Custom Web Design

The big winners in the Ebusiness arena are those who practice customer-centric design. More than simply a matter of jazzy graphics, customer-centric design is about earning the trust and loyalty of a dedicated customer base by making the quality of the user experience the centerpiece of the total online strategy. As illustrated by the examples of the many big winners covered in this book, for those who practice customer-centric design, the online user experience is a major part of a company's value. And, as shown by the experiences of the many dot-com also-rans cited, anything less than a total commitment to the user experience is, at best, an expensive, humbling exercise in futility. While there are a multitude of books on the art and science of user interface and Web site design, until now none has focused on the online user experience from the corporate strategist's and marketing manager's perspectives. The first guide to linking business strategy with the art and science of online user experience, "Built for Use offers a total approach to the planning and development of ebusiness experiences that build long-term customer loyalty and drive long-term profits. Drawing upon her experiences as a user-experience strategist for numerous Fortune 1000 firms, Karen Donoghue explores key business strategy and user-experience issues in a concise, jargon-free style for nontechnical managers. With the help of fascinating and instructive before-and-after case studies from State Street Corporation, Fidelity Investments, Trellix Corporation, and other major players in the ecommerce arena, Donoghue makes a strong business case for customer-centric design practices. She describes userexperience and design-strategy best practices for everything from putting together and managing an interdisciplinary team dedicated to delivering superior user experience to measuring the design strategy success and ensuring continued customer satisfaction.

Creating a Web site is easy. Creating a well-crafted Web site that provides a winning experience for your audience and that enhances your profitability is another matter. It takes research, skill, experience, and careful thought to build a site that maximizes retention and repeat visits. The authors of "The Design of Sites have done much of the research for you. Based on extensive investigation and analysis of more than 100 of the highest-quality Web sites, this book distills the principles and best practices that make sites enjoyable to visit and a huge asset to the organizations they serve. This comprehensive resource features numerous design patterns that offer proven solutions to common Web design problems. These patterns are appropriate to a wide variety of site genres and address every aspect of Web site design, from navigation and content management to e-commerce and site performance. In addition to enhancing the usefulness and quality of your site, the patterns outlined in "The Design of Sites will also shorten development cycles and reduce maintenance costs.