Product Description

Customer Reviews (9)

Great Comprehensive Book
This is a great book to get a broad perspective of the types of mobile applications that are out there. There are many ways to develop for mobile and this book gives you a good overview of many if not all of them.

Not so practical techniques
Original review written by Pasquale Granato, JUG Lugano, [...]


First of all, let's clear the field from a possible misunderstanding: this book is not about general mobile design and development but it is about web mobile development. The author states a precise, despite arguable, opinion that brutally said is: do not code native applications but prefer as much as you can web applications. This statement is largely discussed across the book and everyone can make up his own opinion about this. Mine is that currently times are not mature to consider to write just web applications both because mobile browser are not powerful enough (on average) to assure a smooth experience on all devices and because of the lack of a good way to make money from your web app.
The first three chapters of the book are a really good introduction to the history of mobile, to the mobile current status and to the reasons that should drive an approach to the mobile development. These chapters are a well written recap of the status of the art and present a lot of data useful to understand the global situation. Unfortunately the book is printed in black and white and several pie-charts and graphs are pretty much impossible to read.
The central part of the book, chapters from four to ten, is devoted to design issues and, despite the lack of an in-depth examination of some subjects, offers a pretty good survey of the topic.
The final part of the book is slightly more technical covering topics such as XHTML-MP, CSS, HTML5, device adaptation, etc. The problem here is that there is nothing really practical and all remains at an introductory level. To give you an example, a capital topic in device adaptation like Media Queries is covered in half a page with just a trivial example. Furthermore the author seems to be unaware of things like XwapProfile or UAProf (that is probably a obsolete and unreliable method but deserve at least a notation).
My biggest complain is anyway about the author's obsession for the iPhone. The Apple's jewel is referenced continuously and always with great glorification: the word iPhone recurs 99 times in the book and out of the 115 pictures in the book as many as 37 depict an iPhone. An entire chapter is devoted to iPhone web applications development even though most of the concepts presented here are common to other modern devices.
This is overall a decent introductory book, if you are completely new to the field, and it's packed with many good advices but do not expect much from the practical techniques promised by the title.

Should be titled "Information Architecture for Mobile"
The bulk of this book (say 80%) is a discussion of information architecture retooled for the mobile world. A useful discussion, but it is NOT why I bought a book on mobile development. I expected a book that discussed in great detail, mobile development.

Skip to chapter 11, 'Mobile Web Development' to get a taste. Chapter 12, 'iPhone Web Apps' also has a few nuggets. Chapter 15, the oddly named and placed 'Supporting Devices' touches on setting up a test and dev environment.

Technical details for server configuration, local test/dev environment configuration, dev methods and techniques etc. are absent. This is NOT a technical reference or guide. It IS, a good executive 'summary'.

Also, although it makes every attempt to appear agnostic, the book is clearly iPhone-centric. This caused me to change my rating from two stars to one star.

A must-read for anyone in mobile
Many people would pay for the information Brian Fling has assembled here. Project managers, and even clients need to read and digest this book before starting a mobile initiative. You have no idea how gigantic and varied the mobile industry is until you've heard it from Brian Fling.

Good book good deal
This is a good book for mobile technology. Easy to read and understand. And the seller sent this book very fast. Very good deal. ... Read more

Product Description
The Essential Guide to CSS and HTML Web Design is a special book—it will tell you all you need to know to design great web sites that are standards compliant, usable, and look great, but not overwhelm you with waffle, theory, and obscure details.It is designed to be invaluable to you, whatever stage you are at in your career, with a mixture of practical tutorials and reference material—beginners will quickly pick up the basics, while more experienced web designers and developers will keep returning to the book again and again to recap on techniques they maybe haven't used for a while, or look up properties, attributes and other details. It is destined to become a close friend, adopting a permanent place on your desk.It starts off by giving a brief introduction to the internet, and the broad area of web design, before diving straight in to HTML and CSS basics, reusing code, other best practices. It then focuses on all the most important areas of a successful web site—typography, images, navigation, tables, layouts, forms and feedback (including ready made PHP scripts for you to use,) and browser quirks, hacks and bugs. The book is completely up-to-date, covering support of the newest standards in all the latest browsers, including IE 7 and Firefox 2.The last chapter of the book provides several case studies for you to dissect and learn from, including all the most popular web site archetypes—a blog, a store front, a corporate home page, and an online gallery.Then the book is rounded off with several detailed reference appendices covering CSS, HTML, Color references, entities, and more, meaning that any details you need to look up are close at hand.

• This book will teach you everything you need to know to create professional CSS and HTML web sites
• Up to date � covering support of the newest standards in all the latest browsers, including IE 7 and Firefox 2
• Includes practical real world tutorials, essential reference sections, and case studies.

What you'll learn

• The basics of HTML and CSS web design
• How to implement effective layouts, tables, images, navigation, forms and typography on web sites
• How to deal with cross browser issues, including quirks, bugs, and hacks on IE 7 (and older versions,) Firefox, Safari, Opera, and all other major browsers.
• How to make sure your sites are both usable and accessible
• How to implement several different styles of web front-end, through several complete case studies, including a blog, a store front, and an online gallery
• Detailed References are also provided so you don't need to learn every little detail of CSS and HTML

Customer Reviews (12)

Covers topics that other books leave out
This is one book on my shelf that covers key topics that are completely left out by other authors. I can tell that Craig is building websites out there in the real world because he's going straight to the heart of what clients are asking for. I have read other great books which teach the basics of XHTML & CSS. Those books give you a basic understanding that set you up for a book like this. When I get out to meet clients they'll inevitably request things like an online photo gallery or may require a complex multi-column navigation system that I am easily able to build because of this book. I literally go straight to the section, type the code and the website has the feature. What I have found with other books is that they taught me the basics so that I know how to hand code with confidence. However I won't be winning any design awards and I haven't found some of the sophisticated features that clients demand in any other book. The chapter that covers navigation is the best I've come across. It covers how to code each of the navigation types, including the drop-down and multi-column types similar to the one here on Amazon.
This book is a perfect combination of the XHTML, CSS & Javascript knowledge that works in the real world of web design. If you have no idea how to go about building a drop down menu or can't find reliable information about how to build a cool web gallery then look no further. Absolute beginners should start with a simpler book that covers the raw basics of XHTML & CSS, and there's several out there on the market. Once you're ready to take on your first round of clients you'll find this book is invaluable for adding the more sophisticated features that your clients will require. Hope there's an updated edition on the way!

Essential AND informative
This book is one of the best web page design books I've used.Not only does it tell you how do get things done, it will explain multiple ways of getting the same result and the pros and cons of each way.It explains why to design your website using xhtml strict instead of any other form, but still lets you know how to go about using the other doctypes.It explains the correct way to use tables, manipulate images, and format your text.The author goes into a great amount of detail in an easy-to-read way so that you aren't overwhelmed even if you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into.I have benefited from it greatly, and would recommend it to any beginner web-page designer.

Good Book, useful
I just got this book about a month ago. I have a basic knowledge already of CSS and HTML but I wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly and needed more explanation on some things and just wanted to really understand the coding more so I didn't have to rely so much on dreamweaver/photoshop to write most of it for me. I think that this book is great, especially for hands on learning. There is a folder you can download on the internet that contains documents for the exercises in the book. For every section there are exercises you can do to learn all the different parts of css and can see what everything does as far as navigation, type, lists etc etc. I think the author is very easy to understand and very thorough. Overall I think it is definitely one of the more useful ones and will make sure to teach you how to do CSS and XHTML correctly to avoid errors in different platforms/browsers and to ensure compatibility across the board. Great book. Really enjoyed it and recommend even if you're knowledge level is very little. Although if you have never worked with css and html before it might be a little much too fast.

A Highly Recommended Book on Web Design with CSS/HTML
One good book, straight to the point and yet easy to understand. The author certainly exhibits some strong pedagogical skills and he does a fantastic job at integrating various technologies under one roof. Each of the ten chapters and six appendices focus on one aspect and is illustrated by lots of practical examples that could be reused almost as is in your own projects. The author's decision to avoid any reference to web design applications is a smart one. Not only does it allow him to focus on the very foundations of web design but also to be relevant to a wider audience, both in terms of platform and level. With lots of tips, plenty of warnings, and an emphasis on standards and industry best practices, this book is like having a private web design instructor. Highly recommended.

Review
Great book suported by some On-line examples, specially good for begginers.
Little more examples or exercises will give this book the 5th star but as it is now it is also great.
My recomendation..

BR ... Read more

Product Description
Using Hands-On Practice exercises and Web Site Case Studies to motivate readers, Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML includesall the necessary lessons to guide students in developing highlyeffective Web sites. A well-rounded balance of hard skills (XHTML, CSS, JavaScript) and soft skills (Web Design, e-commerce, Web site promotion strategies)presents everything beginning Web developers need to know to build and promote successful Websites. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

I probably should have taken a lesser course to start.
Excellent Web Page instruction book. It will take a few reads for me to get the hang of Webpage Design, but the information is in the book. The tutorials from the authors webpage were very helpful.

Just as listed!
Received this product in the condition stated in the listing. Very satisfied with the product.

happy with my purchase
The book arrived in mint condition but the shipment took a little while.Overall, I am happy with this purchase.

XTML/felke-morris
The book (Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML) arrived within 2 days-fast!!.... I was notified when it was available for pickup... arrived in Excellent condition, Amazon rocks! No worries...

Pick right seller
Well I haven't received it yet but I'm sure it is a fine book. Here is my advice. Don't use textbooksnow as your seller.I was picking my shipping options looking at price and delivery time.I saw that the cheapest option way 4-14 days. I though, ok.Well I wanted to see how much longer it will take to get here.It's estimated I'll get it September 21 almost a month after I ordered it, ordered the 28th. A month, to ship something. It's unheard of.It even took them two days to get it out of their shop.Because it's not here yet I can't leave feedback so I'm doing it here.I'm going to go almost a month into the semester without the book. So my suggestion is to get it at the bookstore or be sure to avoid textbooksnow. ... Read more

Product Description
Your Web site is a way to communicate who you are to the world-your style, your interests, your voice. "Web Design for Teens" gives you the skills you need to create your first Web site. You don't need any coding experience to begin. You'll cover everything from how to write the code to how to create a cool design. Begin by learning HTML as you move from the basics to advanced coding topics. Then it's on to design as you conquer the fine points of color and navigation systems. Wrap things up as you learn how to put your Web site online, advertise it, and attract visitors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Perfect....
I learned 2 semester classes from this book in a week and I recommend every book Maneesh comes out with.

Thanks Man!

This fills in the missing pieces
Forget teens: this is an outstanding source for anyone and everyone. These days, knowing the essentials of web design is necessary for nearly everyone on the professional job market. Get this book and get to work, and you will be much more valuable to the world.

Great HTML book!
I've always been interested in web design and this is the book that explained it step by step!With Web Design for Teens you'll learn how to create your own website within days!And, not only that but it teaches you how to create your own pictures for your website and shows you how to do neat things to them!If you're interseted in learning HTML, this book is for you!

very helpful
I already had a lot of background on Web Design before I read this, but it is definitely a great reference! I did learn some new things, too.I think it's a great reference for people who already know HTML and a great way to start learning about web design!

Best Book Ever
This book greatly added to my knowledge of web designing and was very fun and easy to use. His other great book, Game Programming for Teens was also very rich in content concerning all kinds of helpful hints and ideas. With Web Design for Teens, even pre-teens like me can build our own websites. [...] ... Read more

Product Description
<>Praise for the second edition of The Design of Sites

Customer Reviews (31)

Front to back w/o interruption
I don't remember the last time I dedicated the time to read a book, fiction or non, from front to back without virtually putting it down let alone writing a review for ANYTHING! This book delivers everything everything promised and more. If you have any interest in WEB design at all, this book is indispensable.

No problems
My order was delivered on time and in great shape! Would order form this seller again.

The desing of sites
Not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be. Only buy it if really cheap like $1.99.

Book in perfect condition
Thank you for prompt shipping. Book was in like new condition, as promised. Would definitely buy from this seller again!

Very good condition very good deal
I got this book not too fast not too late.
Condition is very good.
Packaging is very good.
This is very good deal. ... Read more

Product Description
Forms make or break the most crucial online interactions: checkout, registration, and any task requiring information entry. In Web Form Design, Luke Wroblewski draws on original research, his considerable experience at Yahoo! and eBay, and the perspectives of many of the field's leading designers to show you everything you need to know about designing effective and engaging web forms. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (30)

A must have reference book
Written in a close language, this book is a perfect reference when designing a web form. Full of examples of todo's and not todo's and a large list of best practices recomendations.

good but limited
Forms are pretty important parts of websites. It's where users give us their contact info, enroll in our services, and hand over their money. Yet most of them are horrible.

The author gives a pretty robust tour of the world of forms.I particularly liked his more high-level musings - in particular, that forms are designed from the inside out (i.e., by the company to fill databases) but completed by real users, with their own goals and feelings (mostly negative!).

There's also plenty of detail too.in fact, that's actually one thing I didn't like about the book.Wroblewski seems very intent on categorizing each and every type of form or form element - "exposed within selection-dependent inputs" is just one example.It's very easy to get lost in the trees here.

Another thing I didn't like was his argument style.His real bias seems to be toward the "elegant" or "logical" solution (maybe this comes from his graphic designer background).Though he talks a lot about usability tests, eye-tracking studies, etc., he seems to pick and choose a little from among them.

One thing he seems genuinely oblivious to is recognizing simple web standards.In other words, some of his solutions seem "logical" or "neat," but fly in the face of what's already out there, the things that the average user is familiar with and expects.

I preferred Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability (Interactive Technologies) to this one.

Now I understand
I was fully aware that a simple form can be a great barrier to website users. This book has given me great insights in how and why barriers should be removed, and forms improved. Convesion is my topic - this book is a great help...!

Great book to provoke your thinking
I heartily recommend Luke Wroblewski's Web Form Design for people: especially for those who create web forms but don't have a strong background in usability and for those who hire others to create forms. The book is structured in three parts: form structure, form elements, and form interaction, and includes a plethora of real-world examples. Whether you're a novice or expert, walking through Wroblewski's overview of forms-related issues will provoke your thinking about forms design choices and their impact.

While I spend a great deal of time designing forms of various complexity, and I have a background in human-computer interaction, reading through Wroblewski's structure of the related issues helped organize my thinking.

I enjoyed the 'perspectives' offered by a variety of experts in the field, broadening the scope of the book.
All of the images from the book are available at [...]/ if you'd like more of a sense of what's inside. [...]

Perform better
Another must-read for anyone building website and willing to get better goals conversion and customers satisfaction! ... Read more

Product Description
Laying the foundation for a solid understanding of Web design, this book weaves together industry best practices and standards-based design techniques. It is built on practical examples and short exercises crafted to help readers learn quickly and retain information. Starting with the basics this book teaches:

• Internet fundamentals
• Planning, content strategy, and information architecture
• HTML and CSS
• Accessibility

Customer Reviews (4)

479 pages of Pure Learning Pleasure
Interact With Web Standards - A Holistic Approach to Web Design

This recent discovery is authored by a group ofweb designers and usability architects in the industry from the US and Western Europe. The book is divided into three sections and starts off with a solid background into web design and its fundamentals. Part Two dives into planning and strategy, while Part Three gets down to the nitty gritty: implementation.

Readers will benefit from the overall perspective of the entire web process and what it takes to get content sourced and brought online. The book's sections on CSS and and coding will get a beginner programmer/web designer up to speed with laying out a site. This book will also aid companies in hiring a web team. Anyone with an interest in learning what goes on behind the scenes will benefit from this read. In addition, many useful web links are provided in the right spots to augment the reading experience while not getting too technical in any given area.

This is one guide that can also serve as a handy reference when talking through a project with clients. They too will benefit by reading the content strategy area, in order to learn how to best approach building a site for the first time - a daunting process for the uninitiated.

Well Worth a Read
I'm an individual who has a fairly decent sized personal library of web design and development books and I consider myself to have intermediate level skills in the area of web design.With these two things said, I give the highest level of praise to this book.

I don't have a personal connection to any of the authors of this publication but I feel fortunate to have met the book's Project Manager, Aarron Walter, at a 2010 web design conference.Afterour brief meeting, hearing his presentation at the conference, and now reading this work, I can tell you that this is a person who deeply cares about the education of future web professionals.And that caring shines through in the book.The multiple individuals who contributed chapters to this publication also show concern for web education as they guide readers through web design's best practices and standards with an easy and light-hearted style.I did not have any trouble adjusting to each individual author's approach to the various chapter topics.And I think it's also important to mention that this group of authors is donating 25% of their proceeds to the W3C's Open Web Education Alliance, a group formed to promote standards and best practice based education for web professionals.

More specifically, one of the really great things about this publication is that it includes "Try it yourself" sections, that offer exercises to practice the techniques you learn about in the book.There is also a companion website that provides code downloads for the HTML and CSS chapters.I found the Accessibility chapters particularly helpful.The final chapter provides a very good overview of all the topics presented in the book by guiding readers through the process of planning and building an entire website.

Other aspects of the book I found useful include the introduction to Internet fundamentals provided, coverage of the preparation and planning that goes into the development of websites (e.g., information architecture, content strategy), the various help areas highlighting tips and resources for more information, and the inclusion of HTML5 and CSS3 concepts in the appropriate chapters.

Overall, this is an easy-to-follow and well organized book.If you are looking for comprehensive coverage of standards-based design and development, this is the publication for you.

Great way to learn web standards
Full disclosure: I'm acquainted with one of the collaborators of the book but I've done my best to remove my bias from the review.

Right from the beginning, this book stands out just based on it's physical design. The book is just very well laid out. It's full color (which makes a lot of code snippets a lot easier to read) and each chapter contains plenty of graphics to help illustrate many of the concepts.

It's divided into three main sections, covering relevant background material, information architecture basics, and the nuts and bolts of html and css concepts. The book also has the "interact" aspect with plenty of exercises that you can work with to follow along as you learn as well as a final project that ties everything together.

Two places which really stood out to me were the inclusion of a full section on information architecture and the chapters devoted completely to accessibility. The IA section of the book really gives you a great high level view of planning a website and how various people (content creators, designers, developers, etc) come together to plan out a web development project. For the accessibility chapters, they really clarify what accessibility is (and why it matters) and points out resources that you can use to implement accessibility testing and how you can adhere to accessibility standards.

I have to admit, I went into the book at sort of the intermediate-level (not a beginner) but the parts devoted to teaching code (html and css) were very clear and definitely augmented by the code samples from the companion website. Additionally, the final project really helped me bring all of the concepts that I'd learned (both from this book and from previous studies) together in a holistic way.

Finally, if you're visual oriented, you may find that the color and the design of the book really help turn it into a good reference. The edge of the book is colored (sort of like a dictionary) so you can spot where the chapters are. Then, the headings are clear and semantic enough that you can often find the topic you're looking for.

I was going to gripe about having to type out all of the URLs in the book...but I suppose I didn't read the intro well enough. Eventually I found them on the companion website (But only *after* doing all the work, sheesh).

High Quality Book; content, writing, layout and actual book.
I teach a course on Web Application Development at the graduate school level. As a result I end up buying a dozen or more books in this topic area per semester.This book has moved to the top of my recommended list for experienced and new learners.The book does a great job of breaking down the real aspects of developing websites into meaningful topics, arranged them in a great manner and had real experts on those topics cover them.Let me emphasize the "REAL" aspects, there are a ton of other books that cover, say, PHP object oriented abstractions and other technical aspects of developing websites.This book does the best job of recognizing the reality, the human aspects, of the process and ongoing nature of developing a website.This is done with a high level of professionalism while keeping it real and engaging.

Students starting in on the topic will benefit from a great roadmap of best practices."Seasoned" developers will benefit from the thoughtful review of best practices to add [back] to your business. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Lives Up To The Title. Worth Reading. Great Reference.
I recently finished reading Web Design For Developers: A Programmer's Guide to Design Tools and Techniques and while I would like to have seen a few more specific details in a few places, the book overall does a great job of breaking down the mystic art of web design in a manner that allows almost any left-brained analytical developer to grasp the concepts and produce work of sufficient quality. If you are a software developer that is interested in web design, this is the book for you. It is full of great parallels between the two worlds and will help you understand how to create a design that works, while conforming to standards and be accessible to all types of browsers and devices.

The book starts out by describing a fairly common set of scenarios where a customer is involved in some discussion about what their current website looks like and does, vs what they want it to do. It's an accurate portrayal of what really goes on in these types of meetings, leaving the reader with a sense of "ugh. not another nebulous, undefined set of `requirements'."

After that brief introduction into the world of dealing with customers, the book jumps into the basics of design and talks about some of the key elements of laying out a site, including the need to do pencil sketches as wire frames. One mild issue that I have with this section of the book is that the author uses a lot of standard notations for various elements in the sketches but fails to define those notations or provide any links to information on what those notations are. While most of it is rather obvious, I was able to understand the intent of some of the sketches only because I have experience with wire framing tools that use the same notations.

There is a large section devoted to dealing with color, choosing color schemes and understanding the basics of how color blind people will see your site. This was one of my favorite sections of the book - both toward the front and later on when discussing accessibility. The author does a great job of explaining how to select color schemes and themes, even with a complete absence of creativity and eye for design. He points to some great tools on the web and other resources that will help almost anyone pick a set of colors that work well together. He also talks about the difference between light that reflects off surfaces like in the real world, vs. light that is projected from a monitor. This is a subject that I have wondered about for more than 15 years - why is a monitor RGB and real world light RYB? - and I have never found such a clear and concise description of the difference.

The next few sections of the book dive into creating graphics for the site, including the use of typography in those graphics. In these sections, the author introduces the notion of using a grid to layout your designs in the graphics editors and also in the actual website. In my 15+ years of working on the web, I have never heard of this before and I have to say that it was an eye opening experience to see how effective this technique is. You can take a site from "blech" with difficulty getting things lined up and spaced out correctly, to "wow" pretty quickly if you stick with the grid system that he outlines.

Most of the book is then devoted to constructing the homepage of the site... that's right - one page and one page only. The in-depth analysis of every step in the process is quite amazing, though. I never once felt like the author was repeating any information or providing dull, dreary content that could have been better summarized (though I will admit that I skimmed over most of the html content. Since I was not actively building a website while reading this, I wanted to catch the high points of what he was saying without getting mired down in the angle bracket and attribute mechanics).

Toward the end of the book, the author does spend what I felt like was an in inordinate amount of time discussing accessibility for disabled persons. He does do a good job of explaining why, though - he is a somewhat disabled person and uses assistive technologies to access websites on a daily basis. Having done accessibility work on the web in recent years, I can assure you that every point he makes is correct. If you need to create a site that conforms to "section 509" for example, this part of the book is a great place to start. Beyond the in-depth look at accessibility for disabled persons, though, the author does a great job of explaining how accessibility is more than just that. He discusses making website accessible by anyone, anywhere, on any device - not just a PC with a full web browser, but a mobile phone and other devices that provide limited web capabilities.

Pro's For The Book:

Approaches web development as developer not as a designer and makes the web feel comfortable for a back end software developer. In depth look at HTML and other web standards for getting a site done, not just for the sake of talking about web standards. Great discussion on CSS and how to effectively use it. Excellent information on color theory, graphics layout, and other seemingly "mystical" design areas. Provides a ton of information on great tools and how to use them to make your job easier.

Con's For The Book:

Covers HTML 4, with only a few minor notes about HTML 5. Uses Photoshop and Illustrator throughout the book - very expensive tools - though he does offer alternate suggestions but says that you'll have to figure them out yourself. Lacks a few resources for things like standard wireframe notation ("what does that big X in the middle of the sketch mean, anyways?!" ... well, it's an image place holder... but he never explained that).


Final Score:

In the end, I felt that this book was a great read and provided a lot of valuable information. Even with my extensive background in web design and development, I found multiple gems of knowledge that will have a direct impact on how I approach web design. I give the book a 4 out of 5. There were a few things I would have liked to see, but the book is an all around great resource for developers doing web design.


On a technical note: if you buy the e-book version, make sure you get a color copy as a PDF or another format. You will lose out on all of the benefit of the images and differences that the author illustrates if you don't have a color copy. For me, I read the book on my kindle which is black & white. This made it hard for me to see what he was talking about - especially in the color theory section. However, I do have a print copy of the book as well, which made up for this.

A must have for every web developer
Many web or rich internet application developers suffer from working with graphics, graphic design and designers who usually do not understand how their projects are implemented and integrated with code. On the other hand many developers know nothing or almost nothing about design stuff which make them feeling uncomfortable when working with graphics provided by graphic artists. If you are such a developer you should read Web Design for Developers by Brian P. Hogan. It is a programmer's guide to design tools and techniques. The book explains key quality web design concepts clearly and effectively. This book helps to close the gap between designers and developers by teaching the latter basics of web design.

The book covers many "interesting design topics" including working with colors, fonts and typography, designing mock-ups, building standards aware web pages utilizing HTML and CSS. There are also topics on working with different web browsers, accessibility and usability or search engine optimization. I like the way the book is organised and narrated. It is based on a scenario of building (or improving) a web site for a fictitious company called Foodbox. Throughout the book there are many usuful tips which can help save time later and deal with complicated things in simple ways.

Everything can be improved and this is especially true in design. This book helped me to understand better what makes the difference between bad and good design and how to accomplish the latter. It is easier to work with design issues knowing things I have found in this book. I think it is a must have for every coder dealing with design and usability of user interfaces. I agree with the author saying in the first sentence of the book: "If you've ever written and application and wished it looked a little better, then this book is for you". I am a web/RIA developer. Yes, this book is for me and maybe for you, too.

How to redesign a web site from the ground up
Web Design for Developers: A Programmer's Guide to Design Tools and Techniques offers programmers and website developer collections a fine survey of how to make web applications better without a professional designer on staff. From choosing the right colors and fonts and avoiding costly accessibility mistakes to spicing an application, this packs in common Photoshop tricks, CSS techniques, and how to redesign a web site from the ground up.

Key word Design
This book did help me in the design aspect of web presentation. The books first half is for a Windows oriented environment. The emphasis is on Photshop and Adobe Illustrator with specific instructions on the use of those tools. It would be useless for a Linux user. Luckily for me I know how to use Gimp and Inkscape, it would have been nice to have those added and not just mentioned.

The second half of the book is design of the layout using HTML and CSS. This approach is ok for a very basic web page. The reason I bought the book was for a comprehensive guide using all the programmer's tools. There is no mention of connecting to a database using php and the design of the output. Javascript is completely ignored even though it does come in handy for timed redirects and embedding music and other behind the scenes functions.

I am not unhappy with the book, just hoped it would have been more Linux friendly. I still need a book that explains database output and how to make it look professional.

Brilliant - it does what it says in the title
I've been a programmer / developer all my working life and I've never really understood all that web design stuff. At last I've found a book that explains it in a clear way you can understand without being treated like a rocket scientist or the village idiot. I definately recommend this. It does what it says in the title. ... Read more

Product Description
At the start of every web design project, the ongoing struggles reappear. We want to design highly usable and self-evident applications, but we also want to devise innovative, compelling, and exciting interactions that make waves in the market. Projects are more sophisticated than ever, but we have fewer resources with which to complete them. Requirements are fuzzy at best, but we’re expected to have everything done yesterday.

What we need is a reuse strategy, coupled with a pathway to innovation. Patterns are part of the game. Components take us further. In Web Anatomy: Interaction Design Frameworks That Work, user experience experts Hoekman and Spool introduce “interaction design frameworks”, the third and final piece of what they call “The Reuse Trinity”, and resolve these issues once and for all. Frameworks are sets of design patterns and other elements that comprise entire systems, and in this game-changing book, Hoekman and Spool show you how to identify, document, share, use, and reap the benefits of frameworks. They also dive deep into several major frameworks to reveal how the psychology behind these standards leads not only to effective designs, but can also serve as the basis for cutting-edge innovations and superior user experiences.

Web Anatomy delivers:

• A complete guide to using interaction design frameworks

• An examination of the psychology behind major frameworks

• A thorough look at how frameworks will change the way you work for the better

Customer Reviews (5)

Great Introduction to Interaction Design Patterns
It seems that design patterns are all the rage these days, and for good reason. Breaking larger problems into smaller ones and then applying tried and true solutions to those problems has been a mainstay of serious software development for many years. Web Anatomy brings this thinking to Interaction Design and User Experience, and wraps up a collection of design patterns and components into larger experience 'frameworks' that can be applied to a slew of different kinds of sites. I found the text to be engaging and well thought out, and appreciated that the authors' UX theories were backed by actual user testing and related research. You'll walk away from this book with a much deeper appreciation of the psychology behind common design patterns and will begin to seek to understand the user's context before your next project. It is for these reasons alone that I can emphatically recommend this book.

Nice to See Web Interaction Design is growing up...
In 1995, at Bell Labs, I began work with an international team of software engineers on aproject just like this - frameworks and reuse. Members of our team (including myself) quickly moved on to develop complex software projects built upon these frameworks - using modular components and patterns. Nice to see Web Interaction Design is FINALLY adopting engineering frameworks - still curious why the UML methodology is not generally applied yet. As an information architect and web designer, I rely on UML methodology quite often.Building Web Applications with UML (2nd Edition)

The best book on how to make websites that work for visitors so far
This is the best website Design Pattern book I have read so far. The book is a spare, heavily illustrated 200 pages long--not the usual bulked tome 3-4 times longer. In that space, Hoekman and Spool introduce us to Frameworks, which take advantage of Design Patterns, which will be realized with Components local to the organization and along the way they blow apart dozens of cherished misconceptions, replaced by tested, researched ideas--"this is what we've found, and this is what we actually know." They then provide some excellent Framework examples and discussion to demonstrate, including two of the messiest, most often down horribly frameworks of all: "sign up" and "search."

For the latter, the text illuminates as so far no other article or book on the subject has done, how search and browse intertwine, and without saying so explicitly, focus attention on the concept of "findability," or closer to the author's terms, "how people best find and follow a scent of information." Backing all of this up is a decade of research at UIE, so that when findings seem contrary to what one might expect, or might have heard elsewhere, they can report, "this isn't what we thought we'd find when we first did user testing...."

Some books can be read comfortably in an easy chair. Some can be read in an easy chair if you have good bookmark slips or don't mind bending pages and writing in the margins. This is one where I needed my computer nearby so that I could supplement my notes with the occasional email to staff suggesting that we rethink this or that and by the way, what did they think of making this change to that template?

Among the notes I made while reading were the addition of this book to my own course on Content Management and several class notes edits to take advantage of it.

A must read for IA, Designers and Thinkers
I have been reading Robert's books for the past few years and this latest is another great insight into the world of Interaction Design. On this particular read, Robert collaborated with one of my favorite guys, Jared Spool (if you don't know who he is, you really should know) on using interaction design frameworks.
Although, I would not consider myself a IA designer, this book illustrates great examples of successful and not so successful design strategies, pit falls within IA and much much more.
It is an interesting read and hopefully you are following them both (Hoekman and Spool) on Twitter.

Great addition to some of the other great UX/IxD books to come out this year
This book is fantastic in the context of a couple other books in my user experience library. If you've read Kim Goodwin's Designing for the Digital Age and/or Modular Web Design by the folks at Eight Shapes this is a fantastic supplementary book. You will get a ton of value out of this book if you download the design templates at [...] and use them as a starting point for your own component library.

I would recommend this book to anyone under the User Experience canopy. This book if full of excellent tips to save you time as well as tested user centered design patterns for pain-free design decision making.

... Read more

Product Description
  Using Hands-On Practice exercises and Web Site Case Studies to motivate readers, Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML, 4e, includes all the necessary lessons to guide students in developing highly effective Web sites. Key topics include: The Internet and the World Wide Web; XHTML Basics; Configuring Color & Text with CSS; Visual Elements & Graphics; Web Design; Page Layout with CSS; More on Links, Lists & Layout; Tables; Forms; Web Site Development; Web Multimedia & Interactivity; E-Commerce Overview; Promotion for Web Developers; A Brief Look at JavaScript. In the Fourth Edition, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are introduced earlier in the text. Both XHTML and CSS topics receive increased prominence, and are integrated throughout the text. Ethics and accessibility issues receive increased coverage, and a new Design Activities supplement offers hands-on design projects to supplement those presented in the text. For all readers interested in Web design. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML 4th Edition
This is a very good book for beginners. From being a beginner myself I learned a lot from many of the hands-on practices throughout the book.

great book
i see that is a great book, there way of practicing are great, they give you an exercise then they help you to do it step by step.the end of the chapter they give you a project to do it your self.it will be very easy for you when you do the exercises before.
i have a class right now that use this book and the teacher is really good , me and my friends seethat the book is better than the teacher.
he do explane well, but we all agree that we understand better from the book.

Happy with book purchase
I purchased this book for school, but it was also very helpful for personal and work use. Especially if you want to learn to put together a website on your own. The details and exercises made it easy to understand.

It's cool
I like the book. It goes into a lot of detail on how yo write XHTML. It starts you off from the beginning any really describes everything to you down to them meaning of every text.

The book however is cluttered with words. I didn't expect to see it full of pictures or anything, after all it's an XHTML book. But even math text book writers are finding more and more ways to make reading the text book interesting and easier to read.

The writer does however engage the reader with most of the stuff you will learn, so that's a big plus.

But, lump after lump of long winded paragraphs are a good way to make readers get really tired, really fast.

Great book
This book came to me just as described. Very fast shipping. Excellent for a beginner in web development. ... Read more

Product Description
Designing a brochure or web site without an art background? Step away from the computer and read this breezy introduction to visual communications first. Written for non-designers, White Space is Not Your Enemy is a practical graphic design and layout text introducing the concepts and practices necessary for producing effective visual communications across a variety of formats, from print to Web.

This beautifully illustrated, full-color book covers the basics to help you develop your eye and produce attractive work. Topics include:
* The basics of effective design that communicates its intended message
* Pre-design planning
* 13 Layout Sins to avoid
* Basic typography
* Working with color
* Storyboarding for video, Web, and presentions
* Information graphics
* Mini Art School--all the basics in one chapter
* Outputting your work

* Finally--the basics of layout, design, and visual communication for print and web in one easy-to-digest book!
* "Try This" sections in each chapter include fun, hands-on activities to develop skills.
* The companion web site includes text and photo support material; video clips that put the principles in practice; interactive multimedia components; and links.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Terrific overview of basic design
This book has a lot of clearly articulated suggestions for how to execute good design. As this is something that many of us struggle with, a good book on this topic is definitely needed, especially with so many projects emphasizing the look more than the content. There are lots of examples of just what constitutes good design and suggestions for how to improve. I wish this book had come out years ago!

visual communication 101
As a non-designer often tasked with creating graphic materials for people I work with, there are two issues I find most difficult. One is convincing people that they don't need to fill every bit of a page with "something." The other is defending my design decisions with more than just "because it looks right." "White Space is Not Your Enemy" definitely helps me with both of those problems with its thorough coverage of design concepts written in clear language and supported by excellent examples and exercises. I definitely recommend this book for anyone put in the position of creating visual materials and unsure of how to get a result they won't be embarassed by.

The design book for non-designers
What a great book this is. The way a design book should be done: not just a bunch of endless text but lots and lots of pics of what to do vs what is wrong with this picture kind of samples.This was the ideal book to get your feet wet in the design world. Highly recommended.

Great for the non-designer
This is a very well written, well organized, very engaging book.I'm typically a skimmer.This book immediately drew me in and I spent several weeks reading it cover to cover.The reason it took me several weeks was that I would read a bit.Then I would spend time exploring the concepts presented.I found as I read this book I looked more critically at visual images I encountered.

I am planning on applying the principles I learned in this book to a variety of media I work with as a hobbyist.I strongly feel it will help me redesign my web page as well as improve my cropping and overall composition when taking photographs.

I strongly recommend this book for anyone who is looking to find insight into how to better visually present information regardless of format.

A decent text for true beginners
"White Space is Not Your Enemy" does a good job of covering the very basics of graphic design. It could be a good textbook for a Graphic Design 101 class, or a serviceable primer for a small business owner with no design background who wants to create his or her own promotional materials. It doesn't achieve enough depth to be useful to someone with even a basic foundation in graphic design.

I do some in-house design for the small school where I work, as well as a bit of web design. I'm certainly not a designer -- I do the design work because when you have five employees and a small budget, someone's gotta do it. I've picked up design basics over the years, mostly through paying attention to what I like, and also from talking to others in similar situations. I have no formal design background at all. This book reinforced what I already know, and "concretized" some things for me, but didn't really teach me anything new.

This is also very heavy toward print design, despite the sub-title emphasizing non-print media. Yes, much of what's applicable to print is also applicable to the web, and they do a good (if somewhat boring) job of explaining CMYK color vs RGB color, as well as resolution needs, and outlining the things any designer needs to be aware of, but I was expecting something with a little more emphasis on electronic and new media.

All in all, this would be a perfectly fine book to get you started if you just need to quickly pick up the basics of design. My only real complaint about it is that, somewhat ironically, the text is a little too small for comfortable reading (I don't wear, or need, glasses). My dad would probably be so frustrated with the text size, especially against the coated paper, that he'd give up on it.

If you're looking to dive a little deeper, as I was, or if you're looking for inspiration, look elsewhere. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Complete Overview of Universal Design for Accessibility
Universal Design for Web Applications: Web Applications That Reach Everyone covers all of the latest techniques and related standards for designing universally accessible websites. The text gives a very broad and complete overview with references for taking a deeper dive into any particular area.Up-to-date coverage mentions AJAX, RIA(rich internet applications), SilverLight, Flex, and JavaFX but very superficially since the goal of this book is to inform and guide you in creating highly accessible web content. Code snippets displaying XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript help demonstrate the discussed techniques.Topics include: proper use of CSS, semantic HTML, and Javascript; alternate text for images, links, and labels; captioning for audio and video; functional descriptions for images used as buttons; and how to structure menus to allow for proper tabbing and hot-keys.Additional items include coverage of screen readers, screen magnifiers, and comparison to using mobile devices such as phones which produce a very challenging environment for accessible designs. Also included is a list of tools for inspecting, reporting, and evaluating your designs for accessibility.Irecommend Universal Design if you're looking for a complete guide to creating very accessible web designs. Keep in mind that in order to take full advantage of the this book you will also need good references for whatever tools/languages you are using to design/create your website such as CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, Flex, etc.

Great summary of design topics
Universal Design for Web Applications flows between the history of design principles and problems, current best practices and a look at what's on the horizon for design implementation.
The subjects of web accessibility standards and organizations, with which the book opens, are always the driest for me. I think this has more to do with the daunting tasks these organizations undertake than anything. But, Chisholm and May handled these topics swiftly and summarized the disabilities, guidelines and organizations in a short and tidy chapter.
One of this book's primary strengths is the clean examples used throughout for topics like document-level metadata, web forms, and the ever-problematic menubars. Anyone tired of searching through forums for bits of scripts, HTML or CSS examples will appreciate these easily adaptable examples.
The hot topics of video, Ajax and WAI_ARIA, and RIA implementation are all handled without demonizing any technology. Especially helpful are the discussions of designing for mobile devices and keyboard support for users not using a mouse.
Overall this book is designed not to be an exhaustive resource for any one design topic, but a useful survey of many of these topics, which comes in handy when you get bogged down in the details.
... Read more

Product Description
Ever notice that-in spite of their pervasiveness-designing web applications is still challenging? While their benefits motivate their creation, there are no well-established guidelines for design. This often results in inconsistent behaviors and appearances, even among web applications created by the same company.

Design patterns for web applications, similar in concept to those for web sites and software design, offer an effective solution. In Web Application Design Patterns, Pawan Vora documents design patterns for web applications by not only identifying design solutions for user interaction problems, but also by examining the rationale for their effectiveness, and by presenting how they should be applied.

. Design interfaces faster, with a better rationale for the solutions you choose.
. Learn from over more than 100 patterns, with extensive annotation on use and extension.
. Take a short-cut into understanding the industry with more than 500 full-color screenshots and a web site for help, discussion, and a collection of additional patterns. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Clear but long winded
This book will be useful for internet applications such as online retail storebut not very useful for intranet applications.
Most of the information is pretty common sense.

Not what I expected
This book is well organized.It contains useful information from a user advocate and graphic artist perspective (much of it is just common sense).It is not at all what I expected.I am disappointed; I was misled by the title.

As an application developer - when I think of design patterns, I think of relationships and interactions between classes and objects in the code (i.e. Factory Pattern, Decorator Pattern, Observer Pattern, etc).The 'Security' and 'User Authentication' topics in this book are all about how it looks on the page.This book is about UI design.The title does not fit with the content - in my opinion.

If a web application were a car - this book would be all about paint jobs.There is nothing 'under the hood'.It has nice pictures but has little to offer in terms of content for a serious application developer.

A Treasure Trove of Tips for Web Professionals
User experience experts, information architects, and the like will want
to have a copy of "Web Application Design Patterns" as an important
addition to their knowledge base. Web developers and companies feeling
they can "handle it themselves in-house" will find this book an
absolutely critical must-have. It is obvious that years of experience
and research have gone into the production of this valuable reference.

Written at a college / professional level, Vora's style remains,
however, as user-friendly as his design solutions. Presented in a
straightforward PROBLEM --> SOLUTION --> WHY --> HOWformat, this 429
page volume skips the editorializing and pontificating; instead, it provides
concrete examples and explanations of underlying concepts. This
book is a veritable encyclopedia of solutions to today's software
interface design issues.

Colorful screen shots grace almost every page, helping the reader
quickly understand problems and resolutions with real-world examples.
Along with the expected discussions of everyday mechanisms such as
forms, user authentication, and navigation schemes, "Web Application
Design Patterns" forges on with detailed examinations of rapidly
evolving areas such as Rich Internet Applications (RIA), social
networking sites and more.

Tour de force!
Vora has done an awesome job in detailing the whats, whys, and hows of developing software products.The discipline that patterns create in development and the power for creating outstanding user experiences makes this book an invaluable resource. Vora shows how, by imbuing good user interface design principles into application design patterns, can reduce time to delivery and returns investment in a short period of time.

The examples are tremendous and allow for easy abstraction to common problems. I highly recommend this book.

Resource for practitioners
Overall, this book is a tremendous resource for those who design for a living or find themselves responsible for a product or service and would like to understand how good design patterns used by others can make their product and service better. I found it useful as a refresher resource to catch up on elements of design that have evolved over the years to solve questions that have plagued the field. It also sparked genuine design ideas for me to generalize to questions I am charged with solving through good design. In short, it is an excellent reference that is both intellectually engaging and visually appealing. I recommend for anyone who is in our field.

Gavin Lew
Managing Director
User Centric, Inc.
[...] ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (20)

Excellent Book
If you are an interface designer, this book is a must read.The patterns discussed are some things that every ixd should consider and think about in their practice.

very handy
Really handy and useful resource to have around. It's very specific, so i expect it to look dated in a few years, but right now it hits the nail on the head 9 times outta 10.

Fantastic, as long as you know what you are getting into
This book is an excellent introduction into the do's and don'ts of web application interfacing. Just to set the record straight, this is NOT a book on designing general websites. In most cases, it won't help you design a simple blog or a homepage for your company. This is because the book does not proclaim to be a "Web Design Bible". I think the title is somewhat misleading as some may argue that every visual component of a website (colors, layout, headings, font, etc.) is part of the collective 'interface'. While that may be true, this book focuses on web applications. Things like online shopping carts, email clients, and other interactive components of websites are spotlighted and paid generous attention to.

Now that I got that out of the way, I would like to go on to detailing why the book is so great. The book is broken into 6 Principles:

Make It Direct
Keep it Lightweight
Stay on the Page
Provide an Invitation
Use Transitions
React Immediately

Every Principle is broken down into sub-principles, each of which lists various patterns. The patterns help you accomplish the goal of the Principle. For each pattern, plenty of examples are given that demonstrate how to and how not to use the pattern. Real world examples are spotlighted including some from sites like Yahoo, Google, Amazon, Netflix, and friends.

While reading through the book, I found several tips in each chapter that I could immediately apply to my own websites and projects. The In-Page Editing and Overlay sections were especially useful. I'm in the process of reading the last two chapters and can already see myself implementing some of the suggestions the authors are recommending.

The only complaint I have is that the Drag and Drop section was a little dry and repetitive, but, to the authors' credit, so is the nature of the subject.

I would recommend this book to anyone building or maintaining any type of web application or interactive website.

Very useful patterns
The full color screen-shots and in-depth analysis make this a fine book.The best parts are the side-bars that summarize the key takeaway points of each section.I also like the pattern-language - "overlay" - it could mean a few different things depending on who you ask, but in this context it is described as a specific concept and differentiated from "inlay" for example. I like that this book actually gets quite technical, yet does not include any real source code or steer you towards any particular technology/framework/language.We need more books like this - teach us about the "why" but leave the "how" up to us.

Good reference book
If you are a web designer or developer with expert coding experience, then this book can be a handy reference. This book is full of current pattern options where the authors, Bill Scott and Theresa Neil thoroughly go through each example into easy to read detail that include plenty of graphics. They go into great detail comparing which patterns work well and why other options do not.

If you are someone starting out with web design, this book can still be an asset to your library. It doesn't tell you how to code but it does give insight on how sites are built and why they are built in a certain fashion.

As a graphic designer coming from the print world and a novice to the web side of design, I picked up some good insight from this book. It helps when planning a site and discussing options when working with a programmer. ... Read more

Product Description
The perfect place to learn how to design Web sites for mobile devices!

With the popularity of Internet access via cell phones and other mobile devices, Web designers now have to consider as many as eight operating systems, several browsers, and a slew of new devices as they plan a new site, a new interface, or a new sub-site. This easy-to-follow friendly book guides you through this brave new world with a clear look at the fundamentals and offers practical techniques and tricks you may not have considered.

• Explores all issues to consider in planning a mobile site
• Covers the tools needed for mobile design, in particular XHTML and CSS
• Shows you how to plan for multimedia, e-commerce, and marketing your site, including adding audio, video, and social networking
• Provides real-world examples and tips to help you avoid common pitfalls

If you're contemplating Web design in a mobile world, start first with this practical guide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Interesting and Helpful
The book is great!! The authors explain a potentially complicated subject in such a way that even a relative technology notice like myself understood it. This is the first "for dummies" book I've purchased, but I'm tempted to stock up now.

On a side note, I was also surprised and pleased to see that they prominently mentioned the mobile website of indie songwriter Tori Sparks. My husband and I have been a big fan of hers for years.

Great Introduction to Mobile Web Design
This is a great introduction to designing web pages for mobile phones because it covers the basic knowledge one needs to understand the design challenges posed by mobile phones.It does require a basic understanding of XHTML, CSS, and a little Javascript to work the examples in the book but the information is great and the examples are thorough and clear. ... Read more

Product Description
"Susan and Victor have written the 'Junior Woodchucks Guidebook' of Web applications: Everything you need to know is in there, including tons of best-practice examples, insights from years of experience, and assorted fascinating arcana. If you're writing a Web application, you'd be foolish not to have a copy."
--Steve Krug, author of Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

"Web sites are so nineties.The cutting edge of Web-design has moved to Web applications.If you are, like many Web designers, struggling to create dynamic, highly-functional Web-based applications, you need this book.It describes how Web applications differ from Web sites, and provides excellent guidance for common Web-application design problems, such as navigation, data input, search, reports, forms, and interactive graphic output."
--Jeff Johnson, Principal Usability Consultant, UI Wizards, Inc., and author of Web Bloopers and GUI Bloopers

"User interface designers have been debating among themselves for years about how to design effective Web applications. There were no comprehensive references that covered the myriad topics that emerged in these debates until Fowler and Stanwick took on the challenge and wrote Web Application Design Handbook, the first comprehensive guide to building Web applications. This book tackles design problems faced by every Web development team with uncommon wisdom, clear prose, and detailed examples. Key topics include: modifying the browser interface to meet application security and efficiency requirements, searching, sorting, filtering, building efficient and usable data input mechanisms, generating reports, preventing errors, and using creative visualization techniques to optimize the display of large sets of data. This thorough work should be a primary reference for everyone designing Web applications."
--Chauncey E. Wilson, Principal HCI Architect, WilDesign Consulting

"Every so often you run into a book and say to yourself: 'It's so obvious that this book should be read by every developer, so why wasn't it written years ago?'This is one of those books."
--Scott Ambler, author of The Object Primer: Agile Model Driven Development with UML 2

The standards for usability and interaction design for Web sites and software are well known. While not everyone uses those standards, or uses them correctly, there is a large body of knowledge, best practice, and proven results in those fields, and a good education system for teaching professionals "how to." For the newer field of Web application design, however, designers are forced to reuse the old rules on a new platform. This book provides a roadmap that will allow readers to put complete working applications on the Web, display the results of a process that is running elsewhere, and update a database on a remote server using an Internet rather than a network connection.

Web Application Design Handbook describes the essential widgets and development tools that will the lead to the right design solutions for your Web application. Written by designers who have made significant contributions to Web-based application design, it delivers a thorough treatment of the subject for many different kinds of applications, and provides quick reference for designers looking for some fast design solutions and opportunities to enhance the Web application experience. This book adds flavor to the standard Web design genre by juxtaposing Web design with programming for the Web and covers design solutions and concepts, such as intelligent generalization, to help software teams successfully switch from one interface to another.

* The first interaction design book that focuses exclusively on Web applications.
* Full-color figures throughout the book.
* Serves as a "cheat sheet" or "fake book" for designers: a handy reference for standards, rules of thumb, and tricks of the trade.
* Applicable to new Web-based applications and for porting existing desktop applications to Web browsers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Not for the experienced enterprise web techie
My viewpoint: I am a user experience specialist and UI designer with a development background. I bought this book in hopes that it would address some of the complicated data issues I run into on a daily basis.

The bad:
Despite saying how cheap it is to print in color now, most of the sample images were 1 or more pages away from where it was referenced. I could have gone without the color if it meant I got the referenced image under the text referencing it. (Don't make me think while I'm reading books either, please.)

Commerce sites were deemed web applications. In some cases, I would agree. But for the samples given, I would generally disagree.

A best practice would be described, then in the next best practice's sample image, that best practice would be broken. Most best practices mentioned in this book can easily be found at Nielsen or Spool's websites. There was very little new to learn here. Also, some best practices given in this book are directly opposed to those given by Nielsen or Spool, without any supporting documentation or testing results. I'd be more apt to give those consideration if they were supported.

Almost the entire second half of the book was spent on displaying data (graphs, maps and more) and very little spent on forms for capturing data. Data capture was only lightly touched and did not even begin to touch complicated data capture.

If you are beginner, DO NOT PAY ATTENTION to the data base design "tips" given in this book. It was obvious the authors have never heard of data views and you will screw your database design royally if you follow their advice. Do the homework you might need on real database design.

The good:
If you work with a small to medium-sized website and you are new to, this book could be helpful to you. It does cover most of what would be considered best practice usability guidelines and I did glean a new one or two new things from the book.

If you work with Dashboards, you might also find one or new twists in the book. But most of the data display will be beyond what anyone will need for a smaller data-related sites.

Excellent
It is very hard to find books that go beyond ABC. This is one of a few.

Complete waste of money for me
If you are looking something technological like I was or even theories, this isn't the book. And usually I think the pictures and examples are a good thing, but in this book it seemed that they were there to fill space. Can't recommend. But then again, it might be just because I misunderstood what the book was about and expected something more concrete.

Very Disappointed - Design or Development?
I bought this book because Krug's book (Don't Make Me Think) recommended it and because my main concern was web-based business applications not public web sites.

I was extremely disappointed by Web Application Design Handbook:
1) It doesn't say much more than what any Windows developer has known
for the past 10 years
2) It is full of discussions about software DEVELOPMENT but it is
supposed to be a DESIGN book
3) It is supposed to be a book about WEB design but half of it is
about reports, graphs, diagrams, and maps

The first half of the book concentrates on what was advertised: design/usability of web-based applications.But it doesn't offer many new ideas.Most of the recommendations are well-known to Windows developers.It doesn't give enough attention to what's different about web-based applications.

The amount of useful, thought-provoking information in this book that could help a Windows developer create better web-based applications is no more than 50 pages.Not very good for a book of 600 pages.

The book does not inspire confidence that the recommendations are based on real usability testing.There's a lot of conventional wisdom followed by a lot of suggestions to figure it out yourself with your own usability tests.

The book has a maddening tendency to slip into development issues.Why on earth are there JavaScript code examples in a design book???!!!Why are there discussions about the impact of client vs server-side code on network bandwidth?Not only are these discussions distracting, they are also full of half-truths, oversimplifications, obsolete information, and some outright mistakes.

Almost 2/3 of the book is about topics that are beyond the scope of web application design (ok they're at least straining the limits): reports, graphs, diagrams, maps.That material would be handled better in a separate book, dedicated to those topics.As it is, most of the book is irrelevant to my needs.

If you are concerned with usability/GUI design of web sites or web applications forget this book and get Krug's Don't Make Me Think instead.

Nice and Solid GUI Design Handbook
This book helped me a lot as in my day-to day work. I used it as powerful guide for the construction of the "nice and pleasant" presentation layer for our applications. Our customers were happy - and it is the best feedback somebody can give.

I would definitely recommend this book to the wide range of Software Designers, Developers and Managers. Profession GUI always makes a difference!
... Read more

Product Description
Liquid or fluid layouts change width based on the user's unique device viewing size. These types of layouts have always been possible with tables but offer new design challenges as well as opportunities when built with CSS. This book, for experienced Web designers with some CSS experience, outlines how to do this successfully.

Designers will learn the benefits of flexible layouts and when to choose a liquid, elastic, or hybrid design. They will learn not only how to build a liquid layout from scratch using standards-compliant and cross-browser compatible (X)HTML and CSS, but will also learn how to design and slice their graphic comps in a way that makes flexible design achievable. This book will show designers that flexible layouts do not have to be visually boring or difficult to build when planned and built correctly. Even those who do not intend to build liquid layouts can use the concepts and techniques taught in this book to improve their fixed-width CSS designs, because they will learn how to design for the inherent flexibility of the web medium, instead of the rigid qualities of print media or table grid-based layouts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Stunning!
I always look for the most explicit books that also raise the bar. Needeless to say I am pretty difficult to please. Well, Flexible Web Design is the type of book you find once every five years. There is not one chapter in this book where the reader isn't wowed! It's not a tutorial book, it's a book of revelations. How can someone master all those aspects, gathered it seems from articles and web papers on the topic? We've got to praise the author's synthetic mind. If you want to reach mastery in CSS you will find no equivalent or better book for sure. Once read and assimilated (a hands-on project is included), this book will place the reader above most CSS designers out there. A great advantage in this economy's job market.

Should Be Required Reading
After having read multiple articles from Smashing Magazine, A List Apart, and other blogs that have articles on both liquid and elastic layouts, I was really blown away with how much information was in this book. It definitely pays tribute to how much time Gillenwater must have invested in writing 'Flexible Web Design.' It's a truly excellent CSS book, and I'd recommend it to anyone who tries to use CSS Frameworks for laying out web pages instead of hand-coding. Out of all the CSS books I've read, this one was by far the most informative.

I'm a Rookie and My site scales from WideScreen to Tiny!!!
I bought this book while I was reading Teach Yourself HTML, so you can tell I have nearly no experience with web design.No matter, I followed the instructions and changed my sites from fixed sizes to scalable in a day.

This book is AWESOME!

I know that my site isn't going to win the WEB-E awards, but it has graphics, audio files, tables, photoshopped pictures and is something I was completely incapable of doing before I picked up this book.I had been thinking of taking college courses because I wanted to get into the web world and it seemed inaccessible. I majored in Cultural Anthropology, so I'm a bit behind the technology wave.

The sites I created were creationsbycrouch and huknowsphotography so far.

It isn't accessible any more. My sites are up and I've offered to make more sites for friends. I grow and learn daily and I'm having fun!

I also bought Teach Yourself PHP and MySQL.I haven't started down the PHP path yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

Books like this one are amazing, because they let completely unschooled people like me into the web.The drawback, as mentioned in one of the reviews, you need to know HTML code to apply the information from this book.It assumes you already know how to put width into your HTML and that all you need to know is how to make it fluid.

Excellent Text!
Great book. Hard to put it down.The explanations are very concise and enlightening for a sometimes confusing area of web design. Good pointers. Quick to get to the nitty gritty of elastic and liquid design. Just what I was looking for.

Thanks for the help.

Brilliant book and author!
This is a fantastic book (very well written too) for those wanting to know how to properly create layouts that really work and accommodate for your target users. If you are serious about your interface layout, then this book is very well suited and is a must read. The author clearly discusses the proper usage/application of the various layout techniques like fixed, liquid and elastic. It's great to also know that accessibility is not forgot and taken into consideration wherever relevant. A great author who knows how to teach, guide and develop clean and clear layouts. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description

Essential Skills--Made Easy!

Create professional-quality web sites in no time with help from hands-on tutorials. Fully updated to cover the latest technologies and techniques, Web Design: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition, explains how to analyze site requirements and create a web-development proposal to plan and document your project. You'll learn how to design an attractive, easy-to-use web site, focusing on key issues such as color, layout, navigation, typography, and images. Discover how to incorporate JavaScript, cascading style sheets (CSS), HTML/XHTML, Flash, and more to take your design from mockup to code. Boosting web site traffic through search engine optimization, e-mail design, and online advertising is also covered in this fast-paced guide.

Designed for Easy Learning

• Key Skills & Concepts--Chapter-opening lists of specific skills covered in the chapter
• Ask the Expert--Q&A sections filled with bonus information and helpful tips
• Notes--Extra information related to the topic being covered
• Tips--Helpful reminders or alternate ways of doing things
• Annotated Syntax--Example code with commentary that describes the programming techniques being illustrated

Ready-to-use code at www.mhprofessional.com/computingdownload

Wendy Willard is a designer, consultant, writer, and educator who has been involved in web design for more than 13 years. She is the author of HTML: A Beginner's Guide, Fourth Edition, and other books. ... Read more

Product Description

A step-by-step guide to creating your first Web site

Everybody's building cool web sites, but how? Web Sites Do-It-Yourself For Dummies, 2nd Edition, shows you how, with simple, step-by-step instruction that will build your confidence as you build your site.

You'll learn to plan your site and secure a domain name, how to use Dreamweaver for site construction, and how to test and publish your site. You'll also learn about designing a blog, creating a podcast, adding Flash, and even how to make money with your Web site. Dummies makes it easy and fun!

• Perfect for those who've never attempted a Web site before, including small-business owners, the family historian, amateur genealogists, and travel buffs
• Explains using Web site creation tools including Dreamweaver, Photoshop Elements, Flash, and WordPress
• Shows how Web pages work, how to plan and design your site, and what to look for in Web hosting services
• Covers editing and creating Web graphics and text, how to customize a site for different purposes, testing, and publishing your site
• Provides information on blogs, podcasts, adding Flash, and making money from your site

Web Sites Do-It-Yourself For Dummies, 2nd Edition shows you how to create a Web site you'll be proud of. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Great Great Great!!!
Everything was great ... great condition .... shipping on time.... Just Great would buy many more books from them!!!

Buy Dreamweaver and put this book back on the shelf - DUMMY!!!
I bought this book for $25 thinking that since the title of it was Do-It-Yourself Websites for Dummies, it would actually instruct me how to build a website. The included template were also a major factor in my selection of this book.
Shame on you Janine! the incleded templates require a $300 software program which I imagine includes these templates. This book is absolutely USELESS and I am returning it. It should be titled: "Buy Dreamweaver and put this book back on the shelf - DUMMY!"

Disappointed. Misleading. Nonfunctional.
This is really disappointing. I bought the book because of the "for Dummies" branding but the author does not give you what you need to "do it yourself." She even says a few times in the book that you "shouldn't be shy" about hiring professional help and building a "team" of helpers to create your site. She refers to her own website throughout, where you're supposed to be able to find templates to work with and practice with. I couldn't find any such thing. But I certainly could find plenty of self-promotion and prompts to buy CDs, books, etc. that perhaps fill in the many blanks of the book I bought. It actually seems like she didn't want to provide all of the information or to be clear, with the hopes that she could get more money from people who didn't get what they needed from the "for Dummies" book. It's definitely ruined my perception of the "for Dummies" series. I feel disillusioned about being able to create my own website, and I'm actually a pretty tech-savvy gal. Now I'm on the hunt for a better book.

BEWARE OF US MAIL SHIPPING

Okay this book was good for someone like me who is trying to update skills in website creation. The problem was the lame vendors on Ebay.
I picked one for the cheapest price and reliable rating but they sent the book four weeks later and sent it via US Postal, it was bent and corners of the book were curled and the special color pages were bent and ruined.This was supposed to be like new condition.

So maybe I need to do more research before I buy on Ebay.Transactions are very shaky.

Lives up to its title
When you have a question about how to build a website, Do-It-Yourself Websites, lives up to its name. Instead of feeling puzzled by technical terms, they are clearly explained.I found the illustations, including the full-color templates helpful and when I looked something up in the index, I found it. Though I have had websites for years, I find this book helpful enough to keep on my desk.
... Read more