Product Description
This book analyzes Web page design from a visual communication perspective. Visual communication is an emerging field which draws on numerous disciplines concerned with the creation, perception, and interpretation of visual messages. The transdisciplinary nature of the field allows us to see the sites examined from new visual vantage points—metaphorical, cultural, and rhetorical; cognitive, perceptive, and evaluative. With an introduction and eight essays by visual communication scholars, the book also includes an insightful interview with Hillman Curtis, one of the foremost Web page designers in the world. ... Read more

Product Description
The mechanics of Web design made easy for visual learners

An effective Web site combines good graphic design principles with a functional user interface. This colorful, step-by-step guide shows visual learners how to plan, develop, and publish a site, all with easy-to-follow lessons. Each task is illustrated with screen shots accompanied by numbered steps. You’ll learn all the tools and techniques for creating great-looking Web sites that users will love.

• Good Web design incorporates basic graphic design principles as well as the techniques required to make a site easy to navigate and user-friendly
• Those who learn best when someone shows them how will quickly get up to speed with the full-color screen shots and step-by-step illustrations in this visual guide
• Covers planning a site, creating eye-popping content with popular Adobe tools, building in functionality with HTML and CSS, testing the site, taking it live, and keeping it up to date
• Companion Web site features code and design examples for experimentation

If you find learning easier when someone shows you how to do something, you’ll quickly learn to build Web sites with Teach Yourself VISUALLY Web Design. ... Read more

Product Description
In just over a decade, the Web has evolved from an experimental toolfor a limited community of technically inclined people into aday-to-day necessity for millions upon millions of users. Today’s Web designers must consider not only the content needs of the sitesthey create, but also the wide range of additional needs their usersmay have: for example, those with physical or cognitive disabilities,those with slow modems or small screens, and those with limitededucation or familiarity with the Web. Bestselling author Sarah Hortonargues that simply meeting the official standards and guidelines forWeb accessibility is not enough. Her goal is universal usability, andin Access by Design: A Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers,Sarah describes a design methodology  that addresses accessibilityrequirements but then goes beyond. As a result, designers learn how tooptimize page designs to work more effectively for more users, disabledor not. Working through each of the main functional features of Websites, she provides clear principles for using HTML and CSS to dealwith elements such as text, forms, images, and tables, illustratingeach with an example drawn from the real world. Through theseguidelines, Sarah makes a convincing case that good design principlesbenefit all users of the Web.

 In this book you will find:
 • Clear principles for using HTML and CSS to design functional and accessible Web sites
 • Best practices for each of the main elements of Web pages—text,forms, images, tables, frames, , links, interactivity, and page layout
 • Seasoned advice for using style sheets that provide flexibilityto both designer and user without compromising usability
 • illustrations of actual Web sites, from which designers can model their own pages
 • Instructions for providing keyboard accessibility, flexible layouts, and user-controlled environments
 • Practical tips on markup, and resources ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Really good book for designers
I recomend for interaction designers, not for web designers only, but for anybody in digital medium.

Great book. Needs to be condensed.
The information is great, and she has a unique angle, but I would like to see a second edition that is about 1/3 the length. Much of the content is repeated many times over and it could be condensed and re-organized.

Buy this with Don't Make Me Think to round out your knowledge.

Valuable and Worthwhile
Title: Access by Design
Author: Sarah Horton
Publisher: New Riders
ISBN: 0-321-31140-X
Reviewer: Sam Wilson
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

"Access by Design" by Sarah Horton is valuable and worthwhile because it nicely exposes the genetic link of accessibility to its more popular cousins -- functionality and usability. Accessibility is one of the most touted yet often underutilized tools in the web worker's repertoire. Misperceived as only a tool for reaching the hearing or visually impaired audience and doomed to the "nice to have" list on many projects, accessible design too often takes a back seat to design relying heavily on images and sophisticated layout.

The approach of Sarah Horton's book is appropriately to make the concepts of accessibility accessible to the web workers whose opportunity it is to make their work maximally digestible. Each essential element of a site's guts is discussed first in theory then in practice. Color, text, structure; HTML specific elements like lists, tables, and forms ... are aptly discussed in their shades of underlying purpose and then explored and elucidated with germane examples both good and bad. These examples particularly make the book fun if only just to flip through. Refreshingly the author takes on the likes of Microsoft and Audible.com, using the razor of analysis and good taste to dissect her specimens and demonstrate attractive graphic design and good web design are not necessarily the same thing.

In conclusion, I highly recommend "Access by Design" on the merits of its conscientious but practical promotion of accessibility combined with its focus on functionality and usability. The timely arrival of well-written books like Horton's builds on the rising tide of Web 2.0 attention. The oh-so-two-oh design goals of taming the wily information wilderness--transforming clutter into neat packets of visually appealing and streamlined content--can sometimes seem a bit overdone to many. "Access by Design" does not come across preachy or pedantic. I would challenge any web developer or artist (as I have challenged myself) to investigate the practical advice found in solid works like this one. It's time we understood accessibility's benefits to not just the visually and hearing impaired, but its benefits for everyone who reads, views, interacts with or otherwise enjoys the web browsing.

"Access by Design" by Sarah Horton Book Review

Title: Access by Design
Author: Sarah Horton
Publisher: New Riders
ISBN: 0-321-31140-X
Pages: 264 pages
Reviewer: Sam Wilson
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

"Access by Design" by Sarah Horton is valuable and worthwhile because it nicely exposes the genetic link of accessibility to its more popular cousins - functionality and usability.Accessibility is one of the most touted yet often underutilized tools in the web worker's repertoire.Misperceived as only a tool for reaching the hearing or visually impaired audience and doomed to the "nice to have" list on many projects, accessible design too oftentakes a back seat to design relying heavily on images andsophisticated layout.

The approach of Sarah Horton's book is appropriately to make the concepts of accessibility accessible to the web workers whose opportunity it is to make their work maximally digestible.Each essential element of a site's guts is discussed first in theory then in practice.Color, text, structure; HTML specific elements like lists, tables, and forms... are aptly discussed in their shades of underlying purpose and then explored and elucidated with germane examples both good and bad.These examples particularly make the book fun if only just to flip through.Refreshingly the author takes on the likes of Microsoft and Audible.com, using the razor of analysis and good taste to dissect her specimens and demonstrate attractive graphic design and good web design are not necessarily the same thing.

In conclusion, I highly recommend "Access by Design" on the merits of its conscientious but practical promotion of accessibility combined with its focus on functionality and usability.The timely arrival of well-written books like Horton's builds on the rising tide of Web 2.0 attention.The oh-so-two-oh design goals of taming the wily information wilderness - transforming clutter into neat packets of visually appealing and streamlined content - can sometimes seem a bit overdone to many."Access by Design" does not come across preachy or pedantic.I would challenge any web developer or artist (as I have challenged myself) to investigate the practical advice found in solid works like this one.It's time we understood accessibility's benefits to not just the visually and hearing impaired, but its benefits for everyone who reads, views, interacts with or otherwise enjoys the web browsing.

Usability and accessibility go hand in hand
I've read every book I can find on web site accessibility, and this is my favorite. Sarah Horton does a superb job of explaining the "what" and "why" of good web design principles. If we adhere to these principles, our web sites will be usable and accessible for everyone, regardless of disability or the device they use to access the web. This book is clear, concise, and to the point, and, in my opinion, a must read for all professional web designers! ... Read more

Product Description
Just as great artists must understand their tools, great Web designers must understand the technology behind their art. In Visual Design for the Web, author Penny McIntire shows novice Web designers how to use their tools--including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript--in conjunction with the principles of aesthetics and usability to become masters of their craft. Chapters begin with explanations of the terminology and techniques of web structures, then demonstrate how to apply the rules of design to create beautiful sites.  The book:

• Illustrates how fundamental principles of design apply to the web
• Includes charts, diagrams, and graphics to enhance learning and retention
• Covers site analysis, navigation, layout, color, graphics, typography and forms
• Demonstrates multiple techniques for getting just the right look and feel for your web sites
• Focuses on the characteristics that make sites usable, engaging, and memorable

Customer Reviews (4)

The Big Web Picture
"Visual Design for the Modern Web" is an exploration of alternative web design solutions both old and new.

BACKGROUND FOR CREATIVE THINKING
In some cases, there's esoteric knowledge not documented commonly in other web books, like the "color math" displayed on generating Hexcode tints. While this is not a critical skill (there are online generators to solve this), it is interesting and thought provoking. Sometimes, you need to know history and theory to choose the APPROPRIATE solution instead of the PERFECT solution. There is a difference. Appropriate is suiting or fitting. Perfect is flawless. Flawless has a big price tag in web project workload. "Good-enough" web engineering has it's place and this book is about making those important choices between delivery, quality, and price.

CHOOSING HOW YOU BUILD WEBSITES
If you believe in perfect solutions for everything, this book is NOT for you. It is NOT for perfectionists or web standard Nazis --but more for creative thinking and exploration of possibilities. This book is about alternatives and making choices. It's also based on the authors personal journey in learning how to build a sturdy website. This perspective is important.

ALTERNATIVE WEB SOLUTIONS
This is a menu of real-world alternatives. You can't use every solution presented in this book but the concepts will expand your horizons and improve your toolbox. It will point you in directions for more information. This book is more than just a starting point for beginners. It has encyclopedic value for seasoned designers and programmers to "think" about "why" they use certain methods. Is new technology better than older proven methods that actually still work? You're invited to find out.

FRESH IDEAS FOR SIMPLER WEBSITE PROBLEM-SOLVING
I do not view the book's content as stale in any way. It does explain "vintage" ideas that need revisiting for unrealized potential in today's web environment. Complexity is not the goal. Read it and think.

Good at meeting its goal
The Web is a huge topic. There's HTML, CSS, JavaScript, graphics standards, PHP, Perl, Ruby, SQL, HTTP, Apache, and the list goes on. Creating a basic consumer site these days can easily involve a dozen technologies, each of which has its own complexities. And that doesn't even touch on the business side, which is, after all, the reason for having a site in the first place. Let alone the interface.

No one book can cover it all, or even attempt to do so. Instead, authors need to choose a goal, and try to do a good job with it. The goal of this book is clear enough: to give people an overview of the main tasks they need to accomplish to create a basic static Web site for a small company, a family, a nonprofit, or whatever.

The book succeeds at that. The first thing you notice when you look at the table of contents is that the book is not organized around technology. There's not a chapter on HTML, another on CSS, and so on. Instead, the book is organized around the attributes of a good site. For example, the navigation chapter shows how to achieve good navigation, talking about affordances, link states, link reliability, and so on. The chapter mixes together HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, just as any real navigation system mixes together different technologies. The book keeps the focus on the thing that matters: the user's experience.

To my way of thinking (such as it is), that is the way it should be. The book focuses on the ends FIRST, and then shows what means can be used to achieve those ends.

A common scenario is that people read books on HTML, CSS, and JS, and then start to create sites. The problem is, although they know how to create a link, they don't know when to create one, or why to create one, or the difference between a useful link and a less useful one. They know the tools, but not how to use them well. The results are less than professional.

That is what Visual Design for the Modern Web is for. Once you learn what an is and what a CSS class is, this book will show you how to use them to create a good user experience.

This should not be the first book you should buy. Buy HTML for Dummies (or some such) first, and play around. When you get ready to do some real work, then buy Visual Design for the Modern Web.

There are some things I don't like, but not many. The waterfallish design model in the first two chapters could be replaced with something more clearly prototype based, maybe with more examples of design documents thrown in. There could be a little more server-side stuff added as well. Otherwise, it's hard to motivate the material on forms. Perhaps a little bit of PHP. Maybe two scripts, one showing how incoming data is appended to a file, and another showing how the file data is output to a page. Just enough to show how forms can help business processes run.

In summary, a good book if you've learned some basic tech, and now want to know what to do with it.

Author's rebuttal
As the author of Visual Design for the Modern Web, my goal in writing was to teach design principles, not CSS. While it's true that I didn't always follow the latest in the rather complicated Web standards, that was a conscious choice in order to keep the code simple and the focus on the elements of design. After all, a single book can't teach every aspect of web design. I also firmly believe there is a place for table-based layouts as long as designers respect the needs of screen readers, and that PNGs aren't ideal for photos because of their size. Of course, opinions may vary.

If you're looking for a title on CSS and Web standards, I recommend Jeffrey Zeldman's Designing with Web Standards (2nd Edition); however, if your objective is to learn how using traditional design principles can help you create better Web sites, than I believe that you will find a great deal of useful information in my book.

A very surprising dud from New Riders
Normally I wouldn't put too much effort to be negative about a book (there's too much negativity in the world and it's damn hard to write a good book) but I had to post some remarks on this title. For a brand new publication this book is filled with horrifically out-dated information, some of if completely wrong. I expect a *lot* more from New Riders.

A few examples:

- In many places the technique discussed and coding examples are completely ignorant of current standards and best practices. In one section the author describes using tables for layout and describes how to use sliced images to create pixel-perfect layouts. Inline CSS is everywhere, because "external files make for unwieldy examples".

How many out-dated techniques can you find in the following sentence?

"In order to accomplish multiple discrete rollovers on what starts out as a single image, we break the image apart into slice (rectangular pieces) that are seemlessly reassembled into an HTML table."

- There are lots of plainly wrong information scattered throughout the book. Just one example:

"PNG ... is a newer graphic format intended eventually to replace GIF for everything but GIF animation (because PNG doesn't support animation). PNG won't replace the JPG format, because PNG is not ideal for continuous-tone images such as photos." (what about 24-bit PNGs?)

"In general, designers who are artists first, web developers second, often prefer sketching the comp in an image-editing program rather than creating a skeletal HTML page." Oh really?

New Riders books tend to be of a higher quality than the average technology book, but this one falls way short. A book that supposed to deal with "the modern web" should present modern approaches and ideas. This book reads like it was written in 1999. ... Read more

Product Description

• Shows how to use four Web power tools- Fireworks, Dreamweaver, ColdFusion and Flash-together in one book
• Offers a full-color tutorial that walks the reader start to finish through the process of building a media-rich, e-commerce Web site
• After completing this book, readers will have a polished, fully functional e-commerce site adaptable to their own needs
• CD-ROM contains all the files and materials needed for the project

Customer Reviews (7)

Not bad... not great, either.
I enjoyed the first few sessions about fireworks and the creative examples. When it got to dreamweaver and laying out the sites, the inconsistencies became increasingly annoying. As you progress, you will need to have a strong urge to learn it otherwise you will get lost as this is not the type of book that "holds your hand" through the lessons. I gave it 3 stars because I still learned from it as any other book aims to do. Do I recommend this book to beginners? Maybe not.

Needs a few edits...
The book is extremely well organized and full of great information.It goes beyond just learning how to use web design software.If you are an aspiring web designer, first learn HTML, then read this book.Although you do not need to know HTML to create web pages, it is the core language behind all web pages.Through your career, there will be times that the only way to accomplish something is by editing text.

This book uses Macromedia's web design software in the lessons.Macromedia's Dreamweaver is becoming the defacto standard in professional web design.The lessons take you step-by-step as you build a complete website.

I have found erros in some of the steps that are a bit annoying and frustrating, but so far I have not been stumped.Each lesson is a continuation of the previous lesson.I am guessing that different people worked on the individual lessons.So the file names sometimes change from lesson-to-lesson.

Unfortunately, the errors in this book make it not for absolute beginners.But if you are new to web design and can figure out the missing steps, this is a good book.If you are a seasoned web designer who is a hard-core arrogant programmer, but want to learn Dreamweaver to improve your productivity, this book may be too basic.Consider a more advanced book.

Could have been really good - but too many errors
This would have been a really good book if there weren't so many errors in it. Obviously they rushed this book off to print without testing the content - and the errors increase in number and severity as the book goes along. I agree with other reviewers in that it makes the book almost unusable. Almost. The first eight chapters on Fireworks MX aren't too bad, and you will definitely learn something about Fireworks.

However, in chapter nine - the section on Dreamweaver, things go really haywire. The instructions, when followed 100%, DO NOT produce what the book suggests by its photographs. Not even close. You're pretty much on your own at this point - either you will be consulting the help files like crazy and/or having to experiment extensively to produce the correct result.

Which isn't to say you won't learn something. In fact, I am finding that because of all the errors, I am forced to learn how Dreamweaver works on my own - which reinforces the learning.

But, really - it is a pain in the butt to do it this way. And certainly not for a beginner or anyone who does not posess a great deal of patience.

not for beginner
I thought this would be a great book to start with...but I was wrong. Nice projects. But it's a struggle. It seems like steps are missing. If you are a beginner, skip this book unless you don't mind wasting time trying to figure out deleted steps.

This is not an easy quick learn. I wish I could get a refund.

I found it disorganized
I'm more experienced in print design, Photoshop and Illustrator are now old friends, so I expect to climb a steep learning curve with a program like Dreamweaver. However, this book is not proving a great travelling companion. I have found many, many examples of tutorials not working according to the explanations. It's unsettling in a way no other program guide i've tried has been. It feels like they skipped the proofreader stage. The actual projects are good, the design of the web page is quite nice and that's what attracted me to the book. Now I'm just struggling through it to get my money's worth since I can't get my money back! ... Read more

Product Description
The bestselling guide to building a knockout Web site, newly updated

An effective Web site is the key to success for every venture from class reunions to major corporations. And since Web technology changes rapidly, Building a Web Site For Dummies, 4th Edition is fully updated for the cutting-edge tools and trends.

If you need to build and maintain a Web site, even if your experience is severely limited, this book makes it easy and fun. You'll learn to plan, design, create, launch, and maintain your site using the most up-to-date tools.

• A quality Web presence is essential in today's marketplace, and many individuals charged with creating one are unaware of the challenges
• This guide gives novice Web designers the tools and know-how to plan, design, and build effective Web sites
• Provides a nuts-and-bolts guide to site-building, including coverage of HTML, WYSIWYG construction software, CSS, and navigation plans
• Shows how to spruce up your site with topnotch graphics, video, and great content
• Guides you through getting your site online, promoting it, and even making money from it

Building a Web Site For Dummies, 4th Edition is the tool every first-time Web designer needs to build a professional-looking site.Amazon.com Review
If you're just getting your feet wet in Web site construction, the first big hurdle is figuring out where to start. Building a Web Site for Dummies lightens things up with humor and makes the challenge of building a site far less daunting.

This book doesn't zoom you right into coding HTML, although it covers the markup language quite well. Instead, it offers a much higher-level look at site design by examining the general questions of navigation principles, affiliation possibilities, building communications with your users, and other wide-ranging topics. For this reason, the book covers a lot of ground and offers a broad perspective on site design that transcends simple page coding.

A couple of the more useful sections on Web site tools and e-commerce cover useful utilities, such as NetMechanic, Statbot, and Spinwave. The chapter on e-commerce helps you get to know the ropes of selling stuff online, and points you to online malls, fulfillment services, and currency converters.

The companion CD-ROM contains evaluation versions of useful tools, such as Paint Shop Pro, HomeSite 4.5, Fireworks, and Dreamweaver. You won't find all of the knowledge that you seek to become a Web site guru in this book, but you will gain perspective and learn tons of useful tips and tricks. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• Designing a Web site plan
• Web page construction 101
• Using scripts and applets
• Site navigation
• Graphics handling
• Multimedia
• Site tuning
• Using content providers
• Message boards
• E-commerce
• Affiliates programs
• Publicity

Customer Reviews (26)

It's old and useless...
Yesterday I spent a half-day with Building a Web Site for Dummies - 4th Edition. The book is so bad, I am in awe.

First: a bit about me.I put up my first web site in 1998.I now have a half-dozen sites, but my skill-set is old.I do not use layers, I've never used the span command, and I've never used CSS. (Typically I hire a designer to polish my creations.)So I thought that I might gain something from this book.

This book is bad.And I think I understand why it's bad.It really feels like it was written in the late 90's. The problem is that simply fixing errors does not make an old web book current.There's a half-page that talks about ten search engines, including Excite and Alta Vista.Huh?In 2010, to mention any search engine other than Google, Yahoo and Bing is silly.

In the first chapter, there's a suggestion to email competitors and ask to see their log files, because "most Webmasters aren't the slightest bit security conscious about their customer data..." Equally strange.And unethical too.

I could go on, but - bottom line: I was appalled! If you are looking for a book to help you understand what's involved in creating a site, keep shopping!

Not a Dummies book
This book falsely advertises to SERIOUS beginners of web design. However, the book is in fact for people who have prior knowledge of design, whether it be HTML coding, or the use of Dreamweaver. Real beginners will start to get lost VERY early on in the book. I suggest finding another resource to help you with beginning site building.

tung
Thanks you the reliable trading. The book arrived in the time line as promises. The condition of the book is "new" and in "excellent condition". Thanks you !

Good Book
If you don't know HTML, or are just learning, this is great book.I had a basic understanding of HTML already and just loved this little book.

WEB SITE
the book was very informative however the bonus cd that has a lot of the book detail inside was broken in 2 pieces. ... Read more

Product Description
Would you like an overview of the state of the art in web design in a specific field? WEB DESIGN INDEX BY CONTENT provides exactly that: every year, 500 new designs are selected and grouped in more than 20 categories, such as architecture, art, fashion, food, IT, music, photography, product catalogues, etc. Two pages from each site are included: an opening page and a page representative of the nature of the site. The accompanying CD-ROM allows you to view the designs on screen and to access the entire sites online. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Still good, just not as good as earlier volumes
The earlier editions seem to show a wider range of designs. They are also more balanced in showing designs from different fields. In this volume, the "design & illustration" field takes up almost 200 of the 500 pages, and there seems to be a lot more template-based sites represented. That being said, it's still a good resource (especially considering that this newer edition has more sites using standards-compliant code), but I think the earlier ones are superior in scope. ... Read more

Product Description
Designing the Obvious belongs in the toolbox of every person charged with the design and development of Web-based software, from the CEO to the programming team. Designing the Obvious explores the character traits of great Web applications and uses them as guiding principles of application design so the end result of every project instills customer satisfaction and loyalty. These principles include building only whats necessary, getting users up to speed quickly, preventing and handling errors, and designing for the activity. Designing the Obvious does not offer a one-size-fits-all development process--in fact, it lets you use whatever process you like. Instead, it offers practical advice about how to achieve the qualities of great Web-based applications and consistently and successfully reproduce them.

This latest edition updates examples to show the guiding principles of application design in action on today's web, plus adds new chapters on strategy and persuasion. It offers practical advice about how to achieve the qualities of great Web-based applications and consistently and successfully reproduce them.
... Read more

Product Description

Named one of the greatest minds of the 20th century by Time, Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for one of that century's most important advancements: the world wide web.  Now, this low-profile genius-who never personally profitted from his invention -offers a compelling protrait of his invention.  He reveals the Web's origins and the creation of the now ubiquitous http and www acronyms and shares his views on such critical issues as censorship, privacy, the increasing power of softeware companies , and the need to find the ideal balance between commercial and social forces.  He offers insights into the true nature of the Web, showing readers how to use it to its fullest advantage.  And he presents his own plan for the Web's future, calling for the active support and participation of programmers, computer manufacturers, and social organizations to manage and maintain this valuable resource so that it can remain a powerful force for social change and an outlet for individual creativity.

Hard-core tech types may wish Berners-Lee had gone into deeper detailabout the road ahead: the "boon and threat" of XML, freevs. commercial software, VRML 3-D imaging, and such. But he wantseveryone in on the debate, so he wrote a brisk book that virtuallyanyone can understand. --Tim Appelo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (52)

Not very perceptive techie material
Most of the action here, assuming it's not updated, is 1990 to 2000. The end-point seems a bit dated now - Amazon gets a mention, but not Google or Windows XP or e-Bay. Modern solid state disks and I think narrow screens didn't exist. There's no anticipation of the huge crash which happened soon after this book was published - though e-Trade is in - and which can be dated at about 2000. He doesn't predict spam and the Nigerian frauds. On the other hand, Mosaic, now almost forgotten, was at that time one of several browsers, and Windows 98 a new product.

I was interested to try to find how much truth there was in the idea that Berners-Lee 'invented' Internet - any spectacular invention tends to have many inventors, in fact. The first thing to note is that 'internet' already existed - Berners-Lee claims to have invented the 'web'. He worked at CERN where of course there were assorted incompatible computers made by different manufacturers. There were also intranets and email. I think Berners-Lee understates by a huge factor the way that de facto standardisation made things easier. For example, everyone uses 8-bit bytes; Mac hardware now is the same as IBM PC hardware, though just one fixed form of it; and the fact most PCs now use the same chip makes it far easier to write common programs. There are standard connections like USB of various types and 'firewire', and their earlier versions - RS232, Centronics, whatever. One very important hidden aspect which Berners-Lee seems not to have noticed is language: all this work was done using the Latin alphabet, and mostly in English. Japanese, Chinese, and other scripts weren't used; even accents, as in French and Vietnamese, weren't taken seriously.

As far as I can see, Berners-Lee managed to get people to use standard 'protocols' - things like IP and ISP and ways of doing things which are highly technical - how difficult to write on these topics without the in-house 'dedicated' jargon! HTML - hypertext mail link, the plain (but Latin alphabet) text plus commands in - was a relatively small part of the action. Sun's Java language, presumably relying on the standard chip, allowed little programs to be run (and introduced the possibility of 'viruses'). The author always talks in a mystical way of how the web is out there, and everything is accessible anywhere, and yet this can't be true, because (as he points out) to check up on say mysite.com must need some sort of look-up system. He also seems to understate the sheer quantity of cables, wires, satellites, transmission systems, hardware etc etc which must be needed. It's a bit disappointing to find hints of misrepresentation. Another aspect is his rather wounded defence of not making money from it - there's an account of a live TV interview which he clearly hated.

What he doesn't say is that CERN was staggeringly expensive, and in fact may have been a waste of money, like NASA. These people at CERN were in a privileged financial position. In fact it's possible the web will be CERN's only legacy.

In between the techie stuff is the human material, mostly rather affectionate descriptions of assorted hardware and software types, and business people typically at shows trying to make sales. However, in my experience, in real life many of these people are grasping and egocentric, and I suspect his accounts are like actors and 'luvvies' praising each other often through clenched teeth.

He's quite good on historical parallels - e.g. he regards tables of contents and indexes, in books, as hypertexts; and he compares tied-in software with a TV that goes straight to one channel and displays it better than others.

There's also intermediate stuff on e.g. censorship. And on secrecy - he described the public key/ private key system but to be honest I couldn't make sense of it.

So - interesting but with bits missing.

An excelent book about the web history and future.
This is a great book. It explains in details how the web concept evolved. I think Tim Berners-Lee couldn't tell it better. Personally, I'd never realized how such subject emerged just in a high-energy physics lab. Tim in Weaving The Web helped me to understand that. It's clear that there was no Eureka moment. The Web came from a set of rambling thoughts. Beyond history facts Tim gives us the possibility of getting the Web from a social perspective. Further, there is a interesting and curious discussion about its future. I recommend it strongly.

If ever a man deserved a royalty check...
As one of the millions of people whose lives have changed for the better as a result of Berners-Lee's invention, I was more than happy to do my part to pad the man's checking account.

Ever since Berners-Lee wrote and released the first public versions of his CERN Web server and browser programs in the early 90s, he has watched his brainchild evolve and mushroom into a world-changing technology. What's remarkable about Berners-Lee is that in the ensuing era of crazed wealth creation, he has consistently resisted opportunities to cash in, electing instead to play a statesmanlike role as chairman of the non-profit World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the international body that governs (or at least attempts to govern) Web standards and ensure that the Web remains a level playing field with open standards, indomitable by any one company.

Berners-Lee begins his tale recounting his earliest experiments with hypertext information retrieval systems at CERN, the Swiss particle physics laboratory. He describes an early prototype application called Enquire which was, alas, lost forever as the result of a calamitous diskette mix-up in the early 80s (one can't help but wonder how things might have played out had the original program survived). Berners-Lee began work on what become today's World Wide Web in 1989, finally releasing his first Web server and browser programs to the public in 1993. And the rest, as they say, well, you know...

Most of the book centers on the seminal early days of the Web in the mid-1990s, when Berners-Lee made the all-important decision to release his code to the public and eventually allow commercialization by young companies like Netscape and Spyglass. He recounts his fateful early meetings with a young Marc Andreessen, and well-told anecdotes of his early struggles to forge the World Wide Web Consortium in the Byzantium of the software industry, wrestling consensus from recalcitrant giants like IBM, Microsoft and Sun.

Berners-Lee talks most passionately about his struggles to maintain standards ? with decidedly mixed success - in the face of growing competitive pressures among consortium members, and the onrush of new Web-centric technologies like Java and XML.

The book closes with a few chapters outlining his vision of a future Web - less dependent on the desktop PC, expanding through increasingly persistent, universal customer access, device independence, and of course continuing evolution in Web standards. Most interesting are his closing ruminations on the unfulfilled aspects of his vision: of a highly collaborative, participatory environment, less driven by the consumerist imperative of the commercial software industry - a Web that might offer users not just the palliative sop of "interactivity," but of more enriching "intercreativity" in the form of interactive and egalitarian environments for collaboration between individuals and organizations.

The book provides a solid accounting of Berners-Lee's life in a straightforward chronological narrative. If at times edging towards self-aggrandizement (it's an autobiography, after all), this book nonetheless affords a rare first-hand glimpse into the early formative days of the Web, as well as a few provocative ideas about what might come next.

A Good Read About the Web

I love this quote from Tim Berners-Lee, the man responsible for the World Wide Web.He's a low profile genius who never profited from his invention.I often think about him when i talk to my investment banking friends, or other people who are placing monetary gain over what really makes them happy.This is a quote from his book Weaving the Web which is a pretty good read if you're interested in how the web came about, what the original thoughts were about it, and how it's survived attempts by private industry (Microsoft, IBM, etc.) to control it.

"People have sometimes asked me whether i am upset that i have not made a lot of money from the Web. In fact, I made some quite conscious decisions about which way to take my life.These I would not change - though i am making no comment on what i might do in the future.What does distress me, though, is how important a question it seems to be to some. This happens mostly in America, not Europe. What is maddening is the terrible notion that a person's value depends on how important and financially successful they are, and that that is measured in terms of money.That suggests disrespect for the researchers across the globe developing ideas for the next leaps in science and technology. Core in my upbring was a value system that put monetary gain well in its place, behind things like doing what i really want to do.To use net worth as a criterion by which to judge people is to set our children's sights on cash rather than on things that will actually make them happy." - Tim Berners-Lee

Thoughts on the web from the man who invented it.
In a recent presidential election, Democrat Al Gore was ridiculed for "claiming" that he invented the Internet. While he was a significant player in the development of the Internet, no one can really claim to have invented it and there is a great deal of dispute over whether Gore ever really made the claim. The situation is quite different for the World Wide Web (WWW). Tim Berners-Lee did invent the WWW and there is no dispute about it. It was his vision of writing hyperlinked documents that began a revolution in human information storage and processing.
This book is less a historical recounting of the events that led to the invention of the web and more about his thoughts when creating it and where it will go. Berners-Lee is quite correct when he is adamant about the lack of control and standards being a precondition for the development of the web. While others were lobbying for the more rigid format of SGML, he kept to the simpler tag structure of Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). The simplicity of HTML made it possible for most people to learn how to write web pages and this helped fuel the explosive growth.
In the last part of the book, he discusses what he thinks the web should be become, describing what he calls "the semantic web." This is a web that understands the non-obvious links between different topics. In other words, the web understands the meaning of the data. For example, if you are interested in statistics on breast cancer a search will return data that is truly about breast cancer and not be blocked by a filter because it contains the word "breast." This is a difficult task, although a great deal of progress has been made. A short time ago, most searches using common keywords returned a large number of inappropriate sites because the search engine could be fooled. The situation is much better now, although it is still difficult to determine the quality of the sites returned.
Tim Berners-Lee will probably always be considered the person that could have most profited from the Internet yet chose not to do so. For those reasons, he should be a hero to us all. For, if he had decided to patent his invention and charge even the smallest amount as a licensing fee, he would now be rich enough to buy his own country. He explains that in this book as well.
... Read more

Product Description
Buy this book, get a job!This book was designed for those people, who are looking for a job, and to apply for a position need a Photoshop knowledge.The book build the knowledge from beginner to advanced level, plus introduce to web design.Each chapter contains 24 easy, step by step tutorials, so alltogether there are 120 tutorials in this book.The book based on a personal working experience in editorial offices, graphic design studios, and explains professional secrets and tricks. That's why this book is professional.Chapter 1: Quick Start Guide (24 Tutorials)Chapter 2: Pre-Intermediate (24 Tutorials)Chapter 3: Intermediate (24 Tutorials)Chapter 4: Advanced (24 Tutorials)Chapter 5: Web Design (24 Tutorials) ... Read more

Product Description
Forms are everywhere on the web - for registration and communicating, for commerce and government.Good forms make for happier customers, better data, and reduced support costs. Bad forms fill your organization's databases with inaccuracies and duplicates and can cause loss of potential consumers.

Designing good forms is trickier than people think.Jarrett and Gaffney come to the rescue with Designing Forms that Work, clearly explaining exactly how to design great forms for the web.Liberally illustrated with full-color examples, it guides readers on how to define requirements, how to write questions that users will understand and want to answer, and how to deal with instructions, progress indicators and errors.

*Provides proven and practical advice that will help you avoid pitfalls, and produce forms that are aesthetically pleasing, efficient and cost-effective.

*Features invaluable design methods, tips, and tricks to help ensure accurate data and satisfied customers.

*Includes dozens of examples -- from nitty-gritty details (label alignment, mandatory fields) to visual designs (creating good grids, use of color).

*Foreword by Steve Krug, author of the best selling Don't Make Me Think! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Want to improve your website conversion? This is the book to buy!
Clear, to the point, well-written - Jarrett and Gaffney can help you to hit the ground running when it comes to improving conversion rates on your website. Without question "Forms that Work" WORKS. Although this is a book that falls into the usability category, it is really about common sense: making sure your online customers are actually able to do what you want them to do.

Forget about your "home" page. That could be the least important spot on your site. Look instead at the places where user interaction involves more than just clicking a link. That's where the money is.

Why I already bought three copies
1) This book is helping me change the way my organization thinks about forms.

2) I can give it to colleagues, and it is so attractive and engaging and comprehensible that they actually read it.

3) The three layer model (Relationship, Conversation and Appearance) helps us to have a more holistic view of forms usability.

4) The idea of four answer types: Slot-in, gathered, third-party and created, helps us to finally get past "Should this be check boxes or radio buttons?" and move on to useful insights about what kind of burden we are placing on the user.

5) The numerous and varied examples include e-commerce, but go beyond into issues that are relevant for government, finance, education and other sectors.

6)It doesn't shy away from the hard stuff, like what to do when the questions you have to ask are complex, conditional, or just unpopular.

7) When the authors quote a guideline or a study, they provide the reference or URL in a convenient margin note. It's as credible as a scholarly footnote, but much more convenient.

8) The advice is usable. Suggestions are concrete, detailed and illustrated. Reasoning or research supporting the advice is presented briefly and clearly. Readers in a hurry find answers. Thinking readers don't feel pushed around.

9) It looks short. It isn't a thick book, even though it is dense with value. I can say, "Here, take a look at this on the plane trip...or in the taxi!" and people will actually carry it along. They open it, and they're hooked.

I agree with reviewers who compare this book to Steve Krug's work. You have to be both very smart and very generous to write something as easy and helpful as Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition. Jarrett and Gaffney have done it with "Forms that Work."

Every thing you always wanted to know about forms but were afraid to ask
"Forms that Work" is the complex overview for each aspect of web forms. The book contains four main sections: Relationship, Conversation, Appearance, Testing. In each chapter, you will get loads of examples, ideas, hints and case studies. This book will show you form's nightmares and and forms of your dreams.

This book will also teach you how to create forms that work smoothly. For me, it's one of the most important on my UX-related bookshelf.

No matter if you are UI Designer, Usability Specialist or Information Architect. If you take your work seriously - and would like to design better forms - just buy it!

Forms that work is the Don't Make Me Think! of form design


"Forms that work" is a practical discussion of the challenges of creating effective web forms. It provides a common vocabulary for the critical elements of form design. It describes practical solutions and best practices through concrete examples accompanied by clear and specific explanations.

Two things about this book jump out:

- "Forms that work" highlights the PROCESS of form design in a hmmm-I-never-thought-about-FORMS-that-way ... kind of way. (OK, be honest. You sweat over/test drive every question on your user research surveys. But do you REALLY do that with every question on the web forms you create?) The process will be familiar to the Usability community. But its application to web form design has some unique twists and turns that are worth knowing about.

- "Forms that work" is the "Don't make me think!" of web form design.
Ittells the story of how to create good web forms in plain language. But it does not lecture. Its information rich because it makes things less complex. The content is presented thoroughly, but its not belabored. The examples are well chosen.

The conversational style, the density of important insights the clarity of examples and just the right amount of humor will keep your interest.What that means is--and this is the important thing-- reading it won't make you tired of reading OR tired of forms. When you put "Forms that Work" down, you will feel like you know a lot more about how to create good forms. And, you will think about forms differently.

Who knew?


[PS. If you're one of the 11 people in the global UX community who has not read "Don't make me think," buy that one too.]

Essential
Some of the books in our office live tidily on the bookshelf. This one is always on someone's desk. That says it all really. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Good Inspiration Book
When you're at a block and need to see some high quality work of a large variety for inspiration, open this book and let the ideas come.

This doesn't need a book
This is just a flipbook of websites, along with the names of the studios that designed them. There's no additional commentary or analysis. You could Google "web design studios" to find many of the same sites (and better ones), in all their glorious detail and interactivity.

Great Inspriation.
Now, I'm not saying this book is the "end all" or anything like that. I'm just saying that if your looking for something to pick up here 'n there while looking for inspiration, this book is pretty good. Def worth the price.

Great book from a great series
Great book and a nice compact format. Not a lot of text but visuals are why you would buy this book.

Not bad...
It's definitely inspirational to see such great designs. The only fault is that they are almost all Flash designs. I am mostly interested in ways people put navigation and content on a page using HTML (or a variant) and all these are almost complete Flash pages. Very accessibility-not-friendly. But as I said, they look good. ... Read more

Product Description
Want to launch a Web site but don’t know where to begin? Information on Web design, page building software, using HTML, site planning, and everything else you need to know can be found easily in Building Web Sites All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition. So you can easily find what you’re looking for, this plain-English guide is divided into nine minibooks:

• Preparations
• Site Design
• Site Construction
• Web Graphics
• Multimedia
• Audience Interaction
• E-Commerce
• Site Management
• Case Studies

From deciding what your site should do to working with HTML, using Dreamweaver, incorporating Flash creations, and keeping your site on the cutting edge, this book is your one-stop course in building Web sites. Learn to:

• Plan your site, decide whether you need a Web team, and create relevant content
• Develop your site design, work with wire frames, and organize behind-the-scenes files that make your site work
• Select the right hardware and software and create pages with Dreamweaver
• Create cool site graphics with Photoshop and Fireworks
• Add interest with Flash animations, slideshows, video, and sound
• Make your site interactive with Javascript, PHP, ASP, and MySQL
• Build an e-commerce site that’s user-friendly, legally sound, and secure
• Keep your content and design fresh and up to date

Ready to begin? Grab Building Web Sites All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition and let’s get started! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Unprofessional
I just finished reading this book from cover to cover and, sadly, I have to agree with the negative tone of most comments here (up to the time of writing, that is).

- As heard though the grapevine, I concur that the book is published with too many "foolish assumptions" (as the authors themselves call them) in mind. Without any apparent reason, they assume the reader is going to do web designing for a living, repeatedly gearing every subject towards client-designer relations, client satisfaction and the such. There are whole chapters that would make little to no sense without this bias.

- Here comes a major problem for me. The authors' professional work as designers, as well as programmers is, well, not impressive. I guess I can't provide their URLs here, but just try Googling for their names and check them out. Oh, and try "Antonio's Winter Haven". That's good as well.

- They're not ashamed of it, either. Almost every example of web-designing they provide in the book refers to their own personnal or professional sites. In a book 762 pages long, that's a lot of self-promotion.

- In the same vein, well, this may be just me, but I'm also bothered by the authors' constant reference to how "Doug" or "Claudia" (the authors' first names) did this or that. Focus on the reader, will ya?

- The authors are an ex-web designer and a professional photographer, part-time web designer. They repeatedly claim throughout the book NOT to be programmers, which supposedly frees them from the hassle of providing any expertise on the subject. I don't claim, mind you, that they should go into fine detail concerning programming languages. What's more, it is certainly fine that they provide hints as to how to skip the programming part and use instead all the resources that the web provides. What bothers me is the uncertainty they leave you with. What with all the trickery they insist on using to escape the tough programming bits, and after seeing what they have to offer for themselves in the personnal pages they so wildly promote, I wonder if there are many things left unexplained, many resources they don't know about or are unable to handle?

********

In general, I can't say I'm unhappy about having bought and read this book. I DID learn many things I needed to know about web designing, web maintenance and so on.

I did not have a problem with tools such as Photoshop and Dreamweaver being used as teaching material for the book. After all, they are the sector standards, so if a piece of software is to be used as example, let it be them. The authors do, in general, offer choices as to what software to use for each particular task (although there does seem to be an obvious bias towards Adobe products).

This just could AND SHOULD have been a better book in so many ways. I very much enjoy 'Dummies' books spirit and approach, but if this is where they're going, I'm opting out. Readers of a book do not need to excel in the field concerned. Authors do.

everything I would hope to need to know about web sites
Comprehensive material about understanding, planning, and building a web site.Easily understood and prompts one to consider many issues that just does not occur to a neophyte.Well worth the money

Not really a "book for dummies"
I would consider myself mediocre in understanding some of the Adobe Creative Suite's software but I chose this book above the more obvious books on building websites using Adobe CS4 because I thought that it would be more inspiring.The only thing this book has inspired me to do was return it and use more web-based resources.This book seems to primarily work on the premise that everyone who reads it has some sort of business on building websites already running.I'd almost be tempted to say that those writing the book are more bragging on their success as web designers or the success of friends while adding a minute amount of research information that they've picked up along the way.It seems unlikely that the book was written for those of us who have an average amount of understanding of web-building but are relatively new to web-page design.This book seems as if it was designed to scare away prospective readers from the career of web-page design.

Total waste of time
A total waste of time and money.This book attempts to be a jack of all trades and cover every aspect of web design and development.Unfortunately, in so doing, it provides so little actual useful information on each topic that its virtually worthless.For instance, the section on CCS was less than 20 pages.Now I certainly didn't expect a complete, in depth, study of the subject in a "For Dummies" book.Especially since this type of book is supposed to be geared more to the casual user and not web professionals.But the book would be a lot more useful if it covered the basic elements of web design in more depth.

The other thing that made this book worthless, to me in particular, is that the authors assume that everyone who has a desire to build a web page possesses some rather pricey software.Much of the book is dedicated to describing how to build web sites using Dreamweaver and Photoshop.Since I have and use neither, these sections were absolutely worthless.I find this startling since, once again, "For Dummies" books are not supposed to be geared toward the professional.So why would they assume that someone reading the book would possess high end professional development tools?I was also perturbed that these facts aren't mentioned anywhere in the or description of the book.

If you are looking for a good, basic guide on how to design and build web sites, this is NOT it.

Not Bad
I got this book to help me with web design. However I found myself getting lost on some things. I wish they had better examples and actual try this yourself projects to go along with the chapters. I would recommend a simpler book for learning basic web design. This book is a good reference to have on your book shelf if you ever get more involved in web design. Over all Not Bad. ... Read more

Product Description
As the Internet has become more pervasive, information disseminated through the Web grows in an exponential rate, creating a call for more universal design so more people from different backgrounds are able to access this information. Advances in Universal Web Design and Evaluation: Research, Trends and Opportunities covers various aspects of universal Web design from disabilities to cultural differences, including various aspects of Web design: prototyping, analysis, and evaluation with an emphasis on universal and inclusive design. Advances in Universal Web Design and Evaluation: Research, Trends and Opportunities highlights several prominent issues in this area such as ageing and gender issues and provides the basis of a framework for the development and evaluation of Web sites for people with special needs. ... Read more

Product Description

If you think web design is beyond your reach, or if you want your existing web site to look more professional, this thoroughly updated classic is the place to turn! In these pages, best-selling authors Robin Williams and John Tollett share the creative ideas, useful techniques, and basic design principles that are essential to great Web design-all in the context of the most current technology, software, and standards. Throughout, the authors' aim is to inspire you and spark your creativity rather than sedate you with pages and pages of code. To that end, you'll find loads of real-world examples, interesting illustrations, and the simple instructions you need to implement the techniques and concepts described in these pages.

Customer Reviews (86)

Good Book?
I have not spent much time with this book, but it does seem to be useful.When I decided to make a web site, I bought a bunch of books - too many, actually.If you want good info on web design, you will find some useful ideas here.

excellent book
This book made learning HTML a breeze. The humor in the book kept the subject light and easy to learn. Get this book!

the way its written keeps you interested
I havn 't read all of this book but I had read an excerpt out of one of robin williams's other books and I loved it. She's very intertaining so she keeps you interested as you read.

Good Look at Web Design
Robin Williams & John Tollett's THE NON-DESIGNER'S WEB BOOK does exactly what it says. It give the web novice an excellent overview of the principles necessary to design a good web page on your own.
Nash Black, author of Indie finalists WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.

Good Information, But Too Much Emphasis On Basic Stuff
I loved Williams' The Mac Is Not A Typewriter and The Non-Designer's Design Book, which really did a great job of introducing the basic elements of graphic design in a way that was logical and straightforward.

To some extent, her approach works here as well. Unfortunately, a book on website design presents some challenges that a book on the principles of graphic design does not. As with many computer and technology-related books, The Non-Designer's Web Book can't decided on what level of web-savvy it expects from its target audience. It tries to please all the people all the time, and the result is probably going to please nobody.

I quickly became frustrated with early chapters that were just too simplistic. I don't need an explanation of what the internet is. I know what the internet is. That's why I'm looking for advice on website design. Unfortunately, the publisher probably realized that some people with no knowledge of the internet who have decided they need a website for their business really will buy this book and they'll need all of that introductory handholding.

When Williams gets to do what she does best, illustrating what looks good in web design and what doesn't, then there are some really great insights to be found here. There are also some good technical tips.

But like all computer books, this one suffers from the inevitable problem of becoming rapidly outdated. It was four years in publication when I read it, but the writing was done a year or two before that. So a ton of recent web trends get no mention, and several currently irrelevant ones are emphasized. This is not an issue with the authors or the publisher. It's just the nature of the technology business.

The graphic design perspective makes parts of this well worth reading, and depending on your level of familiarity with web design, you may get some good technical information under your belt by reading this. But either way, most readers will find themselves wading through a lot that they don't need in order to find the helpful parts. ... Read more

Product Description
We’re been trawling the web looking for the most interesting and well-designed portfolios—of designers, photographers, artists, illustrators, and motion graphic pros—to profile the creators working behind the scenes. The focus is not so much the work presented, but the way the portfolios are designed. Presentation, elegance, and style are key, and the individuals and studios featured in this guide represent the best the web has to offer. Entries include screenshots, designers’ contacts, tools and content used (HTML, Flash, XML, music, video, etc.), awards received, and cost in hours per website for creation and maintenance. With designers hailing from 33 countries, from the United States to Croatia to Japan, this selection of portfolios demonstrates how today’s best designers are pushing the limits and experimenting with innovative ways of navigation outside of corporate contexts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Lovely resource
I love this book because it inspired me and gave me great ideas for different portfolios.

Just Wrong
As someone doing web design, I bought this book to look at other designs, and how they were built. If this is what you're looking for, this book isn't for you.

This book should be a coffee-table book, but is the wrong size and format even for that.All it contains is pictures of websites, and not at a size to to be considered art. Not helpful.If you want to browse websites, only looking at a picture, you can do that on the web just fine.

This book should never have been titled "Web design". It's not web design, it's a vanity site on paper.

Great book from a great series
Great book and a nice compact format. Not a lot of text but visuals are why you would buy this book.

Atrocious Grammar, Beautiful Book
I am a web developer and purchased this book with a few others to sample the current design trends and to find inspiration for new design layouts.Quite simply, this book serves both purposes much more completely than I had anticipated.

I picked up the book in a hurry, expecting only to find photos of sites.I was pleasantly surprised to find a bit more: the book provides a caption noting the languages/tools/technologies used to create the site, the names of the programmers (and, by logical deduction, the number of programmers it took to create), the number of hours that were spent creating the site, and the average number of hours that are spent maintaining the site on a monthly basis.

It is true that most of the designs are created primarily with Flash.If you're looking for layouts to mimic using XHTML and CSS, well, good luck.

Also, as a lifelong member of the Grammar Gestapo, I had quite a few chuckles when reading the introduction (the English introduction, that is--the book is trilingual, with the introduction, titles and captions in English, French and German).

Despite the poor grammar (which is, I'll grant, better than that of most native anglophones), the book delivered much more than I had expected, and I am extremely happy with my purchase.I imagine I'll be carrying this book around with me for at least the next few months, glancing through it whenever I have a free moment on the bus or out at lunch.

The book comes with a durable cover and glossy pages that smell great!

Nice for inspiration
As an amateur photographer, some years back I'd built up a simple site to show my images. It is pretty stale so I wandered the net looking what other photographers were doing. While it is easy to just wander around, it is time consuming for this research aspect.

Looking at the latest web design books at the local bookstore, this one was titled exactly what I had in mind.Fortunately Wiedemann has wandered far and wide to gather this collection.Sitting on the couch, it is easy to thumb through and mark those you may want to see. Clicking on these is like a best-of and the sites are fantastic as far as content and creativity. While not every one will match your preference, there are more than enough that will.

Many of the examples play heavily on Flash programming so it may be a bit much for casual site builders. To me, this book is a nice reference for those who want a site but may not have an idea which direction to pursue. Seeing the layout, this may be beneficial when farming this aspect out. You can say..."I like this feature on this site...can we integrate something like it in ours?" So by picking-chosing various features, one can develop a pretty nice atmosphere for viewers.

You'll easily spend countless hours in fruitless wandering to maybe turn up 2-3 sites in an hour that really grab you. Then try and dig through your history tab frantically hoping to recall one particular site with a feature you liked. This book for the price is a no-brainer...BUY-IT!For me, the overall value in design layout, content, Flash ideas exceeds the price paid in multiples.

The book's production values are first rate too. Well worth $10. ... Read more

Product Description
This great guide covers everything you'll need to begin editing images for the Web using Photoshop 6, including working with layers, creating paths, slicing images, creating rollovers and animations, and warping text. It also includes a chapter showing 16 of the best Web sites that use Photoshop in new and exciting ways. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (58)

Very Informative, helpful, and useful
Jim Smith covers all the bases in this book about starting a web design business. If you have some experience creating web pages and want to know what it takes to move beyond creating web sites as a hobby to building sites for profit, this book is for you. Mr. Smith takes into consideration all the different roles that one must be able to play when running a web design business (i.e. the saavy business-person, the technical expert, the creative artist), and he makes suggestions for alternative solutions to fulfilling these roles, recognizing that most people are not going to be experts in every role.

Mr. Smith uses his experience as a web designer to warn the aspiring web design entrepreneur of pitfalls that he/she may encounter, and he also gives useful tips for bringing more business. He gives specific web sites as resources (i.e. hosting providers; tech experts who take care of the tedious task of maintaining and making sure a web site is running smoothly so you don't have to; domain name registration sites), and he offers suggestions for diversifying the services that the web design entrepreneur should offer so that his/her income and marketability can increase.

This book discusses different options for setting up a web design business, starting with very little start-up costs to solutions involving more start-up costs (i.e. if the entrepreneur is purchasing his/her own server on which to host the web sites he/she creates). This book is therefore just as useful for those with little start-up capital who wish to start a web design business as for those who have a little more money to start their business.

In a nutshell this book, along with one or two other good foundational books on starting and running a web design business and any books about specific programs and software the entrepreneur uses in his/her business, would serve a web design business entrepreneur well as a reference book to which the entrepreneur can refer when he/she has questions about how to run his/her business or about specific situations he/she may encounter.

Outdated and very, very basic.
I read this book a few weeks ago and have to say, its age shows more than it should. After looking at it (3rd Edition - 2007) there are literally dozens of dated things that should've been updated, or at least removed before they ever published this again.

While there may be some decent advice for the very beginner looking to get into web design, you can find all of this information in a many other books that the authors seem to actually care about and update as time passes.

There are a few good points with management and accounting in the book, but other than that if you have the basic knowledge most people do today in the design world this book is going to be too dumbed down for you.

Let's be fair
I've read a few interesting reviews of this book and can see that it stirs contrasting emotions. Some reviewers praise it and others seem to hate it passionately.

I'd like to try and give it justice.

Is the author of this book a good web designer?

Emphatically, NO.

He is clueless.

In fact, If I were to follow author's own advice and have examples of someone's bad web design ready to show to my potential clients, I would definitely use his entire portfolio as a demonstration for what truly horrible websites may look like.

On the other hand,

does the book provide helpful business advice to web designers who wish to go it alone?

Oh, yes. Definitely so.

It's all based on common sense, and his ideas work; clearly, the author is an excellent salesman, considering that he's had a great number of paying web design clients, all the while being one of the most terrible designers ever to grace the world wide web with their work. This book is not about web design or web programming, it's about setting up and selling your web design services. If the author could repeatedly sell his mediocre web design service using his business tactics, think of what you can accomplish if you make websites even slightly better!Sample legal paperwork is excellent and very useful for anyone in the business, and advice on how to handle tough cases is practical and easy to relate to.

The quality of author's web design skills doesn't have much to do with the quality of the book, and the book, I am certain, can be helpful to many. I am glad I've read it.

home based web design business
Great book for beginners . Lot of areas unveiled and inside insight is good .

Fell Short...
I bought this book hoping it would help me figure how to start my own Web Business. Granted he did talk about what he's done to get to where he is, but the only information I found out of the book to be useful, is his short in depth explanations between LLC, PartnerShips and other "Types" of businesses. Overall, I did read this entire book, but the entire time I was thinking "It's gotta get better, I have to learn something from this" =/ ... Read more

Product Description
There’s a real connection between craftsmanship and Web design. That’s the theme running through Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design, by bestselling author Dan Cederholm, with a chapter contributed by renowned Web designer and developer Ethan Marcotte. This book explores CSS3 that works in today’s browsers, and you’ll be convinced that now’s the time to start experimenting with it.

Whether you’re a Web designer, project manager, or a graphic designer wanting to learn more about the fluidity that’s required when designing for the Web, you’ll discover the tools to create the most flexible, reliable, and bulletproof Web designs. And you’ll finally be able to persuade your clients to adopt innovative and effective techniques that make everyone’s life easier while improving the end user’s experience. This book’s seven chapters deconstruct various aspects of a case-study Web site for the Tugboat Coffee Company, focusing on aspects that make it bulletproof and demonstrate progressive enrichment techniques over more traditional labor-intensive methods.

Subjects covered in this book include:

• building for unanticipated future use

• progressively enriching designs using CSS3 properties

• using RGBA color for transparency with an alpha channel

• modular float management

• crafting flexible frameworks

• fluid layouts using grid-based design principles

• craftsmanship details on typography, jQuery, and shifting backgrounds

Customer Reviews (13)

I learn EVEN how play Ukulele !!!
haha is a joke, Dan play ukulele at the end of the video haha; I love the video and the book! is great but please Dan release more and more books like this! and well I love design so, the cover material of the book have embossed text, looks really nice.

Simply Awesome
Currently I am a student of web design and learning fast so I have purchased and read many books on the subject recently. This book is by far my favorite out of all of them. If I was teaching classes on CSS and HTML this is what I would want my textbook to be. I haven't even finished this book and I'm calling it my bible. There are so many "ah ha" moments that it will pay for itself very quickly. I have Dan Cedarholm's other books and I've read "Bulletproof Web Design" already, haven't gotten into "Web Standard Solutions" yet. If you haven't read any of his work yet I'll tell you that it is easy to read and understand, he writes in plain English and is kind of entertaining in a way. If you are only going to buy one book on web design buy this one, it is packed full of clever.

another solid book from dan
as someone just taking the plunge from print to web, dan's book great at giving us the why's and how-to's of CSS web design. this book's dive into CSS3 properties, the fluid grid, form styling, etc. are great.

its also nice to be able to download the templates that the book refers to so you can see everything in action. my only complaint is how it just dives right into the code samples without a simple "how to use this book" paragraph. i ended up just creating a new "practice" xhtml file & CSS file to play with the examples. just don't expect this book to be like a "tutorial" where at the end, you'll wind up with a beautiful, functioning site you put together through the chapters. expect things to sort of jump around a bit, and plan to experiment on your own rather than being hand-held through a process.

i also really liked his real-world help with "frameworks", setting up a group of files to jump-start new projects, complete with solid, functioning code you can start implementing in your own work right away.

overall i learned a lot & the video portion was a nice wrap up to watch at the end.

Wow,Finally a book on CSS where the writer doesnt Bore me to death!
This has got to be one of the best computer books I have ever picked up.I have had the thing for less than a day and I already love it.The do's and do not's are very clearly laid out.The book is interesting, very easy to read, the code works and it is very informative.I have been so impressed with the book that I have not even gotten into the dvd yet.I would bet its great also.Even better, is he VERY CLEARLY explains the code, I feel like I really understand why things work.Normally I just copy the code out of the book and hope it works.This book actually breaks down the mechanics of the css, it has also given me some great ideas on how and why I want to lay my website out in a certain way.Its not a huge book, so 30$ may seem pricey, but, trust me its worth every penny.The other 3 CSS books I have on my shelf will probably just stay there!

Thanks for writing such a good book and please keep up the good work!

Excellent Descriptions and Explainations
Have you ever tried to read through a technical book and not understood what the author was trying to convey? CSS and Web layout design is full of lots of techniques and hacks for working around various browser compatibility problems (particularly with Microsoft platforms). The author cuts through all of that, explains the major difficulties, and offers excellent solutions. It helps too that the author has a good eye for design. I carry this book around at all times for reference, along with the first book from the author, "Bullet Proof Web Design." Buy it! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (5)

Taschen Strikes Again
As a fan of the Taschen books, I picked this one up when designing out a few sites and seeking inspiration.

That's often how I find myself picking up Taschen books- they are great for inspiration!From logos to sites and Japanese prints, Taschen prints quality books to inspire you in what it is that you seek.

This book, in particular, is helpful if you seek a cornucopia of visual ideas/screen shots for website design at your fingertips.Just keep in mind the back-end programming of each site as you look at them, and your website design goal, target audience, and how the design/campaign/branding will be maintained as it is expanded.There are quite a few really nice, inspirational, elegant designs that are simple in here, and some that are a bit older, but is it worth the $10?Definitely.

great collection of designs
This is one of the best web site example books I've seen in a while. I found many sources of inspiration throughout.

great catalog.
if you're interested in web 2.0 you will enjoy this book. a great resource packed with lots of web design ideas and executions.

On Track With The Other Books by Taschen
While the book is not going to give you any great insight to what makes a site tick, it does exactly what it intends to and that is inspire through lots of screenshots of amazing websites.

Don't listen to other reviewers who say that the book is in the wrong language. It's just written in three languages and sometimes it looks like English is omitted, but it's still there, probably just on the next page.

Another complaint by other reviews has been a lack of Flash sites. Well, if you want Flash sites, buy Taschen's book full of Flash pages. It's as simple as that.

Overall this book is a very nice addition to the ICONS series.

the bible
Great catalog of the best web studios in the world. Very usefull as a benchmarking guide in webdesign area. Could have more examples of work. But you can check this out in the studio's websites. ... Read more