Press Room

For review copies of this book, please contact:
• Kim Lombardi, Peachpit Press Publicity: kim@peachpit.com

For educational examination copies, please contact:
• Zigi Lowenburg, Peachpit Press Publicity: zigi@peachpit.com
• Or try the Prentice Hall online request form

To arrange interviews, please email the authors.

Reviews & Comments

Sam McMillan, Communication Arts
"Designing Web Sites That Sell delivers excellent advice on best practices in information design, interaction design and presentation design for commerce. ...Their overview of project management and the design and implementation process goes a long way toward demystifying the development process. Thoughout, complicated concepts are simplified with well-thought-out charts and graphs that make these ideas easy to grasp."
From: May/June 2003

Jennifer Kyrnin, About.com

"More than just Web design – this book teaches you Web salesmanship. Pros: Gorgeous layout with full-color photos; Details a complete Web life-cycle; "Real-world" examples let you see it in action. Cons: None."
From: About.com - HTML/XML Guide section

Michael Pastore, Editorial Director of Epublishers Weekly
"Pause for a moment, and reflect about the tremendous complexity of launching a commerce website. It requires coordinating the expertise (and conflicting opinions) of experts in the areas of markup languages, scripting languages, hardware technology, graphic design, information architecture, marketing, writing, editing, and often much more. At first thought, to explain all these facets of website development between the covers of one book seems like an almost impossible task. Almost impossible. DesignWhys: Designing Web Sites That Sell has done it, and done it with impact and style... Graphic designers on development teams should buy this book before they buy their next meal."
From: ePublisher's Weekly
Also Printed in: CityView Magazine June 21-27, 2002

The Designer's Bookshelf
"Since the early '90s I've preached that the "why" of design is more important than the "how." Most books with the word "design" on the cover these days are merely software manuals. "Web Design" books come and go never really touching on design at all. This one's different – web designers will want this one."
From: Designer'sBookshelf.com

Lou Strenger, CEO of Design Machine, NYC
"Shows designers how to become part of the business solution. Too valuable to be relegated to the graphics department's bookshelf — it's essential for anyone who has to think about making money with intelligent design. All the principles, context and examples one could imagine. A great value."
Posted on: Amazon USA

Ron Biggs, Senior Information Architect
"As I went through this book, the word that kept creeping to mind was: Wow! This book is incredibly rich. One thing I know working in the information architecture/experience design field for so long is that it's all about "connecting the dots" - but first you have to know what the dots are. This book, while written from a designer perspective, brings all the relevant dots to the surface and connects them for you. It does a fantastic job of setting the cognitive contexts for concepts and defining terms in a clear way. The reason most companies hire me into a Creative Department is to bring the type of consciousness to a project that this book embodies. This book educates, not just designers, but everyone on the team. It's very nearly a complete compilation of best practices to date, worthy of a classroom textbook."
Posted on: Amazon USA

Matthew Linderman, 37signals
"A super read for anyone getting started in creating e-commerce sites. Especially valuable are the real world examples. They dive into nitty gritty details and go beyond the basic offerings of the case studies in other books (e.g. the extensive info on shopping carts/checkout and the visual examples that accompany)."
Posted: Amazon USA
Also see: 37signals web site

Book News, Inc.
"Discusses the many issues that arise during the design of a commercial web site that are distinct from traditional graphics design. The authors address the importance of speed, usability, personalization, brand identity, and consistency for attracting and keeping web site customers. Numerous example web pages are provided in full color to illustrate the various design strategies."
From: BookNews online

Tim Anderson, Amazon.co.uk review
"A highly visual guide, Designing Web Sites that Sell is aimed at professional Web designers and explains how to put together sites that are effective as well as good-looking. The authors write from the designer's point of view, but the material covers much more than just design...(The book) is also packed with cross references to other books and articles, indicating that a lot of patient research lies behind what is presented. The authors express some bold opinions, but always give good reasons for their views. Overall this is among the best design guides around, conveying the importance of detail but without ever losing sight of the big picture."
From: Amazon.co.uk

Tim Purdy, Industrial Design Professor
Georgia Tech College of Architecture
"My class covers a wide area of interface design - from products to web sites - so I only recommend books and do not require any. But I almost made Designing Web Sites That Sell a requirement for my class. I'm very impressed with this book. It's very well done with plenty of examples and how-to. It does a good job presenting a strong methodology while helping the reader understand the importance of good design in creating a web site. A must-have if you are working with a client who is going to be selling over the web."
Also see Tim's web site: Caritas Studio

Mimi Opkins, Web Development and Design Instructor
California State University Long Beach
Dept. of Computer Engineering and Computer Science
"My students are currently working on their term project. Using the guidance of Designing Web Sites that Sell, I think they are beginning to see the beauty of taking the proper planning steps before they start coding. I'm truly expecting some excellent web sites this semester because of this book."
Designing Web Sites that Sell is a required text for all CECS 470 classes - Introduction to commercial practice in World-Wide Web site development.
Also see: Mimi's web page

ACMA Books

"This is an outstanding book !! The basics of learning how to create a good website written in this book is very logical, simple and easy-to-understand. Acmabooks is currently using this book to create Thunderstorm, it's new E-commerce Engine. If you need to build a website and attract your viewers with it, this is the book for you."
From: ACMAbooks.com

Ryan E. Thrash, Studio Vertex
"This book should be required reading for executives, owners or business develment professionals involved in any aspect of e-commerce. Concisely writting, this book is a wonderful primer on what makes a successful e-commerce site. The topics are logically grouped into easy-to-digest chunks and supported by illustrations that both clearly articulate and add to the understanding of the subject. Think of this book as the 'Cliff Notes for Successful E-commerce.' The authors have done a wonderful job researching and reporting the best practices for the entire development cycle for an e-commerce web site. And because the book is about process and not specific techniques or applications, it should serve as a valuable reference tool for years to come."
From: Amazon USA

D’Lynn Waldron, PhD
"This truly excellent book has enough well-presented information for a full semester’s worth of MBA courses. It has clear, concise, well-diagramed and well illustrated, how-to information on organizing a design team, then creating a corporate Web site that has recognizable branding, appropriate design elements,
adequate information, and good navigation, then how to manage that corporate Web site. Web professionals should read this book and keep it in their library as a ready reference and reminder of how to do a Web site the right way."
From: Books on Web Design

Erik Vlietinck, IT-journalist and consultant
Web Design Requires Holistic Approach: "An excellent book that will help you understand the concepts of good website design, is Designing Web Sites That Sell. Publishing for the web requires knowledge about the technology that is the Web, and about the way people interact with an electronic medium. This is well explained in Designing Web Sites That Sell."
From: IT-Enquirer (UK), November, 2002

Chris Volion, Design Instructor for the Chubb Institute
"Books that I recommend for those who would like to learn more about the web design process are:
• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
• Designing Web Sites that Sell by Bowman and Willis"
From: Course Syllabus, Design 110

Deborah Lynne Wiley, Next Wave Consulting
"This book is a nice combination of project management, graphic design, usability, content management, and customer service. It is much more practical than many books I've read on this topic.... If you are about to create or redesign your Web site, take a look at the tips in this book first. I am sure your design will be better for having done so."
From: Online Magazine, Sept. 2002

Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-Commerce Consultant
"Designing larger online stores is a specialty all its own. Too often, the graphics team that sets up the interface and displays the products doesn't really understand this medium -- or how their contribution fits into the overall e-commerce project. This book is designed to help print-based graphic designers get up-to-speed on how online stores work and the nature of the special design tasks involved... The book is richly illustrated with helpful explanatory diagrams and example pages from successful online stores."
From: Web Commerce Today, Issue 58, May 15, 2002
Also see his book: Planning Your Internet Marketing Strategy

Stephen Braitman, NBMA
"Another fine title in the Web series from Rockport that focuses on real-world design issues. This title reaches out to practical ecommerce strategies with the trinity of critical dimensions: aesthetics, brand identity, and interactivity. The production of the book itself is (as usual for this publisher) highlighted with excellent graphics and layout, with clever writing and a seemingly endless supply of tips and insights that should go a long way to ensure success in your own Web development projects."
From: Book Bytes, May 2002

ezypost Web Design service
"A good beginning for hands-on learning of designing meaningful websites."
From: Web Book Resources

Gerard R. Fischer, CCPCUG
"Every chapter or section one looks at is very clearly written and supported by very instructive and easily perceived figures. The items covered and the advice given in the book range from simple things that apply to any presentation, like "know your audience" and "don't overload your audience" to items that are more specific for a Web site.... It was a most pleasing and, above all, instructive experience to review this book and I can only highly recommend it for anybody interested in good and effective Web sites for commercial and other applications."
From: Charlotte Bytes, Vol. 17, August 2002

Robert L. Pritchett, Editor of MacNut magazine
"I was looking for something that would make (our) site a pleasurable experience and also make it look like a million bucks. I think this book fits that bill to a T. Designing Web Sites that Sell is packed with just the information I've been looking for."
From: Pg. 51-52, July 2002 (PDF)

Magia Internet Studios (UK & USA)
"Our Choice: Highly recommended for both designers, developers and clients!"
From: Books for Developers