Designing the Digital Experience: How to Use Experience Design Tools and Techniques to Build Websites Customers Love

Citation

Mutula, S.M. (2009), "Designing the Digital Experience: How to Use Experience Design Tools and Techniques to Build Websites Customers Love", Online Information Review, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 616-617. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520910970004

This book discusses digital experience design and the range of tools, strategies and best practices that both assist customers visiting the site and create a positive digital experience that they share with others. The theme running through the book is designing online resources aimed at attracting and keeping users, because the site is attractive, offers more than the users are looking for, and is easy to use.

The book contains 13 chapters. Chapter 1 details the meaning of digital experience and the implications of this experience for customers. The rest of the chapters are organised into three parts. Part 1 covers the building blocks of a digital experience environment such as plans, web servers, information architecture, navigational schemes and usability features. Also covered are models for achieving a successful customer experience design, search features, information organisation systems, navigation systems, usability and experience design. Part 2 discusses how people interact in digital space using various strategies of Web 2.0 such as mashups, tagging, commentaries, twitters, RSS, blogs, wikis, Flickr, videocasting, Myspace, YouTube and Facebook. Part 3 covers building experiences to attract and keep the customer within the physical or digital space and how customers interact with organisations across multiple channels.

Key concepts and terminologies are presented and explained from different perspectives, including narrative, case studies, best practices, storytelling, illustrations, personal experience and contrasts – all contributing to a stimulating reading experience. The author draws definitions extensively from Wikipedia, giving the work a kind of digital legitimacy. The increasing use of Wikipedia as a digital collaboration and a social networking platform cannot be ignored any longer.

The content throughout the book and from one chapter to another is presented in consistent and easy‐to‐understand language. Each chapter has endnotes for the reader to follow up on the subject with further reading. The book also includes a glossary and an index. Moreover, resources and recommended readings are provided at the end of the book.

One weakness of the book is the low resolution of some illustrations, making them difficult to view. Some sections, such as Chapter 7, would have been enhanced through the use of illustrations. The author has drawn most examples from the American environment, giving the impression that the book is directed at the audience in that country, though this is not stated explicitly. Therefore readers from developing countries may not easily connect with most examples used in the book. Though the final section in each chapter makes some attempt to summarise key issues, a conclusion section would have provided each chapter with a consistent look. Overall, however, the strengths of the book far outweigh the shortcomings.

This is a book one would definitely want to read, especially on the subjects of social networking and the user‐centred digital design experience. The book is educational and informative, and connects well with a diverse audience, including students, teachers, parents and others. It is written in an engaging style that gives it broad appeal.