Return on Design: Smarter Web Design That Works

Despite the so-called dot-com bust, the fact is that more people use the Web—and more companies rely on it—than ever before. But to succeed in today’s cost-conscious economy, Web producers must use fewer resources to create effective, usable sites that return on the client's financial investment.

How? Veteran designer Ani Phyo brings a survivor's savvy and hard-won design experience to a hard-hitting book that takes on the bottom line of Web design. Phyo shows how the key principles of user-centered information design can streamline any Web development project—making the site more effective and easier to use, and better meeting the client's business goals. She outlines a straightforward, seven-step process for developing the right site in the right way, and saving time and money in the long run.

You'll learn how to:

• Evaluate a current site, assess its competition, accurately sample its target audience, and help the client articulate needs and expectations.

• Assemble the right team for the job.

• Create accurate portraits of diverse audience members, and envision how they will move through the site.

• Determine with confidence what content the site should offer and how it should function.

• Design a professional site-navigation scheme and create functional prototypes to test it.

• Conduct a controlled usability test-even on a shoestring budget—and make the most of user feedback.

• Build in mechanisms that gather ongoing feedback, so the client can revise the site appropriately and cost-effectively.

ANI PHYO is the founder of SmartMonkey Media (www.smartmonkey.com), a media consultancy specializing since 1994 in cutting-edge Web, print, and video experience design. Phyo's clients include ABC Cable Networks, Apple Computers, Baxter Healthcare, Disney, Pacific Bell, Paramount Pictures, Simon & Schuster, and Warner Bros. She studied human ecology design and business management at Cornell University.