Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design, Video Edition (includes Handcrafted CSS book and Handcrafted CSS: Bulletproof Essentials DVD) Review

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Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design, Video Edition (includes Handcrafted CSS book and Handcrafted CSS: Bulletproof Essentials DVD) ReviewAn excellent addition to Cederholm's previous titles, "Handcrafted CSS" offers more solutions for forward-thinking web craft. If you are new to Web Design or CSS this is not the place to start. It is intended for experienced presentation coders who have a solid foundation in web standards. This title is bundled with a companion DVD. Both the book and DVD are also sold separately.
About the DVD:
The video is about an hour long and provides a pleasant overview of the material covered in the book. Topics include workflow practices, graceful browser degradation (Bulletproofing) and notably; progressive enhancement using CSS3 properties. If you've attended one of the author's speaking engagements within the last few years the material may be familiar. Mr. Cederholm presents the concepts in a thoughtful and entertaining manner. There is not a lot of information contained in this DVD but the ideas are clear and the advice is sound. If you are looking for deep instruction I would not recommend the DVD as a stand alone purchase. It's a nice companion to the book.
The book explores the above topics in greater detail. Offering thoughtful techniques and methods for achieving common and interesting designs. Mr. Cerholm encourages coders - by example - to optimize presentation for best and worst case scenarios. He also emphasizes that designs don't have to look the same in every browser. Not only is this OK, but accepting this notion will open up creative possibilities for elegant, forward-thinking solutions. It's worth noting that the chapter contributed by Ethan Marcotte about fluid grids is thought-provoking and useful as well. Other topics include Font Embedding and an introduction to JQuery.
This is not an encyclopedic resource of CSS solutions. More a collection of ideas intended to encourage thoughtful problem solving for a fluid design medium. Like "Bulletproof" this is a quick read. The material is presented in a logical and simple manner. If you seek to inspire your CSS technique to a higher level of "Craftsmanship" you will enjoy this book. Recommended for serious Web Presentation Designers.Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design, Video Edition (includes Handcrafted CSS book and Handcrafted CSS: Bulletproof Essentials DVD) OverviewThere'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
The video included with this special edition features author Dan Cederholm as he illustrates 10 essential Web design guidelines. Enhancing the content in this book, the Handcrafted CSS: Bulletproof Essentials DVD will arm you with a checklist to make your next project a flexible, adaptable, and wellcrafted design.

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CSS Pocket Reference: Visual Presentation for the Web (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) Review

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CSS Pocket Reference: Visual Presentation for the Web (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) ReviewI've been using this reference for about a year now, and my conclusion is that it's better than nothing, but leaves a lot to be desired. I can usually find what I'm looking for, but often find myself giving up and just searching Google.
One big problem (as with most books today) is a weak index. It seems the index is computer generated by simply culling the text, and the end-result is that unless you already know what you're looking for, then you can't find it. Example: let's say you can't remember the CSS instruction for underlining text. So you look in the index for "underline" and there's nothing remotely close to it. Next, you might look under "font," particularly if you remember that other font formatting instructions start with "font-". Likewise, nothing there.
Another example of a problem I've seen is just some very poorly written text. After reading it 5-6 times, I still struggle to figure out what's being said. That's just bad writing. The author has gotten lost in the complexity of the subject, and hasn't put the effort into explaining it for the reader in a clear and concise manner.CSS Pocket Reference: Visual Presentation for the Web (Pocket Reference (O'Reilly)) Overview
They say that good things come in small packages, and it's certainly true for this edition of CSS Pocket Reference. Completely revised and updated to reflect the latest Cascading Style Sheet specifications in CSS 2.1, this indispensable little book covers the most essential information that web designers and developers need to implement CSS effectively across all browsers. Inside, you'll find:

A short introduction to the key concepts of CSS
A complete alphabetical reference to all CSS 2.1 selectors and properties
A chart displaying detailed information about CSS support for every style element and its cross-browser compatibility
This reference neatly condenses the details of its top-selling companion volume, Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide into one easy-to-use cheat-sheet that delivers all the CSS details you need to complete the task at hand. Whenever you're stuck and need an answer quickly -- or if you just want to be sure you're applying CSS correctly -- this edition of the CSS Pocket Reference is the book you'll want by your keyboard or, conveniently, in your back pocket.

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The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 2nd Edition Review

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The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 2nd Edition ReviewI'm not a graphic designer, I'm a techie. This book is a good introduction to graphic design for the web that even I can understand.
Jason Beaird takes us through the design process in a number of steps: layout, colour, texture, typography and images. He shares his wealth of in-depth knowledge in a way that makes it accessible even to those of us who do not have a university degree in design. He doesn't dumb it down, he just explains things very well using an easygoing literary style sprinkled with good-natured humour.
By itself this book will not teach you good web design. It doesn't go into any technical details and it (naturally) focuses on the visual part and aesthetics. Things like semantics and accessibility are subordinate and some of the practices he suggests are less than ideal from those points of view.
There are even some fairly serious errors in the code samples, but those are most likely introduced by the editor rather than the author.
If you know your way around (X)HTML and CSS, but struggle with making your sites more visually attractive, this book is a very good resource. It won't automagically make you a top-notch designer, but it will teach you the foundations and - most importantly - explain WHY things are the way they are.
If you are a web design beginner the book is a good resource for the graphic design part, but don't pay too much attention to the technical parts.The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, 2nd Edition Overview
This second edition of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is the ideal book for people who can build websites, but are seeking the skills and knowledge to visually enhance their sites.

This book will teach you how to:

Understand the process of what makes "good design," from discovery through to implementation
Use color effectively, develop color schemes, and create a palette
Create pleasing layouts using grids, the rule of thirds, and symmetry
Employ textures: lines, points, shapes, volumes, and depth
Apply typography to make ordinary designs look great
Choose, edit, and position effective imagery

And lots more...

This revised, easy-to-follow guide is illustrated with beautiful, full-color examples, and leads readers through the process of creating great designs from start to finish.

It also features:

Updated information about grid-based design
How to design for mobile resolutions
Information about the future of web fonts including @font-face
Common user-interface patterns and resources


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The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide To Themes, Trends & Styles In Website Design (Web Designer's Idea Book: The Latest Themes, Trends & Styles in Website Design) Review

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The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide To Themes, Trends & Styles In Website Design (Web Designer's Idea Book: The Latest Themes, Trends & Styles in Website Design) ReviewAs a web design author, I often get asked what books I recommend. This of course depends on who is asking and what they want to learn, but one book I often pass along is Curt Cloninger's original* Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the Underground from 2001. The specific design examples are quite outdated now, but to me, that book was a pivotal source of inspiration at a time when everything online seemed to be either boringly corporate or awkwardly amateur. Cloninger helped me to see the web differently; I learned to creatively tag design trends and techniques so that I could mentally catalog them for my own use.
This process of mentally classifying design inspiration has become a critical part of my growth as a designer as well as my ability to explain web design to the non-designer. In The Web Designer's Idea Book, Patrick McNeil takes the task of cataloging current trends and styles to a meticulous new level. Within the book's 256 pages, McNeil has sorted over 700 screenshots of stellar site design by color, design style, type, theme, element and structure. Within these 6 chapters, he has defined a total of 75 individual design categories. Some examples of these categories include: Blogs, E-Commerce, Minimalist, Wood, Pink & Blue, Muted, Rays, Gradients, Tabs and Massive Footers. Then, within each of these seemingly exclusive categories there are a few paragraphs explaining when, how, and why it should be used along with an average of 8 or 9 example screenshots.
Obviously, reading this book will not teach you to be a great website designer. What it will do is expand your design vocabulary and train you to break down your favorite sources of design inspiration into bite-sized chunks that you can use in your own work. I spent a good portion of the cold, rainy weekend reading through the text in each category and pouring over the pages of screenshots. I saw quite a few familiar examples of good design, but was amazed by quantity of inspirational sites that I had never heard of. If I had one complaint about the book it would be that I wish all of the screenshots were full-size, or perhaps if they couldn't be, that there was an archive of the full-size screenshots posted somewhere on the web. Regardless, I'm sure the book will be a huge source of inspiration for me for years to come. Then, when it is too old to serve as inspiration, it will most certainly be an excellent resource for web design history.
* As I was writing this review, I discovered that Curt Cloninger just released a sequel to this book: Fresher Styles for Web Designers: More Eye Candy from the Underground You can be sure that I'll be reviewing this book as well in the near future.The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide To Themes, Trends & Styles In Website Design (Web Designer's Idea Book: The Latest Themes, Trends & Styles in Website Design) OverviewInspiring Web Design at a Glance
The Web Designer's Idea Book includes more than 700 websites arranged thematically, so you can find inspiration for layout, color, style and more. Author Patrick McNeil has cataloged more than 20,000 sites on his website, and showcased in this book are the very best examples.
Sites are organized by color, design style, type, theme, element and structure. It's easy to use and reference again and again, whether you're talking with a co-worker or discussing website design options with a client. As a handy desk reference for design layout, color and style, this book is a must-have for starting new projects.

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Build Your Own Wicked Wordpress Themes Review

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Build Your Own Wicked Wordpress Themes ReviewI received the book Friday afternoon (8/20/2010) and finished reading it Sunday (8/22/2010), and my head is still spinning ... but in a good way. I am about three weeks new to WordPress, and I have to say that it's overwhelming trying to learn about everything that makes it what it is. I had been reading through the codex ([...]), which is a tremendous resource by the WordPress folks, but it has been difficult for me to tie it all together. This book is a great primer to theme building with WordPress and will help you to understand the main components that make up the WordPress software, and it does so in a pleasant and organized way. I dabble in web design, but my profession is that of web development and programming, and I'm pleased to say that this book, while aimed at web designers, will encourage the curiosity of developers alike.
I had some reservations about the book having four authors, as the flow of a tech book doesn't always work when there are too many "experts" coming to the table. I'm pleased to say that the book flows quite well, and the language and format with which the authors use to explain theme building is mostly consistent and cohesive. The only problem I had was in chapter 7: Theme Options, as it felt like the author of this chapter was jumping around a bit and not quite as organized and detailed with some of the explanations, and perhaps rushing a bit. Otherwise, I now feel much more confident in WordPress and theme building from not only a 10,000 foot view, but a 1,000 foot view as well. As with anything tech, you have to "pop the hood", and get your hands dirty, and I now feel like I can thanks to this book.
The book is broken into 8 chapters ... interestingly, each chapter fundamentally builds upon the last, but you could easily make a quick pass through the book to get familiarized with WordPress and themes, and then use it as a high-level reference thereafter (and using the codex will probably make much more sense after moving through this book). The chapters are:
1. Introducing WordPress
2. Planning Your Theme
3. Theme Design 101
4. Theme Frameworks
5. Advanced Theme Construction
6. Widgets
7. Theme Options
8. Selling Your Theme
I bought this book with two ideas in mind: learn about the "guts" of WordPress from a high level, and understand what goes into a WordPress theme to eventually make and sell them, and the book moves you forward in the right direction. This book, IMO, does a very good job of covering a great deal of ground in a short amount of time. I have only started to work on converting my business website to WordPress, but this book, and the information in it, has given me the confidence to play and experiment, and really go after the inner workings of the Thematic framework.
Thanks to SitePoint for a great book on the topic!Build Your Own Wicked Wordpress Themes Overview
Wicked WordPress Themes is a step-by-step guide to creating beautiful themes for the world's most popular CMS, WordPress. By following the book's advice, readers can produce designs that are aesthetically stunning, consistent, and for-purpose -whether it's for their own use, or to drive a high price on the theme marketplace. All facets of theme design are covered: from design, coding, and deployment, to ensuring readers' designs are ready-to-go as soon as they're installed. Wicked WordPress Themes teaches readers how to leverage theme design frameworks to dramatically shorten development time, enabling them to enter the theme market faster.


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JavaScript and Ajax for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide (7th Edition) Review

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JavaScript and Ajax for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide (7th Edition) ReviewThe audience for this book is beginning/novice web developers with a knowledge of HTML but not of JavaScript. The book begins with an introduction to basic JavaScript language features and then proceeds to work through a number of examples according to category (images, frames, browser windows, forms, regular expressions and strings, user events, and cookies). After, there are two chapters on AJAX fundamentals.
The book does not claim to be an in-depth resource. The general purpose of the QuickStart series of books is to provide an overview of the main concepts and practices in use by web developers today. It is meant to be a STARTING POINT to introduce novices to technologies, not as an in-depth reference. The authors of this and other QuickStart books point this out continually, yet still get bad reviews from people who have not taken the time to read about the purposes of various series from technical publishers. This is unfortunate for the public as well as unfair to the authors.
A previous reviewer mentioned what he took to be atrocious coverage of Ajax. The book contains two chapters exclusively covering Ajax. The first covers the fundamental techniques used to take advantage of this combination of technologies. The second chapter explores some of the popular Ajax toolkits currently available. This is consistent with the purpose of the book. Some readers may be interested in heading down the development path, yet others may be more interested in design and in using pre-existing tools. This book caters to both and has no intention of deceiving either reader.
The following quote is a good example of this. It is an excerpt from the title page of Chapter 16, which follows the introductory chapter (basic XMLHttpRequest usage, etc.) and precedes the Ajax toolkit chapter:
"[Writing] Ajax applications can be difficult. They often require a great deal of knowledge of working with the DOM, CSS, JavaScript, and server resources. Since this is a book for beginning scripters, we've shown you how to do some easy things with Ajax, so you can see that learning Ajax techniques is well within your reach. But many books have been written that are completely devoted to showing intermediate-to-advanced scripters how to create Ajax applications, and our Ajax chapters are no substitute for that kind of in-depth exploration."
As for the dual-column formatting that some reviewers disliked, it is consistent with the formatting of the entire QuickStart series, as well as the QuickPro series of the same publisher. The format is nice for tackling specific techniques in a concise amount of space. It is not as abstractly engaging as conventional technical books, but it is not meant to be. The format is excellent for explaining techniques (especial design techniques) as well as for conveying a sense of quick forward momentum.
I've only recently started reading books from Peachpit Press. I like these books because they get me up to speed quickly, and act as a comprehensive starting point, allowing me to understand "where I need to go from here."
This book is excellent as a broad introduction with lots of real-world examples. If you're a novice web developer with a decent grasp of HTML wishing for a comprehensive introduction to JavaScript and practical JavaScript techniques, this is the book for you.
However, if you're well-grounded and are looking for more in-depth coverage of JavaScript and Ajax techniques, "Professional JavaScript for Web Developers" (Nicholas Zakas / Wrox Press) and "Professional Ajax" (Zakas, et. al. / Wrox Press) are excellent in-depth resources geared toward real-world professional development, and both are among the best peer-reviewed titles in existence on these subjects.JavaScript and Ajax for the Web: Visual QuickStart Guide (7th Edition) OverviewThis task-based, visual reference guide has been fully revised. It uses step-by-step instructions and plenty of screenshots to give beginning and intermediate Web designers what they need to know to learn JavaScript. Readers can start from the beginning to get a tour of the programming language, or look up specific tasks to learn just what they need to know. In this updated seventh edition, readers will find new information on Ajax design and modern coding techniques.

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Styling Web Pages with CSS: Visual QuickProject Guide Review

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Styling Web Pages with CSS: Visual QuickProject Guide ReviewUPDATE: I originally gave this book 3 stars, but I am downgrading my review to a luke warm 3 stars. The reason is that in Chapter 8, there are several errors and omissions that basically doesn't let the user actually create the page that is shown. For instance, they leave out an integral selector "navbar ul" from the book. Without it, the page navbar looks like it is broken. Going to the source files (see below) showed me what I was missing, but for all the people that aren't aware that the source files exist, they might be lost. It appears that the book wasn't carefully proof read prior to publication. Actually it doesn't appear that the authors didn't have someone go thru the book as if they were learning CSS for the first time. If they did, this would have stood out as something that needed some fixing.
Another nit pick, in the same chapter, the reader is presented with the "old CSS" #navbar, but it actually should have been #sidebar.
>>>>>>>>>>>
I share many of the same thoughts as the other reviewers. I found it very frustrating that the source wasn't included as a download. If you go to the Peach Pit site, you can download the images, but not source files, wtf?
So I wound up googling Alpaca Repo and there is actually a site devoted to the fictional site in the book. Delving deeper, I see that the site is registered to none other than Dori Smith, the author.
For all who buy the book, you can visit the site at [...]. Replace DOT with an actual "."
UPDATE : Looks like Amazon stripped the URL from my review. If you have the book, go to page 15 and the URL is found in the screenshot of the web browser.
You would think the authors and or the publisher would read these comments and give an update.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Carlos F.
Holly Springs, NCStyling Web Pages with CSS: Visual QuickProject Guide OverviewSometimes it's hard to get started with a new technology. That's where this book excels. It's not going to show Web designers everything there is to know about CSS but rather will provide a solid introduction from which to build their CSS knowledge. The beginning of the book starts with the basics -- rules, selectors, classes, IDs, the cascade, internal and external style sheets, Divs, boxes, floats, padding, margins -- everything is covered. Next comes styling elements, working with images, menus and navigation, and moving styles from internal to external style sheets. Rounding out this project-based guide is working with browsers, both old and new, and debugging CSS. Succinct and to the point, it's the perfect book for designers without a lot of time who need to understand and start using CSS.

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Using Google App Engine Review

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Using Google App Engine ReviewI've been programming for 33 years, so in theory I shouldn't like a book that wastes pages explaining what HTTP and HTML are. Nor should I thrill to the first section in the Python chapter, which is called "What is Programming?"
How come I like this book so much then?
It is a self-contained 240-page book on programming. A smart motivated person with no experience could sit down and build a functional cloud app. If you had a friend who wanted to see what the life of a computer nerd was like, this is a great book. Is it as useful as the Google App Engine online docs? Not for an experienced programmer, but for the novice it is nice not to have to refer to a dozen interlocking books and Web sites in order to get "hello world" working.
The world needs more computer programming books like this.Using Google App Engine Overview
Build exciting, scalable web applications quickly and confidently using Google App Engine and this book, even if you have little or no experience in programming or web development. App Engine is perhaps the most appealing web technology to appear in the last year, providing an easy-to-use application framework with basic web tools. While Google's own tutorial assumes significant experience, Using Google App Engine will help anyone get started with this platform. By the end of this book, you'll know how to build complete, interactive applications and deploy them to the cloud using the same servers that power Google applications. With this book, you will:



Get an overview of the technologies necessary to use Google App Engine
Learn how to use Python, HTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), HTTP, and DataStore, App Engine's database
Grasp the technical aspects necessary to create sophisticated, dynamic web applications
Understand what's required to deploy your applications

Using Google App Engine is also an excellent resource for experienced programmers who want to acquire working knowledge of web technologies. Building web applications used to be for experts only, but with Google App Engine-and this book-anyone can create a dynamic web presence.


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Adaptive Web Design: Crafting Rich Experiences with Progressive Enhancement Review

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Adaptive Web Design: Crafting Rich Experiences with Progressive Enhancement ReviewWith this short but well-written book, you'll learn the key principles and primary techniques for designing web pages that can adapt to devices with different capabilities and display constraints, and are accessible to users equipped with assistive technologies such as screen readers, using only best practices revolving around the effective application of semantic markups, cascading style sheets (CSS), and Javascript.
The book explains in simple terms what designing web pages with progressive enhancements in mind entails: Keep the initial design simple. Focus first on the semantic markups and basic stylings you can safely use across browsers and devices, then if feature detection code incorporated into the subject web page indicates that a targeted feature is supported, layer on the bells and whistles programmatically through the use of Javascript or CSS rule sets.
The author provides just enough examples to illustrate the concepts under discussion. If you are just starting to learn about adaptive web design, this book will help you get started in the right direction more quickly than the Filament Group's Designing with Progressive Enhancement: Building the Web that Works for Everyone book. The latter, however, does provide a slightly more in-depth discussion of adaptive web design and a more extensive collection of examples than this book.Adaptive Web Design: Crafting Rich Experiences with Progressive Enhancement Overview

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Head First Web Design Review

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Head First Web Design ReviewAs a member of its target audience, I found this to be a tremendous book. It's perfect for web developers who know (X)HTML and CSS but are clueless when it comes to the design process itself. The only thing to beware of is the large number of errors that should have been caught in the editing process.
I do a decent amount of PHP/MySQL and Javascript/AJAX work, so I have to already know how HTML & CSS operate. I don't need to be told what a div element is, or what a style declaration looks like. I am the least creative person on the planet, though, and this book feels like it was written specifically for me. I can't think of higher praise than that. It takes you through the process of building a site - not just what a good webpage looks like, but how a whole site is structured and fits together and ways to make that come alive through design. I never felt confused, but never felt like the authors were moving too slowly, either.
This is my third book by Head First (I also have the HTML and AJAX books), so I already knew that I liked the Head First writing style - perhaps a little light on technical side, but the lessons get driven home. The reader simply retains material from these books, and that is tough to find in most technical books on the market.
Again, the only thing to watch out for is the sloppy editing; there were a few too many editing errors for my taste. I still gave the book five stars, though, because it was just that good.Head First Web Design Overview
Want to know how to make your pages look beautiful, communicate your message effectively, guide visitors through your website with ease, and get everything approved by the accessibility and usability police at the same time? Head First Web Design is your ticket to mastering all of these complex topics, and understanding what's really going on in the world of web design.

Whether you're building a personal blog or a corporate website, there's a lot more to web design than div's and CSS selectors, but what do you really need to know? With this book, you'll learn the secrets of designing effective, user-friendly sites, from customer requirements to hand-drawn storyboards all the way to finished HTML and CSS creations that offer an unforgettable online presence.

The revised two-color edition of this book includes a free online version of the chapter on web color. You can easily access this chapter at Oreilly.com once you register your book.

Your time is way too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First Web Design uses a visually rich format specifically designed to take advantage of the way your brain really works.


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WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner's Guide) Review

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WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner's Guide) ReviewThis book talks about the why and how of WordPress plugin development with heavy emphasis on the "how". The book's tagline "Learn by doing: less theory, more results" describes the book quite well. There is an introductory chapter that talks about the many benefits of learning WordPress plugin development. After that, the book immediately jumps right into showing you how to develop a series of 6 increasingly challenging WordPress plugins from scratch. It then finishes up by talking about plugin localization, promotion, and support tips.
Even though this book is a "Beginner's Guide," there are a lot things in there that many advanced WordPress plugin developers can benefit from. I don't consider myself a beginner in WordPress plugin development (see my WordPress plugins), and I have definitely learned quite a bit of things after reading this book.
[...]WordPress Plugin Development (Beginner's Guide) OverviewBuild powerful, interactive plug-ins for your blog and to share online
Everything you need to create and distribute your own plug-ins following WordPress coding standards
Walk through the development of six complete, feature-rich, real-world plug-ins that are being used by thousands of WP users
Written by Vladimir Prelovac, WordPress expert and developer of WordPress plug-ins such as Smart YouTube and Plugin Central
Part of Packt's Beginners Guide series: expect step-by-step instructions with an emphasis on experimentation and tweaking code

In Detail
If you can write WordPress plug-ins, you can make WordPress do just about anything. From making the site easier to administer, to adding the odd tweak or new feature, to completely changing the way your blog works, plug-ins are the method WordPress offers to customize and extend its functionality. This book will show you how to build all sorts of WordPress plug-ins: admin plug-ins, Widgets, plug-ins that alter your post output, present custom "views" of your blog, and more.
WordPress Plug-in Development (Beginner's Guide) focuses on teaching you all aspects of modern WordPress development. The book uses real and published WordPress plug-ins and follows their creation from the idea to the finishing touches, in a series of carefully picked, easy-to-follow tutorials. You will discover how to use the WordPress API in all typical situations, from displaying output on the site in the beginning to turning WordPress into a CMS in the last chapter. In Chapters 2 to 7 you will develop six concrete plug-ins and conquer all aspects of WordPress development.
Each new chapter and each new plug-in introduces different features of WordPress and how to put them to good use, allowing you to gradually advance your knowledge. This book is written as a guide to take your WordPress skills from the very beginning to the level where you are able to completely understand how WordPress works and how you can use it to your advantage.
What you will learn from this book?

Get to know the WordPress code base, WordPress's plug-in architecture, and the plug-in application programming interface (API) and learn how to hack it
Master the WordPress database and the API - access and manipulate data, handle user roles and permissions, posts, and so on
Hook into the rest of WordPress using actions and filters
Change the way your WordPress backend looks by customizing menus, submenus, and the plug-in admin panel
Integrate AJAX and jQuery into your plug-ins to dynamically generate content
Hook directly to WordPress edit pages and use AJAX to generate fast searches
Integrate your plug-in with WordPress panels and the tinyMCE editor
Access and work with third-party APIs like Flickr
Implement localization support for users of other languages
Maintain and manage your plug-in using SVN and publish it to the WordPress Plugin Repository
Handle security issues and make your plug-ins safer to use
We cover the development of six plug-ins from start to finish:
Digg-this: Adds a Digg This button to each post.
Live Blogroll: Adds a recent posts popup for each blog in your blogroll.
The Wall widget: Displays comments on the sidebar without reloading the page.
Snazzy Archives: Presents your site archives in a unique visual way.
Insights: Access your articles and Flickr images from within the WordPress edit page.
Post Types: Provides pre-defined post templates to quickly add a photo or a link to your blog.
Approach
This is a Packt Beginners Guide, which means it focuses on practical examples and has a fast-paced but friendly approach, with the opportunity to learn by experiment and play. Each chapter builds a practical plug-in from the ground up using step-by-step instructions. Individual sections show you how to code some functionality into your plug-in and follow up with a discussion of concepts.
Who this book is written for?
This book is for programmers working with WordPress, who want to develop custom plug-ins and to hack the code base. You need to be familiar with the basics of WordPress and PHP programming and believe that code is poetry; this book will handle the rest.


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How to Design and Write Web Pages Today (Writing Today) Review

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How to Design and Write Web Pages Today (Writing Today) ReviewI consider myself a beginner and this book really helped me get me up and running on designing web sites. Each section is to the point and doesn't assume too much, which is perfect for me. The chapters about HTML and CSS were invaluable. It could have used a chapter on designing web graphics, so I just use GRSites for that which a lot a people seem to swear by. I found going thru the book for hours, and learning new things in an enjoyable and organized way, the author definitely writes well. Great stuff!How to Design and Write Web Pages Today (Writing Today) Overview
Writing and designing for the Web are essential to anyone looking to advance his or her personal, academic, or professional Internet presence. How to Design and Write Web Pages Today offers an approach for building sites that reach your intended audience, using methods that enable a site to be updated and improved over time.



An introduction to standards-based Web design, this book treats creating a website from the point of view of the writer, focusing on writing concerns and how they fit with the technological challenges of the Web. Readers will learn about the reasons for writing on the Web; the challenges of writing there; and the solid, but flexible construction of individual pages. The focus is on building websites that can grow, including sites built around the popular, open-source WordPress blogging system. Rich with examples, the book demonstrates that Web writing and design can be fast and fun-and accomplished without expensive software or sophisticated programming skills.


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Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design Review

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Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design ReviewThe new release from Dan Cederholm is a great complement to his previous work in Bulletproof Web Design. For those who haven't read Bulletproof Web Design, it's premise was creating flexible websites and keeping a clear separation of your markup (HTML), styles (CSS), and behavior (JavaScript). It took examples of sites that weren't bulletproof, and showed the process to make them bulletproof. All great things. The landscape of browsers, CSS, and HTML has changed slightly since Dan wrote Bulletproof Web Design, and this book is focused on bringing those aspects to the forefront. This book assumes you have knowledge of developing with web standards, and therefore bypasses the why of adhering to web standards.
The entire book focuses on building a fictional site, the Tugboat Coffee Company. Each chapter builds a new layer into this site, with clear instruction of how each aspect progressively enhances the user experience, while not explicitly leaving other browsers in the dust. Here is a quick breakdown:
Introduction
This chapter is a quick example of why we need to be flexible with our designs and development. Using a list of menu items, Dan walks through how to best organize your markup and CSS. To me, this chapter was about first putting on your thinking cap and planning for how your sections should be organized within a site. Think about how the end user will experience and interact with your site. Even with a simple menu list, he shows how things change when text is re-sized, or simply making your clickable link area larger in a given area. While this chapter had a specific example, and code to work through--I really saw it as something to begin challenging you to think about your architecture.
Round and round we go
Most of us are familiar with the previous way of creating rounded corners, and each of those ways had their drawbacks. Using 4 images, then you had superfluous markup. Use 2 images, then it didn't scale well in both directions. This left us to educate ourselves and then choose the best decision based on our context. With CSS3 this process is made much easier. Using border-radius and it's browser specific counterparts, we can begin to work with rounded corners now--and have it work in standards aware browsers. This chapter not only discussed the organization for this in your CSS, but also some of the finer points of using rounded corners in the first place. Background clipping with images inside of a container and applying this to form elements were two specific examples.
Now, don't start throwing vegetables at me just yet. This is the beauty of this book. This is the premise of this book. The ability to use features in CSS3, while still providing an experience for all of your users. Those with advanced browsers will see everything in it's shining beauty. Those without may be missing a few things here and there. It's not all a loss--they can still access the content. In this example, your rounded corners simply may not be rounded. You have many options available to you if you wanted to do some extra work to make rounded corners in all browsers. It's all about your context and your goals. Again, going back to the first chapter--put on your thinking cap and weigh the goals and costs.
RGB eh?
Specifying colors has always been easy. You have several ways with css, including color, hex codes, and RGB. Now, we also have the ability to specify a fourth parameter to control the alpha transparency. Yes, you could achieve some of these same effects with PNG's, but that's the point--now you don't have to. This isn't just in reference to a text color or background color. This can also be applied to your borders and pseudo elements for some nice effects all around.
This chapter again builds on the example site, and shows the process for implementing this into your site right now.
But it doesn't look the same!
I have often heard this cry from many different web developers. Dan points to his wonderful site, Do Websites Need To Look The Same In Every Browser? While this may seem somewhat sarcastic (what an incredible domain name), he created this to prove his point. Even this site alone doesn't look the same in every browser--and that's OK. This chapter goes into a little more detail into the questions posed in the first chapter. We need to think about the end user experience, and let that be the driving factors into our design decisions. While these tools are great, and it's great to start experimenting with them now--they might not be right for all scenarios and contexts. To me, this chapter was a challenge. It was a challenge to be more forward thinking with the front-end architecture decisions. Thinking about the different aspects that users, analytics, and browser market share bring to this decision making.
Some techniques discussed in this chapter were text-shadow, box-shadow, and adding some smaller animations via CSS. Again, we use these things to build into the example website.
Float on
You guessed it. This section focused on managing your floats. The interesting point I found here is that Dan talks about how he has altered the way he handles them. Previously, he would clear all floated elements in the CSS file. This would create a large list that would need to be managed in the CSS. Instead, he has moved to a more preferred method of applying a .group class to the elements themselves in the markup. I think I would agree, that it works well in the markup and compounding the necessary classes together. It is much more modular, which was the point he was trying to make with this section.
The Grid
This was a chapter presented by Ethan Marcotte, and an incredible addition to this book. Ethan talks about setting up a fluid grid, and shows an array of different tricks to help you achieve this. These tricks even included image sizing, which can throw a grid off if you don't necessarily know the height dimension. He shows how to keep a larger image in context, and allowing it to scale with the design itself. He showed how to keep everything in line to a specific Grid that you choose, and how to make this flexible for the end user and their experience. It wasn't just letting things move one way or another based on the browser stretching--it was about truly adapting. Some tricks took a little JavaScript love to make them work, but it was done in a very clean manner. This was the icing on the cake to the beautiful example site that gets constructed throughout the book.
The devil is in the details
Bringing things to a close, Dan dives into some of the often forgotten smaller details of a design. It's these small details that can sometimes make or break a design. He briefly discusses fonts with @font-face linking, using jQuery for a handful of small effects and to tidy up things like .last classes in lists of items, and then an example of parallax scrolling. These little details may go un-detected to most people, but are there to help enhance the user experience. I think this chapter could have even been longer--especially with the discussion of jQuery--but I liked the examples he chose to use.
Summary
This book was a great follow up to Bulletproof Web Design. It wasn't merely a replacement or update of the book--but an extension. This book wasn't about all of the small details. It was about an introduction to some of the tools you can start using today. When I finished the book, I was inspired to simply learn more and play with the techniques discussed. If you want to see--in action--how you can begin to use new techniques while still maintaining an experience for all browsers, then this is a great book for you.Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design OverviewThere'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


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Fancy Form Design (Sitepoint) Review

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Fancy Form Design (Sitepoint) ReviewThe book is quite short, with large type, and pretty photos of very simple forms. It is about as realistic as Peter Pan. The forms are very very very very simple, so keeping the forms pretty and clean is a snap -- in the book. But what do you do with real-world forms that have lengthy, multi-line questions? Multi-part questions? Questions where part a changes what happens with part b and c?
I like Sitepoint publishers a lot, but I wasted my money on this book. Be advised.Fancy Form Design (Sitepoint) Overview
Forms' - is there any other word that strikes as much fear into the hearts of web designers?Not any more ... Fancy Form Design is a practical hands-on, full color book that follows the process of creating visually stunning yet usable web forms, from start to end. The book covers all design elements from planning the form's purpose and interface through to mastering markup, applying style with CSS, and adding interactivity and visual effects with JavaScript.By the end of the you'll will have the code, and wisdom, they need to build fancy forms of their own.


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CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions Review

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CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions ReviewI'm an advanced CSS web designer, so I purchased this book as more of a reference, along with some new css3 ideas. At first, the book didn't impress me. But the more I dug into the book the more I enjoyed it. There are some nice topics that even advanced users can grab some tidbits and reminders. Overall, it's a book targeting beginner to intermediate level designers. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions OverviewThis is the second edition of the 27,000 selling (on Bookscan) CSS Mastery. It brings the old book up to date with information on CSS 3 and modern browser standards. It also includes completely new case study chapters and new examples.

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Professional SharePoint 2010 Branding and User Interface Design (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Review

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Professional SharePoint 2010 Branding and User Interface Design (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) ReviewIt is easy to leave reviews, or even read books, but writing books is a whole another deal.
Writing good books is not easy. It is very difficult to present cohesive and accurate thoughts that are the work of many minds over many months over hundreds of meticulously carved pages.
In reading this book, I was happy to see that no stone was left unturned when talking specifically about SharePoint 2010 branding - no this is not a IT pro book, this is not a developer's book.
There cannot be a single book that covers EVERYTHING about SP2010. But when it comes to branding, this book is top notch.
I was especially pleased to see attention to detail such as not ignoring core CSS principles, HTML standards, browser sense, trends etc.. Branding SharePoint is not exactly the same your typical ASP.NET or PHP site. Branding SharePoint 2010 is it's own unique skill that requires significant SharePoint knowledge. It isn't just CSS and HTML and JavaScript, it is also navigation, security, master pages, standard CSS specific to SharePoint, SharePoint and ASPNET controls applicable to SharePoint, the theming engine, etc. etc. etc.
I was hoping that this book didn't sacrifice the classic branding knowledge, which is pure CSS,HTML and Javascript, in favor of being a pure one sided SharePoint book. And I am happy to see that this is a book well grounded in the current technology set, SharePoint or otherwise.
Finally, I like the author's writing style (disclaimer, I'm around page #200 right now). I hate to read books that have the personality of a whitepaper. This book is very conversational and fun to read.
Good work!Professional SharePoint 2010 Branding and User Interface Design (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) OverviewA must have guide for creating engaging and usable SharePoint 2010 branding
With SharePoint 2010, Microsoft has provided a more robust environment for creating collaboration and content management sites that rival any of the popular websites on the internet. Creating a branded SharePoint site involves understanding both traditional web design techniques as well as topics that are typically reserved for developers. This book bridges that gap by not only providing expert guidance for creating beautiful public facing and internal intranet sites but it also addresses the needs of those readers that only want to understand the basics enough to apply some style to their sites.
Things like creative design, the experience visitors have navigating your user interface, ease of use?these are all important branding considerations and not always intuitive. This unique book from a team of SharePoint branding experts lays it all out. The book is divided into four sections:
Introduction to SharePoint Branding: In this part you will learn about what SharePoint branding is and how the topic has changed since SharePoint 2007.
Branding Basics: This section is geared towards both getting started as well as being a guide for people that don?t want to dive super deep into the advanced topics of SharePoint branding. You will learn about how to plan for branding projects, including creating wireframes and creative mockups as well as gathering requirements and estimation. You will learn how to work with SharePoint Designer 2010, SharePoint 2010 themes, and SharePoint navigation as well as gain an understanding of the low and medium effort approaches to branding can be used to make SharePoint look more like your own visual style.
Advanced Branding: This is where you will learn about the more intricate techniques for making large changes to the SharePoint UI, such as cascading style sheets (CSS), master pages, page layouts, web parts and XSLT. You will also get an introduction to deploying SharePoint branding to production servers using solution packages (WSP).
Other Topics: Everything else that is related to SharePoint branding is discussed here, including working with the SharePoint 2010 ribbon and client side technologies such as the client object model, jQuery, and Silverlight.

Whether you want to make SharePoint look completely different or just make minor design changes, this expert guide will provide tips, techniques, and insights to get the job done.

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Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition Review

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Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition ReviewWhen we design Web sites, we often overlook the simplest things because we're too wrapped up in the design. After working on Web sites for a while, some of us have slowly moved away from what we know is usable to adding or removing elements that may enhance the `look' - and also break a site's usability.
Steer back on track with the new edition of Krug's highly referenced book. Novice, intermediate, expert. No matter where you are on the scale, the book provides value to everyone - even managers, testers and project managers. Management likes to get their hands a little dirty when it comes to Web design projects and sharing this book may make the team's life easier.
Anyone involved with Web design or usability will recognize most, if not all, of the concepts covered in the book. What makes Don't Make Me Think usable is that it's a great checklist to ensure you've covered all the basics.
Krug provides many before and after examples to show how a few changes can enhance a Web site's usability. The illustrations reinforce the concepts covered as well as how visitors use and read a Web site.
As for the differences between the first and second editions, the second addition has three new chapters while usability testing shrinks from two chapters to one and with good reason.
The testing chapter breaks down the testing process into digestible steps; complete with a script between the tester (user) and the person watching the tester. Too often, we've seen testing get mangled or ignored. With this chapter, teams might find themselves empowered and eager to do testing.
The chapter on "Usability as common courtesy" explores how a site can make or break the "reservoir of goodwill" as Krug puts it. We arrive at a Web site with some goodwill and depending on how well the site meets or misses our needs; the goodwill level goes up or down. It may only take one mistake to propel visitors to flee.
Another new and short chapter is "Accessibility, Cascading Style Sheets and you." Krug captures what developers and designers hear when it comes to accessibility and addresses what they fear. He lists five things designers and developers can do make a site accessible without a lot of effort.
Finally, the book closes with "Help! My boss wants me to..." Krug has received plenty emails and questions on the topic to identify two questions that repeatedly come up. He provides email examples for free re-use, so no one has to explain it to the boss.
It only takes about two hours or a plane trip to read. The writing is conversational, clear and packs a punch with a dash of humor thrown in. Reading the book is not much different than reading fiction because it flows well and the information sinks in without much effort.
If you get this book and have the 1st edition, I recommend keeping both. You might find helpful stuff in the original material not found in the new edition.Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition OverviewFive years and more than 100,000 copies after it was first published,it's hard to imagine anyone working in Web design who hasn't read SteveKrug's "instant classic" on Web usability, but people are stilldiscovering it every day. In this second edition, Steve addsthree new chapters in the same style as the original: wry andentertaining, yet loaded with insights and practical advice for noviceand veteran alike. Don't be surprised if it completely changesthe way you think about Web design. With these three new chapters:
Usability as common courtesy -- Why people really leave Web sites
Web Accessibility, CSS, and you -- Making sites usable and accessible
Help! My boss wants me to ______. -- Surviving executive design whims
"I thought usability was the enemy of design until I read the first edition of this book. Don't Make Me Think! showedme how to put myself in the position of the person who uses mysite. After reading it over a couple of hours and putting itsideas to work for the past five years, I can say it has done more toimprove my abilities as a Web designer than any other book. Inthis second edition, Steve Krug adds essential ammunition for thosewhose bosses, clients, stakeholders, and marketing managers insist ondoing the wrong thing. If you design, write, program, own, ormanage Web sites, you must read this book." -- Jeffrey Zeldman,author of Designing with Web Standards

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Smashing CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout Review

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Smashing CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout ReviewThe content of this book is very informative and it's nice to have all the techniques together in a single volume. However, the examples do not always work the way the author intended so hopefully an errata will be published very soon. Also, the code examples on the companion web site are incomplete; it would have been useful to have completed examples available for testing purposes.Smashing CSS: Professional Techniques for Modern Layout OverviewPROFESSIONAL TECHNIQUES FOR MODERN LAYOUT
Smashing CSS takes you well beyond the basics, covering not only the finer points of layout and effects, but introduces you to the future with HTML5 and CSS3. Very few in the industry can show you the ins and outs of CSS like Eric Meyer and inside Smashing CSS Eric provides techniques that are thorough, utterly useful, and universally applicable in the real world. From choosing the right tools, to CSS effects and CSS3 techniques with jQuery, Smashing CSS is the practical guide to building modern web layouts.
With Smashing CSS you will learn how to:
Throw elements offscreen/hide them
Create body/HTML backgrounds in XHTML
Usemore than 15 layout techniques including clearfix, two/three simple columns, faux columns, One True Layout, Holy Grail, em-based layout, fluid grids, sticky footers, and more
Use a variety of CSS effects including CSS popups, boxpunching, rounded corners, CSS sprites, Sliding Doors, Liquid Bleach, ragged floats, and more
Apply CSS table styling including using thead, tfoot, and tbody, row headers, column-oriented styling (classes); styling data tables with jQuery, tables to graphs, tables to maps; and more
Use CSS3 elements including rounded corners, multiple backgrounds, RGBA, using jQuery to do CSS3 selections and so much more.

Eric Meyer is an internationally recognized expert on the subjects of HTML, CSS, and Web standards, and has been working on the Web since 1993. Smashing CSS is for developers who already have some experience with CSS and JavaScript and are ready for more advanced techniques.
Smashing Magazine (smashingmagazine.com) is one of the world's most popular web design sites. True to the Smashing mission, the Smashing Magazine book series delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers.

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The Web Designer's Idea Book, Vol. 2: More of the Best Themes, Trends and Styles in Website Design Review

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The Web Designer's Idea Book, Vol. 2: More of the Best Themes, Trends and Styles in Website Design ReviewFirst, if you don't have the first one, you're missing out. They fit together perfectly... hopefully the start of a long series!
The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide To Themes, Trends & Styles In Website Design
Like the first volume, this is full of carefully picked examples of the best in modern web design. It's organized into very clever topics making it the perfect reference book. It's loaded with screenshots, screenshots, and more screenshots... just as before, but all new, and more recent.
In this version, the screenshots are even larger and easier to pick up on detail and text. They've also included "Developer Notes" which I think are pretty insightful and in context.
If you are involved in web design in any way (even if you're hiring other people to do it), this book will be super handy. The two editions are the same size and style... they're intended to be on the bookshelf together. With the two combined, there must be a thousand organized designs to look through. The amount of work that went into collecting such quality work without "filler" junk is astounding.
I'm really impressed... if you can't tell!
On the negative side: I'd personally prefer these came in large hardback coffee-table books. While maybe not as handy, it certainly would be great to have around the agency. Maybe after the 3rd edition, they should release a combined volume!The Web Designer's Idea Book, Vol. 2: More of the Best Themes, Trends and Styles in Website Design OverviewWeb Design Inspiration at a GlanceVolume 2 of The Web Designer's Idea Book includes more than 650 new websites arranged thematically, so you can easily find inspiration for your work. Author Patrick McNeil, creator of the popular web design blog designmeltdown.com and author of the original bestselling Web Designer's Idea Book, has cataloged thousands of sites, and showcases the latest and best examples in this book. The web is the most rapidly changing design medium, and this book offers an organized overview of what's happening right now. Sites are categorized by type, design element, styles and themes, structural styles, and structural elements. This new volume also includes a helpful chapter explaining basic design principles and how they can be applied online. Whether you're brainstorming with a coworker or explaining your ideas to a client, this book provides a powerful communication tool you can use to jump start your next project.

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