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See XML Document RequestedRosie Says...
My first impression of this book was that it looks and feels like a magazine - which helps to eliminate any geekish feelings you may have about being intimately involved with the design and implementation of your site. This is not a "dry" techie book, nor should it be. This is a book about design, not implementation and the overall presentation and use of solid bright and bold colours reflects that.
As for the content, I can't help but feel that it is "put together"... probably something that I could put together myself if I had the time and the inclination. Not that this is a bad thing - but strip out the case studies and content quoted directly from other sources and you are left with 20 or so pages giving you a brief overview of web design written from a usability perspective. If you are looking for specific details on how to implement or test the ideas discussed in this book, you'll have to look elsewhere.
Having said that, the content is structured in a way that makes it the best usability reference I've come accross to date. By splitting up the case studies to concentrate on the user profiles - you merely need to know the type of visitor you want to attract to your site to quickly find the case studies that are most relevant. Each section has at least one "show and tell" case study that displays the web pages with arrows pointing out areas of interest or changes to implementation that will improve the experience for these group of users.
Overall, Designing Websites for Every Audience is not as complete as some might expect. It could have been improved with more information about usability, as it would have complemented the chapters that focus on different types of users very nicely to produce a well rounded usability reference book.
As it stands, it still makes a handy reference to anyone looking for ideas on how to improve the user experience - particularly if they know the type of visitor they hope will use their site!