I was the most hands on with the first few chapters, creating XML and XSLT files and also working through the XQUERY examples.  This gave me a great overview of XML, but it also left me with the awareness that there is so much more to explore.

The book continues to touch upon XSL-FO, DTDs, Schemas and Namespaces.  I wasn’t quite ready to dive into these topics yet, but I noted that the overviews of these chapters were a nice quick reference if I needed it in the future.

The last few chapters go into more depth with XSLT 2.0, XPATH 2.0 and XQUERY 1.0.  These are the newest W3C recommendations for these languages, but it’s noted at the beginning of the book that XSLT 1.0 and XPATH 1.0 are still in use, so the beginning examples are in the older versions.

The last chapter gives a flavor of XML in practice with very brief examples of Ajax, RSS, SOAP, and others.  It’s just an overview of how powerful XML is and just how much it is used in conjunction with these other technologies.  Of course several more volumes can be filled with these topics, so in my case, when I get the desire to learn something new again, at least I have a good list and jumping off point in the last chapter.

This book is recommended if you’re new to XML, or if you just want a basic reference to guide you along.

• Title: XML: Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition)
• Author: Kevin Howard Goldberg
• Publisher: Peachpit Press
• ISBN: 0321559673
• Date: 2008
• Format: Softcover
• Pages: 288
• Cover: Price USD: $34.99

It’s good advice to use a pad of paper instead of a laptop to record notes in a meeting, but the more important thing to derive is that body language is an important part of the trust-building process of a customer relationship.

Personally, I’m a big proponent of the Golden Ratio, so seeing a good basic explanation of it early in the work was a big plus. He then proceeded through all the basics of design in a very common-sense way.

The typography section appears the most information-packed, and seems obsessively-detailed compared to the rest of the sections. In fact, I could almost imagine the author talking about fonts like Bubba in Forrest Gump talked about shrimp!

Altogether, this book is a very good basic primer on design for the screen. It covers all the topics — though not comprehensively in any case — and presents them in a very understandable way.

The examples serve the text very well, and as you’d expect from a design book, everything looks good to fit its function. If I didn’t know all of this already, I’d be happy to have learned it from this guide.

I will recommend this book to any friends interested in the topic, as well as to patrons at the library I work at (which incidentally already has a copy!) who may happen to ask about the subject.

The book does contain some good examples once you are familiar with Spring, so this book may be more beneficial for experienced Spring developers.  If you are a true beginner, this may not be the book for you.

• Title: Beginning Spring 2: From Novice to Professional
• Author: Dave Minter
• Publisher: Apress
• ISBN: 1590596854
• Date: 2007
• Format: Softcover
• Pages: 271
• Cover Price: USD: $39.99

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

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

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

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!

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.