Web Design Studio Secrets [Paperback]

Deke McClelland (Author), Katrin Eismann (Author), Terri Stone (Author), Steve Broback (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0764534556 | ISBN-13: 978-0764534553 | Publication Date: May 3, 2000 | Edition: 2

Do you keep an archive of killer Web sites? You're not alone. Fifteen leading Web designers reveal the secrets behind their favorite sites in the updated edition of Web Design Studio Secrets. Featuring interviews with the experts, undocumented tips and techniques, and full-color illustrations in an oversized format, this edition also presents case studies packed with advice.

Discover what's in a winning site -- Dynamic HTML, Flash animation, and JavaScript rollovers are among the contenders. The CD-ROM contains demo software from key industry players, artwork from the book, and QuickTime interviews with featured artists. With Web Design Studio Secrets, 2nd Ed., you'll find out what the competition's been up to and how to use it to your advantage.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you could call up some Web designers on the phone and pick their brains, the resulting bits of wisdom from those conversations might be a lot like this book. Web Design Studio Secrets profiles 15 designers, with brief rundowns of their careers and their insights on designing for the Web. Less a how-to and more like a collection of conversations, this book nevertheless includes bits of code, down-and-dirty instructions for applications such as Photoshop and Flash, and plenty of specific tips and color screen shots. A companion CD-ROM includes phone interviews with the designers, in QuickTime format.

Designer Jeffery Zeldman's chapter on font usage and CSS is excellent. It offers advice and spotlights some great Web sites on these subjects--like The Little Shop of CSS Horrors (www.haughey.com/csshorrors). Neil Robertson explains the JavaScript behind rollovers and Lisa Lopuck does a nice job explaining tweening GIF animations. Lopuck's lesson in Flash animation, however, is too cursory a tutorial for beginners yet too elementary for those intermediate users looking for something more. Paul Ingram's discussion of Flash is more helpful, although it's not so detailed that beginners won't still need their manuals.

While coverage of HTML in the book is fairly basic, the subject of DHTML fares better. Thomas Noller's Defy the Rules (www.defytherules.com) Web site uses a constant parade of layers to describe Adobe software. However, Noller's chapter only allows a peek over the designer's shoulder; readers don't really learn how to hand-code DHTML or incorporate it into pages created with Web-layout applications.

Some parts of the book seem dated in this second edition. A number of chapters teach formerly complicated processes for tasks that are now easy--optimizing GIFs, for example. Also, at least one interviewee on the CD-ROM says HTML editors aren't useful, citing PageMill as an example. This conversation clearly precedes the advent of the Dreamweaver and GoLive editors. These parts of the book and CD-ROM should have been replaced in the new edition by hints on how to use these major Web design applications more effectively. --Angelynn Grant

Topics covered: Interviews and biographies of 15 Web designers (including tips on HTML, DHTML, and GIF and Flash animation), storyboarding and planning a site, managing Web sites, working with databases, choosing navigation strategies, and publicizing a site. The CD-ROM includes demo software for Extensis and Macromedia, freeware and shareware, QuickTime interviews with designers, links to helpful Web sites, and project files referenced in the text.

From the Publisher

BONUS CD-ROM INCLUDES: Artwork from the book QuickTime interviews with featured artists Free and demo software from Apple, Extensis, Macromedia, and BoxTop Software Live links to useful Web sites

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 261 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 2 edition (May 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764534556
• ISBN-13: 978-0764534553
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,595,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Title, Disappointing Contents, August 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Web Design Studio Secrets (Paperback)

This book is a compilation of "real-world" techniques of a dozen "real-world" web designers. I think all the folks interviewed (that's right, the two "authors" are really just editors/interviewers) are very talented, but the information they give leaves one thinking whether they really divulged any trade secrets.

The book describes a lot of web-layout and design techniques, but unfortunately many techniques do not go deep enough. For example, I bought the book to learn intricate table layouts, but the chapter on tables just rehashes what every non-beginner web designer already knows and does. How about information on how table elements interact as well as things like merging cells and spliting cells, which can be very, very tricky to handle?

Overall this can be a useful reference.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Required reading for Web designers, March 9, 2001

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Web Design Studio Secrets (Paperback)

This book presents analysis and how-did-they-do-that descriptions of numerous aspects of Web page design and production. The first two chapters covering general design issues and navigation are exceptionally good and should be read by anyone who makes Web pages. These chapters stress the overall need for usability and speed and discuss why sites that don't take their audience into consideration are unsuccessful. The remaining chapters are each geared to specific aspects of Web design that may be of interest to graphic artists designing for the Web; they cover such topics as Web graphics, fonts, animation, multimedia, and 3D worlds. In fact, some of the chapters are so specific that they may not be comprehensible to readers who don't work with Adobe Photoshop every day. The book includes a CD that has interactive examples and demo software for some of the design products mentioned in the book.

While the overall quality of the book is quite good, the technical chapters on HTML and JavaScript are rather weak- -new users of either of these languages won't find these sections very illuminating, and experienced users won't find many new tips either (the example figures showing HTML code are barely legible). The chapter on Web type starts off by considering usability issues, but soon turns to snazzy ways to make an artistic point, seemingly forgetting the needs of users (as well as search engines, which read only real text, not animated gifs or Shockwave). The book is definitely geared towards graphic artists, almost assuming that the readers are working on high-end Macintosh computers. Certainly, any graphic artist designing for the Web will find tremendous value in this book, as well as general readers interested in Web design.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Interesting interviews, outdated information, January 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Web Design Studio Secrets (Paperback)

Many of the techniques described in this book are yesterday's techniques. Tables for precise layout? C'mon -- what about Cascading Style Sheets?

The video chapter is a particular embarrassment. No coverage of QuickTime 3.0's ability to deliver movies for different bandwidths. And the AFI may use VDO, but no one else does! Realvideo and Netshow are FAR more popular.

Read this book for a look at how some designers do things. But don't read it if you're looking for the most current information.