Robin Williams Web Design Workshop [Paperback]

Robin Williams (Author), John Tollett (Author), Dave Rohr (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201748673 | ISBN-13: 978-0201748673 | Publication Date: August 4, 2001 | Edition: 1

With Robin Williams' guiding hand, non-professionals, artists, and designers alike have learned the principles behind elegant design. Now that much of this same audience is working on the Web, Robin has focused her attention on the specific needs of this medium with Robin Williams Web Design Workshop. John Tollett and Dave Rohr pitch in with their illustration and graphics experience to create a handsome and engaging instructional book. The ideas in this book tackle all aspects of Web design theory, including all the ways that color, fonts, clip art, photographs and so on contribute to creating a visual impression. Then the book takes the user through site planning and layout, navigability, and functionality, all in Robin Williams' clear and accessible style.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Because "there's more to Web design than Photoshop and HTML," Robin Williams Web Design Workshop covers everything for the working Web designer including "how to survive dealing with clients."

Although Dreamweaver, GoLive, Photoshop, and other applications are mentioned (Flash even gets its own chapter), the book covers the gamut of Web design and technology issues rather than focusing on an individual application.

Each chapter is divided into sections, often no more than a couple of pages long. The chapter on backgrounds, the area of a Web page that seems to attract the worst design crimes, shows you how to avoid "the heartbreak of bad background design" in no less than eight sections.

In many books this subject would be lucky to get eight paragraphs; Robin Williams Web Design Workshop uses a clear two-column layout and plenty of real-life example screen shots to get the message across. Some pages consist only of captioned screen shots providing a great source of visual ideas.

There's a good balance between purely design-related issues and the technical stuff. Subjects like search engines, embedded fonts, DHTML, and forms are given a thorough overview, highlighting the main issues, and links to sources of more in-depth information are often to be found at the end of the chapter.

If you like to learn by example and see yourself more as a designer than a programmer, but want a working knowledge of current Web technologies from a book that you can read away from your computer, this is it. --Ken McMahon, amazon.co.uk

From the Back Cover

Robin Williams has taught millions what makes for good design and why, never forgetting that most of us don't speak jargon--and she does it all with a disarming sense of humor. Now Robin, with coauthors John Tollett and Dave Rohr, translates the principles of creative, effective design to the Web in Robin Williams Web Design Workshop.

Learn from these pros everything you need to know about Web design, including the ways that color, fonts, clip art, photographs, and layout can work together to create the visual impression you want. Robin doesn't just tell you about good Web design, she shows you, walking you through every step of the design process, from site planning and layout to navigation design and functionality--the book is illustrated with hundreds of full-color examples. Like Robin herself, Robin Williams Web Design Workshop strikes the perfect teaching balance, combining theory and real-world experience, all wrapped up in a colorful, engaging package.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (August 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201748673
• ISBN-13: 978-0201748673
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 8.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,361 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, August 12, 2001

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Robin Williams Web Design Workshop (Paperback)

I'm an intermediate web designer. I have technical knowledge but not a lot of original design sense. This book, in conjunction with Robin Williams Design Workshop, has provided me with a lot of inspiration and insight. Now I KNOW how to make sophisticated, classy web pages. Some of the stuff I knew, a lot of it not in the depth covered in this book; but some of it was really new and eye-opening. I can't help but believe that most web designers, whatever their level, would benefit from this book.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you build web pages... you NEED this book. . ., March 7, 2002

By 

Fred Showker "DTG Magazine" (The Design Bookshelf) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Robin Williams Web Design Workshop (Paperback)

I've conducted many web design seminars and workshops around the country since 1994. I've written dozens of articles on the topic for WebDesign-Review.com -- and when I recommend a book on web design, this is THE ONE!
. . . The important feature of this book is not the lavish graphics or the superb text on how to apply good design sense to creating web pages. The most important information here is found in the chapters where Robin addresses the pre-production steps and dealing with clients.
. . . All the flashy stuff -- the graphics, the dynamics and cosmetics don't amount to a hill of beans unless the designer has fulfilled the basic obligations of presenting the client's information so that the client is happy, and readers will embrace the message.
. . . Robin presents clear, concise and even entertaining techniques for developing a copy platform (a term little used in today's flashy web design circles) an outline, and a good client working relationship.
. . . Enjoy the lavish illustrations -- learn from the crafty techniques for everything from optimized images to slicing and dicing. But above all study the chapters on WHY you design the way you do rather than how.
. . . This is a rousing Editor's Choice in the Designers' Bookshelf for March 2002 and once you have it in your hands you'll see why.
Fred Showker

34 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Generally overrated, June 10, 2002

By 

Richard Eltzroth (Cotopaxi, Colorado United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Robin Williams Web Design Workshop (Paperback)

I bought this web design book 2 weeks ago based on the reviews ... . It was actually a disappointment. Upon completion of the book I had seen a lot of nice web designs by Robin Williams' design firm but I still didn't know how to even begin my own design except that I needed to shell out [money] for Dreamweaver or GoLive. The attitude of the authors appeared to be "good web design takes years to learn so why don't you just hire us to do it for you" instead of actually teaching the reader. If you're a beginner like me, try "Learning Web Design" by Jennifer Niederst instead. I learned more in the first 25 pages of it than in the whole Williams book.