Rating: 
Summary: Foreword by Lynda Weinman: "we need more books like this"
Review: "Until recently, most of us thought clean code and pretty graphics were the key to a successful site. Now we're realizing that unless we also create navigable interfaces, all our hard work could result in an unusable failure. Anyone interested in communi-cating effectively on the Web must recognize the importance of navigation and seek to master its many facets. This will mean learning some new skills and ways of thinking, since the skills that apply to coding or visual design are very different from those needed to design navigation that works. "Web Navigation: Designing the User Experience provides a method-ical approach to arriving at answers that are right for you-not for some mythical, one-size-fits-all web site. Beneath the useful structure and methodology is an effective system designed to help you outline your own goals and find personalized solutions for meeting them. As you read this book, you'll find many new concepts-such as designing for multiple audiences, building community, conducting user testing, or planning for commerce-demystified. Jennifer Fleming presents each subject in an extremely accessible manner and offers many exercises to help you identify which navigation approach is appropriate for your type of site. "Kudos to Fleming for her excellent research, approachable tone, and generosity of information. If you're looking for help in giving your site's visitors a more positive experience than they get today, this book is an excellent place to start. It provides ideas and direction, not preachy rules that apply to someone else's site. "The Web needs more books like this if it is to evolve to the next level. I believe this book can help you make your site a better place, regardless of whether your purpose is community-building, commerce, education, entertainment, information, or hobby. It's written in such an enjoyable, conversational tone that you may have trouble putting it down; I certainly did. I wholeheartedly recommend it for all web publishers." -Lynda Weinman, Author, trainer, columnist
Rating: 
Summary: Hugely valuable to me
Review: As an independent consultant I was pretty set in my thoughts about how a web site ought to navigate, and was pretty much turning them out like flapjacks. Then, a client hit me with a navigational approach -- in fact, mandated a navigational approach -- that I implemented only with many concerns. I ordered this book, assuming I knew everything there was to know <grin> about navigation, as much as ammunition in case I had to have a showdown with the client as for personal betterment. Well, sometimes really good things happen for the wrong reasons. I am really impressed with this book, and it has already been hugely valuable to me. Interestingly, it convinced me that the client was actually correct -- that their navigation idea was spot on for their market position. Actually, the effect of the book went beyond that. It started me re-thinking some of the sites I had built in the past that I still had some control over. It made me think of things I could have done differently, and it resulted in three small projects to improve navigation on existing sites. My copy is now quite dog-eared. Pages are turned down, and sticky notes inserted throughout. There are marginal notes all over the book. I have been back to it repeatedly to use one of its greatest assets: its references. Unlike some books, this one recommends a quality source no matter who publishes it. This is a pet peeve of mine with some other publishers, who can't bear to admit that any book worth referring to could come from another imprint. Yes, many references here are to other O'Reilly books, but far more are to other publishers. A ten page "Netography". A three page bibliography. References throughout the text. The nice thing is that you can take the text and run with it, and when you hit a wall there are references that can take you the rest of the way. I was also pleased to see the demo of Dreamweaver and of Imagevise on the CD-ROM. Coincidentally I had been thinking about trying both these products, and now I will get to try before I buy. Conclusion: this is the kind of technical book you can have a relationship with.
Rating:
Summary: Hugely valuable to me
Review: As an independent consultant I was pretty set in my thoughts about how a web site ought to navigate, and was pretty much turning them out like flapjacks. Then, a client hit me with a navigational approach -- in fact, mandated a navigational approach -- that I implemented only with many concerns. I ordered this book, assuming I knew everything there was to know <grin> about navigation, as much as ammunition in case I had to have a showdown with the client as for personal betterment. Well, sometimes really good things happen for the wrong reasons. I am really impressed with this book, and it has already been hugely valuable to me. Interestingly, it convinced me that the client was actually correct -- that their navigation idea was spot on for their market position. Actually, the effect of the book went beyond that. It started me re-thinking some of the sites I had built in the past that I still had some control over. It made me think of things I could have done differently, and it resulted in three small projects to improve navigation on existing sites. My copy is now quite dog-eared. Pages are turned down, and sticky notes inserted throughout. There are marginal notes all over the book. I have been back to it repeatedly to use one of its greatest assets: its references. Unlike some books, this one recommends a quality source no matter who publishes it. This is a pet peeve of mine with some other publishers, who can't bear to admit that any book worth referring to could come from another imprint. Yes, many references here are to other O'Reilly books, but far more are to other publishers. A ten page "Netography". A three page bibliography. References throughout the text. The nice thing is that you can take the text and run with it, and when you hit a wall there are references that can take you the rest of the way. I was also pleased to see the demo of Dreamweaver and of Imagevise on the CD-ROM. Coincidentally I had been thinking about trying both these products, and now I will get to try before I buy. Conclusion: this is the kind of technical book you can have a relationship with.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent first-half, but disappointing case studies.
Review: Contrary to some of the reviews posted here, I found the advice in this book very worthwhile. The first half makes a promising venture into the uncharted territory of navigation design for the Web, and is particularly good where the process of Web development is concerned. In many ways, I felt that chapter to be even better than David Seigal's superb book on the subject. The second half is, as far as I am concerned, padding to make this book look bigger than it is. The analysis of sites like Amazon.com (yawn) and IBM (yawn) is deeply unenlightening, and pedestrian. The sites chosen are very 'missionary position', and there's not much more to be learnt than by just browsing them yourself. Overall, I'd recommend this book for all Web architects, particularly experienced ones who will appreciate the lucidity of the first half. But purchase it knowing that it's a quick read that really only starts the project of illuminating the rules of navigation structures.
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to O'Reilly's usual standards of excellence.
Review: Fleming's technique involves a lot of interviews and case studies, which results in an overview of design issues that's a mile wide and an inch deep; some folks might need that and might indeed benefit from that. I expect more from O'Reilly. Typically, O'Reilly books are much meatier than this, and certainly as a practical matter the level of technical detail presented here is quite low. If you're a novice to site design, this book might help you quite a bit; likewise, if you're a nontechnical manager with one or more web developers on your staff, it might also be worth your time. If you've kept up with the various web sites and print magazines which discuss aspects of the "user experience," your time and money can best be spent elsewhere. O'Reilly has enjoyed a reputation for technical excellence that in my opinion no other technical publisher can come close to. If they put out many more books like this, though, I don't expect that to hold. Buy O'Reilly's excellent "Information Architecture" instead of this volume, read the design tutorials over at HotWIRED's "Webmonkey" and visit Jakob Neilsen's site, and save your shekels for something you can use.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing new here.
Review: I bought the book with hopes it would shed some new light on web site navigation and the approach to designing sites more effectively, going beyond the obvious rules like "no dead-end links". But in the end it I felt as though it was more an introduction to web design/navigation for those just starting to design for the web. No new information here, just more of the same, "same" meaning the same rules/guidelines you hear tossed about the web on a daily basis...like "know your audience", "use simple easy to understand navigation" and "storyboard" before you begin the design/layout. If your looking for a slightly more insightful approach, try "Information Architecture", also published by O'Reilly. Much of the Fleming's book seemed to draw from that resource anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: Really two books in one, excellent resource link list on CD
Review: I guess I knew what I was getting with this book. The first half is what I really wanted - the author's perspective on design, architecture, and navigation. I know that the case studies in the second half of the book need to be general enough to pertain to the first half of the book. And I think the author does that just fine. I actually find the compilation of resources, in the back of her book, and on the CD to be top-notch. I've used most of these sites as educational resources since there are few formal ways of learning interface design (and similar) without attending multiple conferences (expensive) or going to some university program (two years if you can get in and pay the high price of tuition). I do think that the author's book, in combination with, for example, Rosenfeld's book, Lynch & Horton's book, and others, makes for a pretty reasonable library. You have to start somewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Quick Read With Fairly Good Information
Review: I have finished reading this book and taken from it some fairly good as well as new information. I must say that it is semi-basic, but at the same time very good for web designers. This book gives very specific examples on what to do on cut-and-dry category sites. The information and tips are very good, but the only problem is that no site fits into these categories perfeclty. If you are able to take what is important and combine it with information from other chapters, then this book will work for you.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely dry!
Review: I read the first five chapters and I thought that this book, i.e., Web Navigation: Designing the User Experience was very boring. The writing style is montonous and not very creative. I will have severe reservations before thinking about buying another O'Reaily book again.
Rating:
Summary: Web designers need this book!
Review: I wish I could buy this book in bulk and send it out to the webmasters of half the sites that are online. Sheesh. IMHO, designers just aren't thinking about how the user approaches navigation *nearly* as often as they should be ... and don't even get me started about how rarely marketers and programmers take usability into consideration (or so it seems to me). It's true that this book is just the tip of the iceberg on the navigation issue, but it's a great start. As web designers (hopefully) take some of these navigational principles to heart, I hope the author expands on these ideas in future editions.
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