Creating Killer Web Sites [Paperback]

David Siegel (Author), Doug Millison (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1568304331 | ISBN-13: 978-1568304335 | Publication Date: September 18, 1997 | Edition: 2nd

Master the art of third-generation site design Creating Killer Web Sites was the first true design book for the Web. It became the best-selling book on the Internet in 1996 and has been translated into ten languages. It has taught an entire generation of site designers how to get control over their pages. It shows, in practical terms, the fundamentals of design applied to the Web. Now completely updated! Every chapter has new material! In this expanded second edition, you'll find the techniques and principles you need to build sites for today's 4.0 and the coming 5.0 browsers. Much of the book has been rewritten with new tips, new tools, updated HTML, and an emphasis on cross-browser compatibility. There are three new chapters on strategies designers will need to know going forward, including a detailed style-sheet tutorial.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

David Siegel's classic guide to good taste in Web design has been completely overhauled in this second edition. Every chapter has been reworked, repurposed, and rewritten with over 100 new pages and 150 new illustrations, new information on 4.0 browser design, and a comprehensive guide to Style Sheet implementations for both Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. Those who enjoyed Creating Killer Web Sites the first time around will doubtlessly benefit from this new edition, which is meant as a continuation of the first book rather than a simple update. At the same time, anyone who has never read the first edition will be able to pick up this new edition without having missed a beat. Siegel's accompanying Web site (www.killersites.com) contains supplemental information as well as chapters from the first edition that didn't make the 2.0 cut.

More of a style guide than an HTML guide, Creating Killer Web Sites is concerned with the building of Third-Generation sites, Web sites that are conceived by design and not by technological ability. Siegel and his helpers at Studio Verso overview a wide variety of topics, including a history of browsers, how to use specific HTML tags, how to select software tools, and advice on pure aesthetic design. Like the first edition, the second edition of the book contains an attractive design, a graphic on every page, and screen shots of successful Web pages that will set any designer's wheels in motion.

There is a great deal of information to absorb here and whether you agree with all, some, or none of the advice, you'll still be left with plenty to think about. If you're brand new to Web site creation, this is an excellent introduction to the ideas involved with site design. However, because Creating Killer Web Sites is not a tutorial or HTML reference, you will need to supplement it with one.

Review

Creating Killer Web Sites is to the Net what The Joy of Cooking is to food. Don't make a Web site without this book! -- Roger Black, president, The Interactive Bureau --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 305 pages
• Publisher: Hayden Books; 2nd edition (September 18, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568304331
• ISBN-13: 978-1568304335
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (186 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,230,734 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Siegel is an author, consultant, and investor focusing on the future of technology, the Internet, and business. Always on the cutting edge, David is credited with being one of the first entrepreneurs and designers in the emerging web site design business, designing his first site in 1993. He started blogging in 1994 (before the term was invented) and started one of the first web-design and strategy firms in the same year.

David has been writing books about the Web since 1995:

* 1995: Creating Killer Web Sites (Macmillan; translated into 16 languages)
* 1997: Secrets of Successful Web Sites (Pearson)
* 1998: Creating Killer Web Sites II (Pearson)
* 1999: Futurize Your Enterprise (Wiley)
* 2010: Pull (Penguin)

David has been lecturing and speaking about the Web since 1995, and about the semantic web since 1998. He has delivered over 100 speeches on the Internet and business. He also lectures on dark chocolate and has been doing professional chocolate tastings since 2002.

You can learn more about David and his latest book, Pull, at ThePowerOfPull.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a historically important book for web design, July 28, 2000

By 

Makiko Itoh "maki to all" (Earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creating Killer Web Sites (Paperback)

If in about 5-10 years, someone chose to write a book about the development of web design, this book would rank at or near the top. This is probably the book that truly unleashed the so-called second-generation concept of web design on the world, for better or worse. Do you want to know about how to use tables for layouts, use transparent 1-pixel GIFs as spacers or "shims" to keep everything from getting wobbly, and how to use GIF-text images in conjunction with actual text to make your page look just the way you, the designer, want it to? All those techniques are explained here in great detail, with lots of examples, plus you can look at the companion website for source code.

Of course this second edition came out in 1997 - and now it's 2000, and many of the techniques he explains are outdated. Current-day standards advocates, usability experts and the like deplore the kinds of methods described here. Yet, probably most of the "designed" websites out there that are not using just the latest techniques or the the other extreme - just using plain-looking text layouts - are using at least a few of the techniques detailed here. So if you are new to HTML and web design, and you want to know how to make your pages look like much of what's on the web right now, this book is a must. "HTML Magic", which covers the much of the same material, is also recommended.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Form over function, January 22, 2000

By 

Francis A Lattanzio (Glastonbury, Connecticut USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Killer Web Sites (Paperback)

I know it's a trite title for a review, but that cliche sums up what Siegel has to say about web pages. I'm the first to admit that Siegel definitely knows how to create visually stunning webpages. Unfortunately, the web is more about information than aesthetics, and in this respect the book fails: Read any book on website usability, or information architecture in general, and you'll see that Siegel's techniques will hurt rather than improve your website. Siegel's obsession with white space is particularly unhealthy. Certainly, white space will beautify your site - your form - but your site will become more difficult to use and harder to navigate. If you're an website artist, this book is for you. But for the rest of the world in the business of creating practical, functional websites, read with caution.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This book teaches terrible design practices., February 2, 2000

By 

Michael C. Urban (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Killer Web Sites (Paperback)

This book teaches terrible design practices, and is a perfect example of a bad trend in web design. David Siegel's sites are visually appealing, and very eye catching, but this type of design creates sites that are difficult to navigate, present a lot of style and no substance, and create browser specific web pages. Anyone trying to navigate one of these sites with Lynx on a shell account would find the task nearly impossible, if not totally impossible.

The web is what most people think of when they think of "the information super-highway". As such, people want sites where they can find the information they are looking for efficiantly, and quickly, and that are easy to navigate. Many people, including me, simply click the stop button on sites like David Siegel designs, and go on to something else that is easier to navigate, and presents information in a quick and easy to find format.

Stay away from this book. There are far better ones out there that will teach you proper design practices, and teach you how to design quality web sites that are efficiant, cross-browser compatible, and easy to navigate. I recommend Laura Lemay's "Teach Yourself Web Publishing" books.