Designing the obvious

There is a lot of talk about Web 2.0 and the new breed of online applications. However exciting these may be, bad design can kill a website before it gets off the ground. Designing the Obvious is full of useful advice for making the next great idea great by avoiding the common pitfalls that result from too much enthusiasm.

The essence of the advice is to keep everything as simple as possible and not to fall into the trap of adding features left, right and centre. It might sound simple but it is very easy to get carried away.

Another very helpful section concerns getting feedback from users during the testing stage. This information is very valuable but it can be difficult to get the right information. Too many people will answer the questions about usability in the way they would like to work, even if this does not work in practice. Making sure the questions are phrased the right way ensures accurate feedback.

To some extent the sub title of this book sells it short as most of the advice is relevant for all application development, not just Web 2.0.