Resources: Related Books and Websites

Other books that describe and discuss common Web design mistakes

• Tom Brinck, Darren Gergle, and Scott D. Wood, Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work. Morgan-Kaufmann Publishers, 2001.
• Vincent Flanders and Michael Willis, Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design, Sybex, 1997. Describes common problems that plague websites, with some real examples.
• Vincent Flanders, Son of Web Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad Design, Sybex, 2001. The sequel to Web Pages That Suck.
• Ellen Isaacs and Alan Walendowski, Designing on Both Sides of the Screen, SAMS, 2001. Gives principles and practices for good user-interface design, from the point of view of both designers and programmers. Shows websites and other software that violates those principles.
• Jeff Johnson, GUI Bloopers: Don'ts and Dos for Software Developers and Web Designers, Morgan Kaufman, 2000. Describes common bloopers that make desktop software and websites difficult to use. Although most of the bloopers occur in both desktop software and on the Web, the examples are taken mainly from desktop software. Includes a short chapter on Web-specific bloopers.
• Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, New Riders, 2000. Explains in simple terms how websites should be designed, and why. Includes some examples of design flaws, with suggestions for improvement.
• Jakob Nielsen, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, New Riders, 1999. A very popular Web design book that includes real examples of Web design problems.
• Jakob Nielsen and Marie Tahir, Homepage Usability: Fifty Websites Deconstructed, New Riders, 2001. Points out problems on the home pages of fifty real websites, and describes how to fix them.
• Jared Spool et. al., Web Site Usability: A Designer's Guide, Morgan Kaufmann, 1999. Summarizes usability studies of several corporate websites. Includes examples of problems.
• Douglas van Duyne, James Landay, Jason Hong, The Design of Sites: Principles, Processes, & Patterns for Crafting a Customer-Centered Web Experience, Addison Wesley, 2001. Mainly about patterns to use (and reuse) in designing usable websites, but includes examples of mistakes to avoid.

Websites that show and discuss common Web design mistakes

• Web Pages That Suck (www.webpagesthatsuck.com) -- Vincent Flanders' original site that pokes fun at bad websites and explains how to avoid following in their footsteps.
• Fixing Your Website (www.FixingYourWebsite.com) -- Vincent Flanders' business oriented alternative to Web Pages That Suck. Much the same content as WPTS, but more polished, less irreverent, more bottom-line focused.
• UseIt (www.useit.com) -- Jakob Nielsen's site providing analysis, opinion, and design guidelines on Web usability. Includes Nielsen's periodic reassessment of the "top ten Web design mistakes".
• UI Wizards, Inc. (www.uiwizards.com) -- Web Bloopers author Jeff Johnson's consulting company website features a "Web Blooper of the Month".
• Dey Alexander (www.deyalexander.com) -- Usability consultant Dey Alexander's website includes a "Web Bloopers" column focusing on problems in websites.
• Theo Mandel (www.interface-design.net/Bloopers/bloopers.html) -- Usability author Theo Mandel's website includes a collection of user-interface bloopers, some of which are Web bloopers.