Web Design Related Book Reviews

My book reviews section is a different from what you typically see, I only list and review books that are worth reading. All the books reviewed here are sitting on my bookshelves.

ABOUT THE BOOKS REVIEWED ON THIS PAGE

The books reviewed on this page are on topics related to web design but are not necessarily about the core technologies like HTML and CSS.

Nonetheless, the topics covered are very relevant to web design and should be a part of a web designers base of knowledge.

What about the books that suck?

I come across many stinkers, to be sure. I just spare the authors the criticism and you the time – why talk about a crappy title?

Web Design RELATED Book Reviews

The Unusually Usefull Web Book

This is a beginner's book on HTML, usability and online web site promotion. Though it covers only basic web page design and coding, it does have excellent information on usability and web site promotion.

What makes this book standout from the others, is the emphasis on the business and operational end of web sites … something I have not seen in any other book.

Not only do you learn what a web site is and how to build it, you also learn how to work it into a useful and profitable business.

I am a programmer with about 10 years experience building web sites and web applications and I still found this book to be an excellent buy.

A must have book for anyone involved with web design.

Don't Make Me Think

This is one of the two web usability bibles – the other being Designing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen.

What makes a book a ‘bible’: staying power. Though published in 2000, this book is still very relevant. There may be a few spots here and there that seem a little dated but overall the book is dead on relevant still today.

What is web usability?

In a nutshell, web usability is the science / art of making a website more user-friendly, or in other words, easier to use and understand. Essentially when you study web usability you are looking at making it work better – as far as the user (the guy visiting your site) is concerned.

The title of this book tells it all and reflects how the book is written - straight and to the point. I know Steve Krug knows his stuff because he doesn’t waste anytime making his point in this thin (about 200 pages) and important book for any web designer who wants to take their work to professional levels.

Buy this book and make the web a better place!

Adobe Acrobat 6 for Windows and Macintosh

Adobe Acrobat is nearly a ubiquitous media type on the web and in general computing. People use it to send invoices, to create e-books among many other applications – an important tool to know for any web designer.

This book covers the basics in the now famous Visual QuickStart style – to the point writing combined with supporting images. The book is simple to follow and makes for a great reference since the book is segmented into concise projects.

The book covers a good amount of material despite the fact it is only 232 pages long. Keep in mind that this is not the Acrobat ‘Bible’ – it does not cover everything and it won’t make you into a power-user but you will get a good understanding of Acrobat and learn how to accomplish many things.

Search Engine Visibility

To create professional websites, today’s web designer has to be able to do more than make a page look good; professional web design requires the following:

1. That the website be easy to use – this means knowing web usability.
2. That the website be search-engine-friendly – it has to be built in such a way that makes it ‘easy’ for the search engines to snoop the site … this plays a major role as to how well the website will be positioned in the search engines.

Search Engine Visibility is all about these very important subjects. A thin book (less than 300 pages,) but it’s still packed with good information that I think many web designers only consider as a second thought in the web design process – it should be part of the mix right from the beginning.

Some of the topics covered:

• How to build search engine friendly pages.
• The different types of search services.
• How to effectively market your website on the web.
• What search engine spamming is and why you shouldn’t do it.

I the believe that true professional web designers should be able to build search engine friendly websites – this book provides that knowledge.

Secrets of Successful Web Sites

This is a book on web design project management. Essentially you learn how to manage the development of a website in a commercial / corporate setting.

An older book but still very useful since the principles of project management taught are as relevant today as they were 5 years ago.

If you want to learn how to deal with clients and manage the development of a web site project this is a good book. This is not for someone just starting out in web design.

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