Design for Community: The Art of Connecting Real People in Virtual Places

Annotation Learn to design community features that help build a site's audience. The only book that discusses the pros and cons of adding community features to corporate sites as well as individual home sites. Design for Community goes beyond the basic how-to of programming Web features to actually dissecting the purposes and best ways to implement those features to foster a real, productive online community. Each chapter culminates with a personal interview between the author and a well-known, respected member of the Web community. As community features keep cropping up on even the simplest Web site, it's important for Web designers and developers to understand how these features work and the best way to--or not to--implement them. The Web site for the book www.designforcommunity.com serves as an interactive example and legitimate online community for readers of this book. It incorporates all the examples and suggestions outlined in the text and fosters a direct online community, not only between readers, but between the author and readers as well. Each chapter opens with an in-depth explanation of a single issue, from practical issues like email and list moderation to more conceptual issues like trust and intimacy. These discussions lay the groundwork and provide an even-handed explanation of the issues, as well as advocate for the right way to solve the problems, based on the author's years of experience. Organizing the book by specific issues and corresponding interviews allows the readers to skip around and focus in on the single issue they're struggling with. Derek M. Powazek has been working the Web since there was one. He's watched communities grow while working at HotWired and Electric Minds with virtual community pioneer Howard Rheingold. At Powazek Productions, he's created sites with community features for companies like Netscape and Nike. His work has been honored by I.D. Magazine, Communication Arts Magazine, and Cool Site of the Year. Derek's work has been applauded in countless Web design books, including Graphic Web Design Now, and O'reilly's Web Navigation book. He's also been profiled in Wired News, and has spoken about Web design and community all over the country.