Who Should Read Web Bloopers?

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The main intended audience for this book is designers and developers who create websites and Web-based applications. This group includes information architects , interaction designers, graphic designers, content writers and editors, and website programmers. For such people, this book is intended to serve both as a tool for self-education and as a reference. It is intended to supplement ”not replace ”Web design guidelines. Teachers and students of website and user -interface design may also find the book to be a useful supplement to textbooks on these topics.

A second audience for this book is evaluators of websites and Web-based applications: usability testers and quality-assurance engineers . People who serve these roles in a development organization can benefit from knowing in advance the problems most likely to arise in testing and to watch for them.

A third target audience is managers of Web development teams . To provide proper oversight, managers need to be able to understand ”at a functional rather than technical level ”the common pitfalls in website design and how to avoid them. Managers also need to understand that successful, blooper-free websites require well-designed back -end systems. For managers' benefit, I provide, in Appendix 1, some advice on staffing for Web development.

A final audience is marketing and sales personnel at companies that market and sell on the Web. By understanding the negative impact of common, avoidable mistakes on usability ”and by implication , sales ”such readers may gain new appreciation for user-centered, task-focused design.

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