Designing for the social web

Friday, May 16, 2008

I've just read Joshua Porter's book, designing for the social web, in under 1 day. I wish I had had it to hand 1 year ago. Porter manages to pack a huge amount of insight and great advice into under 180 pages. His style is easy to read and concise. I've discovered quite a few new tricks which could be, and should have been, incorporated in Playyoo. I'm also relieved to say that I discovered a few things we've done right, or at least not too wrong. In the whole book, I only found one thing I disagree with. Discussing user feedback, he says:

Actually, there is a third choice. If you really don't want to succeed, you can disagree with the feedback.

This, I think, is a little extreme. It also conflicts with the idea that any product, including a web application, benefits from a strong vision. Obviously, disagreeing with all feedback would be plain stupid, but I can't quite accept that all feedback is relevant. Anyway, this is a minor point. Designing for the social web is a great little book, and deserves to become a classic. Highly recommended.