"The folks at 37signals have created an invaluable resource: tons of 'best practice' examples for ensuring that Web users can recover gracefully when things — as they inevitably will — go 'worng.'"
-Steve Krug, Author, Don't Make Me Think

It's Time To Get Defensive

• Learn 40 guidelines to prevent errors and rescue customers if a breakdown occurs.
• See hundreds of real-world examples from companies like Amazon, Google, and Yahoo that show the right (and wrong) ways to handle crisis points.
• Evaluate your own site's defensive design with an easy-to-perform test and find out how to improve it over the long term.

Praise for the Book

"Defend yourself — listen to 37signals! If useful web design is important to you, then how can you NOT pay attention to Defensive Design? Matt and Jason break new ground on a crucial part of web design that you don't hear much about elsewhere."
-Scott Heiferman, Co-Founder, Meetup.com & Fotolog.net

"Defensive Design for the Web shows you how to create a good customer experience even when things go wrong. If you work in user experience or usability, you have to learn what's in this book."
-Mark Hurst, Founder, Creative Good

"The best-laid plans of mice and web developers often go awry. No matter how artfully you structure, write, and design your company's site, someone is always going to hit the wrong button, type the wrong password, or make other normal human mistakes. Anticipating errors and helping customers bounce back into the site's flow can make the difference between success and failure. This clear, easy-to-read book tells how, with a depth no related title can match. Buy it, read it, keep it close to your monitor. The customer relationship you save may be your own."
-Jeffrey Zeldman, Author, Designing With Web Standards

"Rating: 5/5. There is plenty of advice for programmers, developers, graphic designers and copywriters alike...Defensive Design for the Web was one of my favorite reads this year...I highly recommend this book."
-Chrispian Burks, Webdevreviews.com

"Don't design (or update) your web site without this book...The elegant solutions given in this book can serve as a checklist of what to consider when you're designing or improving your own site. If I had to recommend only one book on site design to new web masters this would be it."
-Mike Tarrani, Amazon Top 50 Reviewer

"This book has made a measurable difference in the quality of internal web sites we are designing and deploying for various lines of business within our corporation. It is now embraced by my team, and is used as a standard of good practice in web usability. The advice provided in the book has also resulted in less support calls to our team, freeing them to work on design and deployment instead of answering end user questions."
-Rachel Tozier, Amazon Reviewer

"Defensive Design is a must read for anyone who works on the web...This precious little book will help bring in tremendous profits and pleasant web experiences. Thanks to the guys at 37signals for this incredible work."
-Donny Truong, VisualGUI.com

"Designing for every possible circumstance seems either vastly expensive or just damn impossible. Well, it's not. Here's a book that tells you how to do it. It's easy for busy people to dip in and out of, and it's full of great tips."
-Drew McLellan, Author & web developer

"Anyone involved in building or managing websites with any degree of web application integration would do well to read this book. Many items seem like common sense, but you would be surprised at how easy it is to overlook them in the development process. In the end, your users will thank you for it."
-Jeremy Flint, Designer

"Defensive Design gets right what so many other computer books do not: it is brief, free from jargon, and doesn't attempt to browbeat you with a list of inflexible rules. The author's tone of humble, informed guidance brings to mind Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think, and Defensive Design clearly belongs on the same shelf as Mr. Krug's usability classic."
-Marc A. Garrett, Author

"This is a 'must have' if you develop web sites. The concepts and tips in this book can make the difference between one-time and repeat visitors."
-Thomas Duff, Software Consultant

"If you want to create a better user experience, get this book."
-Wade Winningham, Amazon Reviewer

"You'd be forgiven for imagining that a book about error messages and 404 pages would be dull. Well, in this case you'd be wrong. While contingency design isn't the sexiest of subjects, this book does an excellent job of bringing a rather prosaic subject to life."
-Andy Budd, Web Designer

"A very easy and informative intro to contingency design that should be in every Web designers collection."
-D. Keith Robinson, Web Designer and Developer

Buy the Book

Defensive Design for the Web is available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Powells, Booksense, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon France, Amazon Germany, and other booksellers. The book's ISBN number is 073571410X.

About the Authors

Chicago-based 37signals is a team of web design and usability experts dedicated to simple, clear, and usable customer-focused design. 37signals popularized the concept of contingency/defensive design in various articles and white papers and via the Web site DesignNotFound.com. Our clients include Microsoft, Qwest, Monster.com, Clear Channel, Panera Bread, Meetup, Performance Bike, and Transportation.com. The team's work has been featured in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post and on CNN.

This book is authored by Matthew Linderman with Jason Fried. Other members of the 37signals team include Ryan Singer and Scott Upton. The book is published by New Riders.