Review: Deliver First Class Web Sites

Deliver First Class Web Sites: 101 Essential Checklists by Shirley Kaiser (Sitepoint, 2006) is an excellent web design resource. The author has collected information and tips on web design for years, publishing at Web Site Tips, long one of Web Teacher’s recommended resources. Now she’s put it all together in 101 essential checklists that guide the reader with best practices for developers, managers, and designers.

The topics are not covered in-depth. Instead, each item to check is explained in brief. There’s enough detail so that the reader knows what’s needed, how to do it, and why it’s important as a best practice. For example, in Chapter 10, Creating Accessible Web Sites, an item in the checklist on forms says, Place prompts to the right of checkboxes and radio buttons on forms. Kaiser then shows a screen capture of how that looks. The next item in the checklist says, Wrap the label element around its related input element whenever possible. Here Kaiser provides a code sample showing how to correctly use the label element with the input element, and a brief explanation as to why that’s important for accessibility.

Topics include preparing and managing content, usability, color, information architecture, navigation, standards, accessibility, optimization, search engine optimization, design, testing, ecommerce and site launch.

This is a very useful book for anyone who is planning a new site, managing others who are responsible for building a site, or bringing an older site up to current best practices. Instructors will love it as a resource and could use it to make sure that their projects and lessons cover all the important aspects of a topic. It would also provide teachers with useful checkpoints on which to base a grading matrix. A highly recommended resource.

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