The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Web Design Resources - For the bookshelf Major Keary |
Sitepoint on Web Design
SitePoint specialises in publishing practical and easy-to-understand books about web technologies. Even though designed for web professionals, these titles are also well suited to informed readers with an interest in developing or maintaining web sites. Each one has a clear topic-based focus; the style is tutorial - not simply bare-bones instruction - and the books are notable for their clear discussions of concepts and use of annotated example code.
A departure from SitePoint's usual application-based format is The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, the focus of which is firmly on design principles. The word, design, can means various things for web developers, programmers, and authors. Here it means visual, or graphic, design The author discusses layout, composition, colour, texture, typography, and imagery without reference to programming or software; there are, however, some brief snippets of code to explain particular points such as how to get type size right. Readers are expected to be familiar with HTML and cascading style sheets, but expertise in web technologies is not assumed. There are explanations of, for example, the hexadecimal notation scheme (hex numbers are used for colour codes), the theory of colour, and grid theory (sans maths).
Good graphic design does not necessarily require one to have an innate talent. It helps a lot to have talent - an essential ingredient for someone aspiring to a career in design - but we ordinary folk can do quite well by observing what others do and adapting that which we find attractive. It is necessary to have some understanding of the principles of good graphic design in order to do that successfully, which is why The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is a valuable resource. It provides insights that help the reader understand why something looks good, and identify design faults.
This is a thoroughly practical guide to web design that is very well written: good technical depth in easy-to-understand language with excellent illustrations and graphics that support the text. For many users it will be the only web-design text they will need. For those who want to further advance their skills and knowledge it will provide a sound foundation.
Highly recommended as a library acquisition. The SitePoint website, www.sitepoint.com, is well worth visiting for news of other publications and newsletters on various aspects of web technology.
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Jason Beaird: The Principles of Beautiful Web Design ISBN 978-0-97584-6-9 Published by SitePoint, 168 pp., RRP AU$70.00 incl. GST |
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Web Writer's Guide
The best design in the world won't make up for poorly presented text
content. The Web Writer's Guide is a
good, practical, and comprehensive guide for online writers; it is published by
Focal Press, which has published texts on writing/scripting for film making for
some fifty years. This title was published in 2002, but its content is still
relevant, although some of the URLs may no longer be current.
The main part of the book pays particular attention to web-related issues in
chapters such as Navigation Cues, A
Primer on Search Engines, Conducting Email Interviews with Subject Matter
Experts, Writing Content for the Web,
and E-Zines. The author does not attempt to cover technical aspects of the web,
but discusses web technology issues in the context of how writers need to
organise their material.
The chapter, Editing Web Writing, is
commended to all web authors. There are few - if any - writers who can create a
perfect document at the first draft, but much written material shows no signs of
having been proofread or edited beyond submission to a less than reliable
spell-cum-grammar checker. There are also other considerations peculiar to web
content: headings and subheadings, navigation, and hypertext links are some of
those discussed.
The book discusses writing for a variety of purposes, such as enterprise web
sites, e-commerce sites, press releases, and online news. It provides useful
checklists, sample worksheets, and forms as aids to quality control.
This is still one of the best all-round guide for web authors that I have seen.
It also offers sound advice to anyone who might be thinking of a career in
writing content for the web.
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Darlene Maciuba-Koppel: The Web
Writer's Guide ISBN 0-240-80481-3 Published by Focal Press, 318 pp., RRP 561.05 incl. GST |
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Reprinted from the August 2007 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
