Author, Gene Smith begins this book with a quote by Jon Udell, “When the novelty wears off… I think that tagging will have altered the information landscape in a fundamental way.” The original quote was first published in an InfoWorld article, titled Tag Mania Sweeps the Web… in 2005. I believe there is a lot of truth to the original quote, now in 2009, tagging is common in sites like Flickr or Delicious, and it seems nearly every new web application has some form of social tagging included. For students of Library and Information Science (like myself) this is indeed an important topic because it surely has “altered the information landscape” - but thankfully this debate, which is better left in the LIS classroom, is not in Gene Smith’s book and instead he gives the reader a clear overview and practical guide of what tagging is and examples of how it is used in the context of web development.
Gene Smith is a principal at the company nForm, a user experience consulting firm in Edmonton, Canada. According to Smith’s personal website, Atomiq, the company is devoted to making their clients’ websites and interactive software better for the end users by doing customer research, information architecture, and creating effective prototypes. Smith’s interest in tagging (and the discussion that lead to the semantics) began in 2004 when he asked a simple question to the Information Architecture Institute mailing list inquiring whether there was a name for this type of user classification. He explains in the introduction that this book is “a guide to the what and how (and sometimes why) of tagging.” using real-world examples based on his research.
Smith explains that this is not a philosophical discussion of why people tag but more of a practical guide to what it is and how information architects, developers, and designers can implement tagging into their own websites. It is a comprehensive overview starting with the definition and value of tagging. The technical aspects of this book include a chapter on the architecture and technical design, but Smith did not overlook what tagging is at its core - that is, metadata which is also used as navigational elements in websites. The information architecture aspect of tagging is presented in a chapter devoted to interface design.
The book is structured very concisely with a simple and clear writing style. The chapters are arranged by topic and with many examples of screenshots, tables, and some sample code. Information is easy to find and practical. I believe the simple outline style of the book is a benefit, as with many subjects devoted to technology, the topic will likely evolve and change, while many of the websites will be redesigned in time so the screenshots will help the reader become oriented with the topics more easily.
At the moment, Smith’s book is the only definitive and clear guide to tagging available. Many recent publications discuss tagging in the context of Web 2.0 (for example, Joshua Porter’s, Designing for the Social Web, or Clay Shirky’s book, Here Comes Everybody: the Power of Organizing without Organizations) but they are not devoted entirely to tagging. There have been a few studies devoted to the practice of tagging, but Smith did not set out to write a book about user motivations for tagging, so his overview stands alone when compared to other literature on this topic. One criticism of the book though is that it does not have a convenient set of resources or links available for reference or further reading. Web links are included, but within the text, which makes it difficult to find a website easily if a reader wanted to refer to it again later.
Information architects are interested in how information is structured on a website, and as Smith puts it, “are often tasked with developing organization schemes that work for a diverse population of users.” (p. 13). This underlines the importance of an understanding in tagging systems to information architects as they need to be aware of how users of a website are to find information while they are there. While tagging is not the only method IAs have for employing a classification or navigation system to a website, if the opportunity warrants itself for use in a such a system, it should be of interest for them understand how tagging can be used and engaged.
Smith’s book is recommended for information architects, web designers, and librarians who are interested in putting tagging into practice on their websites. The visualizations and concise outline make this book easy to read and refer to again. It is a practical guide for anybody who is unfamiliar with how tagging works and would like to know more.
- Title: Tagging: People Powered Metadata for the Social Web
- Author: Gene Smith
- Publisher: New Riders
- ISBN: 9780321529176
- Date: 2008
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 208
- Cover Price: USD: $39.99
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Book Review: Building Findable Websites
August 30, 2008
What makes “Building Findable Websites: Web Standards, SEO, and Beyond” by Aarron Walter so interesting to me is the simple, easy-to-implement advice. In fact, I updated the Refresh Detroit WordPress setup with several recommendations from the book.
Aarron covers a wide range of areas in the book, including user experience, markup, search engine optimization, and site promotion, that some people may find distracting.
However, I liked the mix of technical advice, delving into server-side settings and development and WordPress tweaking, and the more practical tips on creating content and setting up mailing lists. As Aarron points out in the first chapter, developing a findable website is the result of many aspects in web development which help your target audience find the information they seek.
It may seem a small detail, but an added bonus of the book is how the book is laid out and formatted, improving readability:
- the book lays flat with wide width pages
- the line spacing is generous, and
- the excellent use of text color in main content, chapter and section headings
As the sole employee of a web development company, I wear several hats as marketer, information architect, designer, coder, developer and search engine optimization analyst. Aarron’s book is a great resource for improving website findability by improving the user experience.
- Title: Building Findable Websites, first edition
- Author: Aarron Walter
- Publisher: New Riders Press
- ISBN: 0321526287
- Date: 2008
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 240
- Cover Price: USD: $39.99
Book Review: The Windows Vista Book
August 23, 2008
I admit it, I’m one of the many XP users who didn’t jump to Vista when it was first announced. Stories of the interface, problems with printer compatibility, etc. made me not want to even think about changing operating systems. As a longtime PC user, having made the transition from DOS to the first Windows release years ago; I wasn’t looking forward to yet another big change in how I do my work.
Reading The Windows Vista Book gave me reason to finally make the switch to Vista. The book has 10 short chapters, easy-to-understand explanations of individual features, and a full-color screen shot highlighting the feature on each page.
It’s obvious the editor/author/publisher took care to make it simple to scan the book chapters. Each chapter has a different colored 1/2 inch border at the top of the page with the chapter title which makes it a breeze to distinguish chapters.
Want that tip on Security? Go the chapter with the purple bordered pages. How do I split clips for a movie? Go to the light green bordered pages.
I liked The Windows Vista Book since it provided a quick overview of the most helpful and exciting features in Vista, without taking up a lot of my time. The book begins with a summary of the 10 coolest features in Vista, which will get anyone moving away from XP.
The Vista photo managing features explained in Chapter 7, Getting the Most out of Your Photos, were a lifesaver for our family at a recent reunion. With a couple hundred photos shot the night before, I quickly organized, edited, and displayed a slideshow to the family the next morning.
A nice touch - tips are included throughout the chapters, at the bottom of pages, set off by a blue background box.
My only negative comment on The Windows Vista Book - the content on each page was one big paragraph, some paragraphs with more than 15 lines. It would have been an easier read to break some of the longer paragraphs into shorter paragraphs.
- Title: The Windows Vista Book, first edition
- Author: Matt Kloskowski and Kleber Stephenson
- Publisher: Peachpit Press
- ISBN: 0321509749
- Date: 2008
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 240
- Cover Price: USD: $19.99
Book Review: Designing the Moment
July 12, 2008
Robert Hoekman Jr. second book, Designing the Moment, focuses on improving the online user experience. His approach is a practical one: design interfaces that respect users and allow them to feel in control.
Robert’s goal is to inspire the web professional to “improve the moment” for users. His storytelling method of explaining strategies makes the 220 page book a quick and fun read. The book contains 30 stories, based on his own experiences, of real-world applications and the step-by-step approach taken toward resolving design interaction issues.
The stories are concise, and offer a critique of each phase as changes are made to interfaces. Robert has a “think out loud” method which allows the reader to better understand the decision making process. Question steps along the way and don’t hesitate to make decisions you might change in the future. Designing interfaces is an iterative process.
Designing the Moment assumes the reader has knowledge of web design and development; it does not provide the specific code to implement the recommendations. As Robert mentions in the book,
This book is meant as a conversation starter. It’s meant to get you thinking.
The book is divided into seven parts:
- Part 1: Getting Oriented - give a good first impression to the user
- Part 2: Learning - make it easier for users to find their way around
- Part 3: Searching - improve the search interface
- Part 4: Diving In - great tips on improving forms and video controls
- Part 5: Participating - focus on social media
- Part 6: Managing Information - how to manage lots of information
- Part 7: Moving On - the sign out process
My favorite story in the book is in Chapter 7, where Robert discusses the simplicity of clear labels. Make it simple for users to to use our applications, provide users with simple, easy to understand labels and instructions. On forms or applications, rather than displaying an error message that the user didn’t enter information in a valid format, add informative text that explain what is acceptable.
Designing the Moment is a wonderful resource for information architects, usability experts, interaction designers and developers. I highly recommend it!
After reading the excellent review in Roger Johansson’s article about this new book, it took me a couple weeks, but I finally decided to buy it. I ordered the book from my local bookstore and two days later had the book in hand.
The book covers lots of material, and specifically details steps web developers can take in making their sites more accessible. I haven’t read the whole book yet, it’s over 500 pages! However, individual chapters can easily be read out of order. The chapter on Acrobat PDF was extensive and very detailed; I was able to follow it only because of the detailed research I did last December on the accessibility of Adobe Acrobat 7.0.
My only concerns about the book is the timeliness of the material. Much of the material is current for this year, but will quickly become outdated as new methods and technologies are introduced. For example, a reference is made to Kiko and Google Calendar. Kiko is no longer in business. The code for Kiko, a Web 2.0 online calendar application, was auctioned on eBay recently. It’s likely to remain on Google search for a while, but I wonder how many web developers are familiar with it.
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