Designing the Moment: Web Interface Design Concepts in Action

by Robert Hoekman Jr.

Book Overview

The trick to great design is knowing how to think through each decision so that users don't have to. In Designing the Moment: Web Interface Design Concepts in Action , Robert Hoekman, Jr., author of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0321535081
• ISBN13: 9780321535085
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: New Riders Publishing
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Desiging the Moment makes my job 100% easier!

I recommend this book and Designing the Obvious to web designers, and burgeoning IA's . These two books combined take seemingly daunting but painfully simple interfaces and functionality and turn them into easy cheezy solutions that are plug-n-play ready to go! No matter what type of website you are working on, these core pieces allow you to embrace to basic in order to excel in the complex. Such a breeze to read, and fun too! Robert, you're amazing. If I could ever work with you, it would be a dream come true! Thank you for all the time and energy you put into these books to help make the rest of our jobs much easier!

Great stories on how to improve the user experience

Robert Hoekman Jr. second book, Designing the Moment, focuses on improving the online user experience. His approach is a practical one: design interfaces that respect users and allow them to feel in control. Robert's goal is to inspire the web professional to "improve the moment" for users. His storytelling method of explaining strategies makes the 220 page book a quick and fun read. The book contains 30 stories, based on his own experiences of real-world applications and the step-by-step approach taken toward resolving design interaction issues. The stories are concise, and offer a critique of each phase as changes are made to interfaces. Robert has a "think out loud" method which allows the reader to better understand the decision making process. Question steps along the way and don't hesitate to make decisions you might change in the future. Designing interfaces is an iterative process. Designing the Moment assumes the reader has knowledge of web design and development; it does not provide the specific code to implement the recommendations. As Robert mentions in the book, "This book is meant as a conversation starter. It's meant to get you thinking". The book is divided into seven parts: Part 1: Getting Oriented - give a good first impression to the user Part 2: Learning - make it easier for users to find their way around Part 3: Searching - improve the search interface Part 4: Diving In - great tips on improving forms and video controls Part 5: Participating - focus on social media Part 6: Managing Information - how to manage lots of information Part 7: Moving On - the sign out process My favorite story in the book is in Chapter 7, where Robert discusses the simplicity of clear labels. Make it easy for users to to use applications. Provide users with simple, easy to understand labels and instructions. On forms or applications, rather than displaying an error message that the user didn't enter information in a valid format, add informative text on the form or application form field that describes what is acceptable. Designing the Moment is a wonderful resource for information architects, usability experts, interaction designers and developers. I highly recommend it!

A great book

Designing the Moment is one of those books that make sure you don't instantly forget what you've read. It's easy and almost fun to read and filled with practical advice - mostly because it really focuses on these mini moments. The book provides more than just a set of possible solutions to problems; it also explains why these solutions work and what the problems are. This means you not only get the tips, you get why they work and that's worth so much more.

Hoekman is to UX Design Lit as DeLillo is to Contemporary Fiction

Designing the Moment is an invigorating follow-up to Hoekman's paradigm-shifing debut Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design - a must-read for designers, marketers, business analysts, developers, and engineers of all persuasions. It's possible that these two books are the most important reads on the subject of web design to come out since Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition. Hoekman comes across in these books as a supportive peer - a rare and refreshingly readable perspective in this genre. In clear, concise (obvious!) text, he manages to unpack and delineate complex processes and interactions with an energy and enthusiasm that's infectious. He is an evangelist for the church of the whiteboard, that primal collaborative zone where interactions are crafted and iterated upon with a single purpose in mind: making someone's life just a little bit easier, less frustrating by a single increment. It's easy to lose track of this goal. It's easy to get bogged down by all of the politics and the marketing hype and to forget that what we are doing as designers is helping people. Hoekman, in these books, continually brings us back to this core idea in a way that never feels didactic or condescending. I should add that I'm not an avid reader of books on interaction design or user experience design, though I own many. This is because the bulk of the design texts I own are a real chore to slog through. There are a handful of authors, though, whose work I follow with enthusiasm. Of these few, Hoekman is the one author whose books I genuinely devour and press into the palms of my coworkers as soon as I finish the last sentence. These are vital texts - buy them both!

Excellent resource

Hoekman's style makes this a quick and very understandable read. Each chapter is overflowing with tips you can apply immediately to things you're working on right now. In many cases, he starts with some design that may not have any obvious problems, then iterate through improvements, thoroughly explaining WHAT he's improving on and WHY the improvement actually IS an improvement. The plentiful, full color screenshots are a huge help, to see exactly what the iterations produce.