Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Exactly what I needed!
Comment: This book tells me exactly what to do to design a website.
I'm a researcher in a government lab working on a large aeronautics and data mining research project. We'd like our work to be more open to the public, and I'm responsible for designing a website to engage the public in active collaboration. I've got less than a year, I have a small inexperienced team (me included), and I'm trying to teach them customer-centered methods as we go along. This book is like a godsend! It puts everything in one place! It gives me hope that I can actually pull this off!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Reads like a textbook
Comment: This book is geared for professional website firms creating sites for corporations. (much discussion about how to appeal to corporations, focus groups etc.) My aim was to create a site for my small business myself, so it did not appeal to me.
This book is broken into 115 pages of 'meat' discussing principles of web design and the balance of the 900 odd pages consists of templates of successful sites of various natures (one for personal sites, one for non-profits, another for e-commerce etc.) But there isn't much information on why the author thinks these sites are good! So I guess you are supposed to take the author's word for it that these templates are good, treat the book like an a-la-carte menu, and crib the template you want, which the book claims will save you time.
Instead, I wanted to gain an understanding of what makes a great website great, and it is not to be found this book. Worse, it reads like a 101 level college course in any subject, orienting the novice to basics using verbose and pedantic language. These days there are very few novices out there - even 14 year old kids have much experience with the web. So who is this book for? Anyway this is certainly not for 10 year old kids - very heavy reading suitable for college students, but not much substance. Instead I recommend the classic "Don't make me think" by Steven Krug.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent information, extraordinary presentation
Comment: You have to be a little careful when you pick this book up. On first read, the style and quality of information seems to answer questions just as they enter my mind. Then, the authors use a cross-referencing technique that ties a key word to a separate pattern section. The patterns are clearly marked on each page corner, grouped by family, then numerically. It's pretty much like a well written website in paper form. That's the trap. I find myself spending hours running through the trails these keyword links create. Great graphics, concise descriptions, a must have reference book for anyone interested in making their websites really perform. If I lost my library in a fire, this would be the first book I'd replace.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A life cycle plan for websites
Comment: Contrary to popular belief, a good website is not just the result of someone's ability to manipulate a website development tool. The Design of Sites emphasises the need for research, planning, and documentation, and for following a standard software development life cycle - requirements definition, design reviews, testing, maintenance. The first five chapters are general, and the rest of the book contains "patterns" for specific types of websites. Thus, the reader can read the first five chapters, then pick and choose from the patterns, according to need and applicability. A bonus is the reference to a cool design tool developed by the authors - fun and useful. Whether you are developing a website for a client or for yourself, this book is for the "thinking" website developer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: More than simply patterns
Comment: This book was highly recommended in a presentation on UI design patterns that I attended. Until I bought my copy I didn't realize how extremely useful it was.
Unlike other UI design pattern books, it covers more than basic page/widget level items. These include types of sites (eCommerce, news, etc.), sections and pages (message boards, help systems, newsletters), as well as lower level items.
Less obvious, but more practical for those with little or no background in UI design, is that it distills a huge amount of research, best ideas/practices and general usability guidelines. This can be invaluable when creating new and unfamiliar web sites/pages/interface elements quickly.
This new edition ensures that it's more current in response though they make clear that for all the hype about new technologies, most of the basic patterns have not changed. Where something HAS changed, they note it.
Beyond the patterns are well written explanations of user (or their preferred term "consumer") centered design practices. Though there are many other books on that subject, it does make this almost a singular "one-book" resource.
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