6
14
½2
3

3 reviews

jensgram 12 reviews

40 interesting and useful guidelines. The "Contingency Design Test" (pp. 220-7) is especially useful, although the score calculation seems rather unneccesary. Easy read, lots of illustrative (good as well as bad) examples.

Jul 30, 2007

irishkitsune 42 reviews

This book shows mostly through a long series of examples how to improve error messages and failure-point mitigation. While informative, I really don't think it was worth the price I paid for it. It was mostly screenshots with little in the way of explanations and information.

Feb 1, 2008

Murdocke23 52 reviews

Straightforward book on making sure a website user can get out of bind through well-categorized, to-the-point guidlines, supported by good and bad examples. Great as a design reference.

Ratings