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Content Critical by Gerry McGovern, Rob Norton

 
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<pre>Author/s : Gerry McGovern, Rob Norton
Publisher : Prentice Hall
Category : Web design, HTML and JavaScript
Review by : Frank Carver
Rating : 7 horseshoes
</pre>
This book is primarily about web site design, although that may not be very obvious from the title.
The overall premise is that the job of producing and running a web site has a lot in common with traditional paper publishing. Central to this idea, and the inspiration for the title, is that whatever the site, people actually visit it to read words. Not to look at pictures. Not to admire layout or coo at dynamic navigation menus. To find and read content. Everything else is at best irrelevant, at worst a distracting nuisance or even a reason to leave the site completely.
I wholeheartedly agree with this, and generally follow with the recommendations that the author makes about how to encourage and profit from this understanding: keep things simple, short, and fresh; understand your readers; make it easy to find stuff; treat editing and publishing as key business functions and so on.
What I find slightly disappointing is that the book itself doesn't entirely embody these values. The style is repetitive and often long-winded. As a well-edited web site or a conference presentation this would pack a much more powerful punch. I finished reading it mostly out of duty.


More info at Amazon.com
More info at Amazon.co.uk
 
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