Customer Reviews

HTML Artistry: More Than Code

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Thank God this book is NOT for the person who trashed the text in the earlier review. There is a glut of books for the beginner--books that really make me laugh when the covers scream "start designing web pages in a weekend!". This book is for those of us that have a background in design, that are paid professionals who are searching for fresh ideas from colleagues, and not "design gurus" who promise web success.

For the beginners to web design: get a Dummies book, and then pick up a few books on Dreamweaver and Photoshop, and a few months later pick up this book. Your appreciation of the text will be far different than if this is your sole resource on coding HTML.

This is not really a book for learning HTML or Javascript or any of the tools used to create the sites profiled, and it's not a reference book either. Rather, it's a book for getting inspiration on innovative ways of doing things. Other books in this category include "Click Here" by Raymond Pirouz, "Web Design Studio Secrets", and probably the original one of this type, "Killer Websites" and its second edition by David Siegel. All books of this type tend to be opinionated but perhaps this one is a bit less obvious than some others. However it's important to keep in mind that it's the authors that selected the sites to include. And of course everyone has a different opinion as to what constitutes good, innovative design. So the question is...what can you get from books like this that you can't get from surfing around and viewing the source code of sites you like? Well, this book does include lots of sample code and some useful appendices, and the instruction parts are quite clear. Most of all it leads you to sites you may not have been aware of that are pushing the design envelope on the web. Last but not least, it's quite well written. It's probably most useful to intermediate + web designers.

This book is rich with graphics, case studies, and examples and showed me creative ideas on employing basic methods (tables, frames, layers) to create complicating layouts. A must for all levels of web designers. (Do note that the quality declines slightly in the 2nd portion of the book)

First off, it's a decent book. It's full of great ideas, theteaching methodology works and, of course, it's beautifully designed-- that's the whole point, really.

There is, however, a lot to gripe about. This book was pretty obviously rushed to press (No surprise there; at two years old, it's already something of a relic); there are clues to this throughout. The most obvious of them is the "Chapter 8" footer that you find running through Chapters 1 & 5; yes, they split up Chapter 8, but they forgot to rewrite its footers. Those last-minute reshufflings might account for why you've got some impossibly indecipherable code as early as Chapter 2 (The authors say at the outset that their objective in each chapter is to build on what they've covered so far; no joy there).

Every page has got at least one thing wrong with it -- murky graphics, graphics as many as five pages late, irrelevant graphics subbed in for the real McCoy -- never mind the bad grammar. And then, of course, there is the title: "HTML Artistry". There is at least as much JavaScript in this book as there is HTML.

My copy I managed to pick up cheap in an amazon.com auction. Would I have paid full price not knowing what I know now? No, thankfully. If you yourself aren't sure whether or not you want to then why not check out its accompanying website first. You like what you see ...?

HTML Artistry is one of the greatest titles in the web design category. I have used this book in planning the layout of my website, getting ideas for client's sites, and for simple research on what the current standards are. If you do ANY web design, and want to do it well, put this book on your bookshelf. Or rather, open on your desk.

I went into the bookstore looking for...well, I wasn't exactly sure what, but it turned out to be this. It fit the niche I was looking for to a T. In between design inspiration and coding. I disagree with other reviewers (even though they're all positive!) who imply that this book isn't good for learning code. True that is not its main intent (to shove code down your throat), but presented in this volume is exactly the way I like to learn code (html, cgi, javascript, etc.)--little snippet examples tied to actual applications, examples from which I can extrapolate or that I can use as a foundation for looking further into a given technique if I choose to.

I do agree with those who say the main intent here is to keep you in mind of the bigger picture: dreaming up intriguing and appropriate ways of creating a dynamic and "alive" interface for your site.

The fact that the design of the book is every bit as pleasing as the design and functionality of the sites covered in it just adds to the impact. And their own companion site is a really dynamite tool, the icing on the cake. And then of course the tone and humor of the copy from Ms. Ibanez and Ms. Zee also helps to keep a potentially dry subject interesting. It's hard to read though...you want to put the book down and go design some cool sites quick! I'm definitely looking forward to Volume 2 due out in April 2001.

I develop the design and the basics of multiple web sites and farm out the high-end coding issues to a dedicated systems group. This book helped me to put a second generation design together for my sites that not only gets the info out there, but does it in a way that is efficient and appealing to my users.

I found the book "HTML ARTISTRY: more than just code" an excellent resource in my study to HTML and DHTML. The pages were easy to follow and understand. The case study was good and I loved the interview section. It really gave me some ideas of my own.

THANK YOU ARDITH IBANEZ & NATALIE ZEE

I had a time when I sat at a bookstore trying to get the best web design book but I couldnn't found one. A few days later, I went to another bookstore and I saw this book. When I saw its cover, I already know that it is wrote by somebody who is very experience designers. Then I tried to find out who are the authors and I found there is 'a famous Akimbo Design's desinger'. I know much about Akimbo. I know that they are great, so I bought this book. At home, I read over this book and I found it rich in html knowledge no matter in html 4.0 or javascript. Then I started to use this book as my reference in web design until now (I brought this book about 6 months ago). Thank you.

The authors have striked a nice balance between usefulness and inspiration. The book is both a showcase of various web designers' works and interviews with them about web design, typography, getting inspiration, being creative, etc, and the book also offers detailed explanations about some nice design and HTML techniques that you can apply on your webpages.

I first thought i would just read it and then it would sit on the shelf. But i was wrong. Even though i have several HTML reference books right next to this one on the shelf, i keep getting back to HTML Artistry, because it is well-written, nicely illustrated and so easy to understand and apply the techniques.

A nice book for those just beginning to build webpages, and an inspiration for experienced designers! I enjoy using it very much!