Anyone who has managed the process of developing or redesigning a Web site of significant size has likely learned the hard way the complexities, pitfalls, and cost risk of such an undertaking. While many Web development firms have fantastic technical expertise, what sets the topnotch organizations apart is the ability to accurately manage the planning and development process. Web Redesign: Workflow That Works directly addresses this crucial area with a specific, proven process.

This brief but important book lays out a specific five-step strategy--called the Core Process--that can always be applied to the development of Web sites and fine-tuned to almost any type of project. Each step--defining the project, developing site structure, visual design and testing, production and QA, and launch and beyond--contains three related but distinct tracks. The text begins with a brief overview of each of the steps, then delves deeper into each with detailed explanations as well as specific forms and project-management strategies. This book does not cover back-end, server-side programming. Instead, it focuses primarily on the visual, conventional components of a Web site.

Authors Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler compiled this book in an attractive, easy-to-read format. This process guide uses numerous full-color screen shots to illustrate site examples, as well as plenty of site diagrams and sample forms. The book even has a companion Web site with downloadable forms in PDF format to put the Core Process into immediate action. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• Step 1--Defining the Core Process: discovery, planning, and clarification;
• Step 2--Developing site structure: content-view, site-view, and page-view;
• Step 3--Visual design and testing: creating, confirming, and handing off;
• Step 4--Production and QA: prepping, building, and testing;
• Step 5--Launch and beyond: delivery, launch, and maintenance.

If anything, this volume’s premise--that the business of Web design is one of constant change-has only proven truer over time. So much so, in fact, that the 12-month design cycles cited in the last edition have shrunk to 6 or even 3 months today. Which is why, more than ever, you need a smart, practical guide that demonstrates how to plan, budget, organize, and manage your Web redesign - or even you initial design - projects from conceptualization to launch. This volume delivers! In these pages Web designer extraordinaire Kelly Goto and coauthor Emily Cotler have distilled their real-world experience into a sound approach to Web redesign workflow that is as much about business priorities as it is about good design. By focusing on where these priorities intersect, Kelly and Emily get straight to the heart of the matter. Each chapter includes a case study that illustrates a key step in the process, and you’ll find a plethora of forms, checklists, and worksheets that help you put knowledge into action.This is an AIGA Design Press book published under Peachpit’s New Riders imprint in partnership with AIGA.

Anyone who has managed the process of developing or redesigning a Web site of significant size has likely learned the hard way the complexities, pitfalls, and cost risk of such an undertaking. While many Web development firms have fantastic technical expertise, what sets the topnotch organizations apart is the ability to accurately manage the planning and development process. Web Redesign: Workflow That Works directly addresses this crucial area with a specific, proven process.

This brief but important book lays out a specific five-step strategy--called the Core Process--that can always be applied to the development of Web sites and fine-tuned to almost any type of project. Each step--defining the project, developing site structure, visual design and testing, production and QA, and launch and beyond--contains three related but distinct tracks. The text begins with a brief overview of each of the steps, then delves deeper into each with detailed explanations as well as specific forms and project-management strategies. This book does not cover back-end, server-side programming. Instead, it focuses primarily on the visual, conventional components of a Web site.

Authors Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler compiled this book in an attractive, easy-to-read format. This process guide uses numerous full-color screen shots to illustrate site examples, as well as plenty of site diagrams and sample forms. The book even has a companion Web site with downloadable forms in PDF format to put the Core Process into immediate action. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• Step 1--Defining the Core Process: discovery, planning, and clarification;
• Step 2--Developing site structure: content-view, site-view, and page-view;
• Step 3--Visual design and testing: creating, confirming, and handing off;
• Step 4--Production and QA: prepping, building, and testing;
• Step 5--Launch and beyond: delivery, launch, and maintenance.

The book follows a road tested experiential methodology to expose the critical steps to planning, budgeting, organizing, and managing a web design or redesign project from conceptualization through launch. The authors use a sound pedagogical style that is appealing; easy to access; and full of forms, checklists, and worksheets to assist readers in working through their own projects. The page design will allow for easy browsing of material. In addition, the intuitive organization will make it easy for readers to find the material they need. See the attached table of contents.

If anything, this volume’s premise--that the business of Web design is one of constant change-has only proven truer over time. So much so, in fact, that the 12-month design cycles cited in the last edition have shrunk to 6 or even 3 months today. Which is why, more than ever, you need a smart, practical guide that demonstrates how to plan, budget, organize, and manage your Web redesign - or even you initial design - projects from conceptualization to launch. This volume delivers! In these pages Web designer extraordinaire Kelly Goto and coauthor Emily Cotler have distilled their real-world experience into a sound approach to Web redesign workflow that is as much about business priorities as it is about good design. By focusing on where these priorities intersect, Kelly and Emily get straight to the heart of the matter. Each chapter includes a case study that illustrates a key step in the process, and you’ll find a plethora of forms, checklists, and worksheets that help you put knowledge into action.

Very practical
We purchased this book as a resource manual for our agency. We develop websites and it is an easy to read, practical guide for approaching the planning phase of executing sound website redesign, as well as the execution. Like many people, we tend to jump too quickly into production and this book has helped our team to slow down and plan more. It makes sense for web designers, web developers, copywriters, project managers and anyone else that comprises a diverse web development team.

Poorly put together
I had to use this book on college, out of all my books this is the only one that I burned. I even kept my math books. Now that I am an instructor and author myself I look back on this book as the single worse publication currently in the industry of web design. Yes they do spend to much time boasting about themselves. The book goes way off topic about topics unrelated to web design without even a single attempt to justify why it has done so.

Kelly is (and I quote from the book) a self-proclaimed "design ethnographer," I do not buy into this line of crap at all. A professional does not self-proclaim anything, if through hard work your peers gave you this title that is one thing. Other then that this is a sign of a person with serious egotistical issues about themselves.

Saved us lots of time and aggravation
My company was recently hired to do a site revision for a HUGE site. This book helped us keep our ducks in a row and do lots of up front work before we started changing over content. The client resources provided at the web site were very helpful! HIghly recommend for any web site designers/developers library.

Kelly Goto deserves the Nobel Prize
Back in the Olden Days of the 20th Century, during the dot com boom, when a lot of us pioneers thought that we were really awesome web-studs when we actually didn’t know diddly-squat, Kelly Goto’s first edition not only saved my tail, but actually helped me get a job with a large State located on the west coast of the USA. (I think you’ve probably heard of the place if you think about it..) I was able to go into the interview and knock ’em dead with my knowledge of web project management.

Flash forward, and suddenly I find myself a web project manager once again, called in to Save the Day because someone else did some really embarrassingly stupid things with a public website. What was the first thing that I did after getting this assignment? Find my Kelly Goto book! What was the second thing I did? Order the newer edition!

Kelly offers good solid practical advice. Kelly Goto offers templates on her website. Kelly Goto has sage advice at Adobe.com (http://www.adobe.com/resources/techniques/)

Pay attention, Grasshopper, and you will find enlightenment.

Kelly Goto deserves the Nobel Prize
Back in the Olden Days of the 20th Century, during the waning days of the dot-com boom, (when a lot of us pioneers thought that we were really awesome web-studs when we actually didn’t know diddly-squat) Kelly Goto’s first edition not only saved my tail, but actually helped me get a job with a large State located on the west coast of the USA. (I think you’ve probably heard of the place if you think about it..) I was able to go into the interview and knock ’em dead with my knowledge of web project management.

Kelly clearly explains step-by-step what you need to do at the start of a web project in order to avoid an unmitigated disaster at the end of the project. Her advice is straight-forward, logical, and accurate.

Flash forward, and suddenly I find myself a web project manager once again, called in to Save the Day because someone else did some really embarrassingly stupid things with a public website. What was the first thing that I did after getting this assignment? Find my Kelly Goto book! What was the second thing I did? Order the newer edition!

Kelly offers good solid practical advice. Kelly Goto offers templates on her website. Kelly Goto has sage advice at Adobe.com [...]

Heed the wisdom of the sage, Grasshopper, and you will find enlightenment.

JIT reading
This book is very good at providing the nuts and bolts steps for a re-design project. Its helped me be detailed enough for the micro-managers and large scale enough for the hands off managers. Definitely worth having on hand for small and large projects.

The Best Book On Website Development Workflow Ever
As a web programmer (server-side and client-side), as well as a web designer, I found this book to be invaluable. I discovered it while working for a company that did most of their web development by the seat of their pants. I was able to establish a series of milestones using the forms and suggestions in this book, which transformed the company and their relationship with their clients. No longer was every conversation with the client about what they’d misunderstood or programmed incorrectly. They started to be proactive about getting specs, understanding the clients needs, and producing the website in a logical progression. They were transformed from an rinky-dink, amateur web development company into a focused, professional one.

I highly recommend this book. I’ve owned the first and second edition. They both rock. Not only is it good for the all-in-one programmer/designer like me, but it’s good for a development team so each player in the development process can see how their part fits into the whole and how their success contributes to the success of the project.

Overview on web design projects
This book gives a good overview on web site design projects. It describes the project steps, workflow and lifecycle in a fairly simple and practical style. This kind of a straightforward hands-on approach worked pretty well for me and the book was fast and easy to digest. The downside is that topics are not discussed in detail very deeply. The simplified workflow that is presented in the book is suitable for relatively small web site projects but big application oriented projects need a lot more things to be covered.

One big disappointment was the expert sections or articles. They were too short (page or two) to say anything really useful and I think using these kind of short "teasers" from wed design celebrities is just a way to promote and sell the book. An other thing that could have been improved are the different checklists/document samples throughout the book that can also be downloaded from the website. They are nice to have but are too simple to be used without modification in actual projects.

It is a shame that the book don’t go into more detail in describing web design projects because I think the authors would have a lot more to say on the subject. The book uses a lot of imagery and white space (and is a kind of prited version of a web site) when actual content could have been added instead.

The most obvious reader for this title would be a project manager coming to the web design world from some other industry or someone else new to the business. A good overview that is fast and easy to digest.

Worthwhile purchase with useful templates and processes
This is a good reference to have in your library if you’re a web designer or web developer. The process map makes a useful project management template to start with which you can customize for your own projects. I thought it was nice to have some of the templates available on their website too.

This process map and methodology isn’t as comprehensive as a full blown project management process like you’d find at the Project Management Institute (PMI) but it is nicely streamlined for Web Design projects.

I took pieces from PMI standards and injected them into this process map where I wanted more detail. I was happy with the purchase and recommend the book to anybody interested in managing web design projects.

Good Book
This book is a good intro into how to manage a website implementation or redesign from the prospective of a designer. I am not a designer, but still found the book useful because it does cover all the steps; not just the ones that designers are concerned with. The book takes a good approach and is easy and interesting to read.

The best treatment of the web design process around
I have my quibbles with this book, but they are all very minor. It could stand an update, but what web book over 6 months old couldn’t. I have to give it five stars because it is head and shoulders above anything else.

Thoughtful yet a little dated
Despite being the best book I have read thus far on this topic, it’s content now is a little dated. Certainly a worthwhile purchase, it outlines a typical site development workflow and now having deployed portions of this methodology in my workplace I know it works.

Great Guide for Web Redesigns
This is a good detailed process for designing and redesigning web sites. Great re-usable documents and worksheets to help you on your way. Details and describes the process very well with good examples.

Worth the buy.
I found it a very useful book, especially with all the downloadable forms. I felt it was a little light on user testing - but otherwise, very good. It felt a bit repetitive and that things were presented in an odd order sometimes, but it’s still worth the buy.

Thinking about creating a website and want to do it right?
BUY THIS BOOK! I wish I had this book a few months ago. It could have spared me from many of the nightmares I had while developing a college website. It includes a link to the author’s website where you can find lots of forms that ask the right questions so that you can create the right solution.

This book takes a SWAG at a process that could work for web redesign
I use this resource as the textbook for the "Web Site Design" course I teach at PSU. My favorite thing about this book is that it supports my course approach that "everyone has a site" and "when you get a job as a web site (designer, producer,developer)OR have the responsibility of having a site dumped in your lap.... you will not be building it from scratch."

This is a good introduction to "Web Site Design" with a bunch of pretty pictures and should be followed up with deeper-dive resources.

Not what I expected, but useful
If you think this book is about designing a site workflow, you’ll be disappointed, as I was.

It’s about the process of designing sites, which is still useful information. Although some of the advice is somewhat vague and generalized, they do offer questionnaire and checklist templates for download at their site.

There are some screenshots of before and after redesigns, which are helpful, but there could have been more. In the end it’s mostly about outlining a process where you capture information about client and user needs, project management (costing, time tracking, etc.), and so on, not about smart workflow design of websites.

Incredible!
This book has done a phenomenal job to create a standardized, scalable workflow that fits any web project you can think of!

It introduced a lot of new ideas and has helped immeasurably in keeping web projects organized. Highly recommended, worth every penny.

Great Book
This book is a great guide through reDesigning a website. Great tools and good exemple.

Useful supplement to first edition
I own both the first and second editions of this book. I was pleasantly surprised that edition two contains so much new, in-depth information. Once again it is well-organized and easy to read. Also humorous, did I mention humorous?

I appreciate the extra comments and tips along with the basics.

Kelly and Emily’s new book covers many elements we might not have considered fully when planning sites. Edition one helped me write a winning proposal and make money on a project.

Right now, I’m using their newest book as a guide on several jobs. One of them is a redesign to enlarge a corporate site I did two years ago.The company’s business has doubled -- directly attributable to their earlier website-- which I did using Kelly and Emily’s first edition.

I keep both books right next to my work area and consult them BEFORE I write proposals and estimates, and DURING jobs to keep myself on track. It’s especially helpful for dealing with client ideas that threaten to spin out of control. Scope creep is great if they’re willing to pay extra for it! Book two contains practical suggestions for coping with the natural tendency toward scope creep.

Thanks again to Kelly and Emily for sharing this valuable information with us.

Not for Everyone but Great for many
THis book does a great job at providing foundational structure to managing a website project.

This book may NOT be necessary if:
- You are a fly by the seat of your pants kind of person who no matter how many ’do it this way’ kind of books you read you won’t change who you are.
- You build websites by yourself.
- You have a strong experience base in project management already.

For everyone else it is a great primer, guideline and resource to getting your hands around web projects and for these people I highly recommend the book. While I am not ’detailed’ our Project Manager has adopted the structure and integrated it into our BaseCamp Project Mgmt (http://www.basecamphq.com/) which is another great tool. The book also includes very helpful questions to manage clients & gather information BEFORE you begin the project. This helps gather valuable information so you have less ’re-work’ to do later.

A "must have" for anyone serious about interactive media
This is the foundational book to use when developing out your own process. Either as a small start-up company or a large interactive department, this book provides you with an amazing toolkit to develop a process that works for you.

I’ve used the information from both Workflow that Works to develop a creative design process for nearly every company I have worked for or with.

I’ve purchased copies of this book for some traditional designers to help them understand the differences between our worlds. It’s written in such a way that they get it right away.

This is the bible of web development process.....
If you are a web site developer and you don’t buy this book - you’re nuts.
If you are a client redesigning your web site and you don’t buy this book - you’re nuts too.

If you like to build houses without blueprints or drive across the country without a map, this is probably not the book for you.
If you like to build web sites that work with a high liklihood of being on-time and on-budget...read this book.

A great book, and a decent revision
The first edition of this book has been something of a bible for my small design shop, though much of the numbers and timelines were a bit science-fiction. The second edition does remedy some of this, and adds a nice chapter, but isn’t all that much different from the first, so I wouldn’t bother purchasing it if you have the first one.

Also please note that much of the content mentioned in the book as being available for download on their website isn’t there. Seems like they haven’t really gotten around to finishing the job! But nevertheless, a good book, and two very talented and capable writers.