Reviews for Information Architecture Handbook: A Hands-on Approach to Structuring Successful Websites

1. Lots of Info - but a big disappointment

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2002

   Eric Reiss is clearly very knowledgable and experienced and this book contains many pearls of wisdom that should be of interest to those involved in designing the structure of websites - especially if they are not very experienced in the subject and want some background on the various issues to be taken into account.
   
   Unfortunately, for a book on Information Architecture, the content is not very well structured, some parts are not of great interest, and large parts are not really about Information Architecture. Sometimes the pearls of wisdom were hidden in some fairly boring digressions.
   With brutal editing, some new content and a change in title, this could be a very good book. Few books are written on this subject so it is still worth a read, but I was disappointed.

2. A classic in the making!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2001

   A treasure trove of practical info in an easy to read package. I would strongly urge everyone who has a Web site or is thinking about doing one to read this book as it will save them untold grief during development. No graphic design stuff that will be out of date in two months; this book deals with arranging Web information sensibly so people can find what they are looking for, which should be the most important design consideration of all. I suspect this book will go on to become a classic in the field. Great stuff!

3. The most useful handbook I�ve purchased all year!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2001

   Along with Don't Make Me Think, this book ought to be required reading by anyone working with interactive media. Mr. Reiss' clear explanations of complicated problems combined with good illustrations (sadly not in colour) make this the most useful handbook I've purchased all year. I was also pleased to see that the author lives on our side of the Atlantic, which provides a more well-rounded perspective than most other web publications. Quite frankly, don't design another site before you have read your Reiss!

4. not enough depth here - merely confirmed what I already knew

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2001

   It seems books on this topic are very thin on the ground, and good books even more scarce! I was looking for some meat on the hows and whys of whether to use frames, navigation links, how to "regionalise" a web site - where to put banner ads and how to start incorporating dynamic components into my static pages. None of this did I find. The book only served as a quick read to confirm what I already knew from several years of surfing, creating less an less amatuerish websites and the odd intranet site. The good points of the book are its attention to the procedure of getting teams onside to actually create the site from a concept plan through to finished article, complete with testing, revision and restructuring - and the various pitfalls to watch out for. Formalising the distinction between the oddly name functional and topical sites, cemented a design choice I am currently making. Various other design blunders are mentioned and compared, but no solution is really presented. Overall, worth a quick read, but not the design bible I was hoping for.