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Sexy Web Design: Creating Interfaces That Work [Paperback]

Elliot Jay Stocks
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)


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Book Description

April 4, 2009

Sexy Web Design is an easy-to-follow guide that reveals the secrets of how to build your own breathtaking web interfaces from scratch. You'll be guided through the entire process of creating a gorgeous, usable web site by applying the timeless principles of user-centered design.

Even if you're short on design skills, with this book you'll be creating your own stunning web sites in no time at all.

Throughout, the focus is on simple and practical techniques that anyone can use - you don't need to have gone to art school or have artistic flair to create stunning designs using the methods outlined in this book.

The book's full-color layout and large format (8" x 10") make Sexy Web Design a pleasure to read.

  • Master key web interface design principles
  • Design amazing web interfaces from scratch
  • Create beautiful, yet functional, web sites
  • Unleash your artistic talents
  • And much more

Who should read this book?

Whether you're completely new to web design, a seasoned pro looking for inspiration, or a developer wanting to improve your sites' aesthetics, there's something for everyone here.

How? Because instead of trying to cover every possible area of creating a web site, we've focused purely on the design stage; that is, everything that happens before a single line of code is written.

However, great design is more than just aesthetics. Long before we open our graphics program of choice, we'll be conducting research, dealing with clients, responding to briefs, sketching out sitemaps, planning information architecture, moving from doodles to diagrams, exploring different ways of interactivity, and building upon design traditions.

But ultimately, you'll be finding out how to create web sites that look drop-dead gorgeous.



Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jina Bolton lives in Silicon Valley, is a member if the AIGA, has a bachelor of fine arts (with an emphasis on computer arts & graphic design) and currently does web design professionally for a living. She's an active public speaker and co-author of SitePoint's The Art & Science of CSS.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 172 pages
  • Publisher: SitePoint; 1 edition (April 4, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0980455235
  • ISBN-13: 978-0980455236
  • Product Dimensions: 0.4 x 7.8 x 9.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #816,131 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

My eyes didn't feel happy most of the way. Thomas John Zakrzewski  |  1 reviewer made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Sexy Design Made Easy. April 5, 2009
Format:Paperback
If you have read as many web design books as I have you find that they fall into basically two categories:

1) The ones in which the author waxes on about how wonderful they are at design, show off page after page of their own portfolio. The entire book becomes a publicity fest.
2) Then there is the type of book that is presented in a level headed manner, it is a great reference of the step by step process that web designers go through to product a web site.

Well Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks is the latter, a well balanced guide that takes you through a clean conversation on how to create that next awesome web site.

The thing that I really like about this book is that it is to the point, it's not overly weighty on the design theory, as it assumes you already have some of that skill locked away already. However this book would still be ideal for a beginning designer.

Was it personally useful for me, well I'll be honest, no it wasn't. While I was reading this book I was just ticking off the points made one by one, noting that in reality there was nothing that I hadn't already learnt from experience. Now I have been doing this a long time, so I do get this a lot. But it is good to know that Elliot in mu mind has covered off all the aspects of web design.

The book is divided into 6 chapters:

1) Overview of the design process, in which the design goals of an interface and the overall process are discussed.
2) Design Research, this chapter was so welcome, explaining why the brief is important, moving onto the design inspirational process.
3) Site Structure, being involved with information architecture, I'm going to have a little bit of a bias here. It's nice to see the consideration of this design element before jumping into the high resolution design.
4) Navigation and Interaction, again I'm bias here, Elliot runs through a whistle stop tour of the common web interactive elements, and what works where and when.
5) Aesthetics, in this solid chapter Elliot looks at the usual design techniques, the grid, layout types (fixed, fluid, flexible, etc), color, mood boards, imagery types, typography and the impact of emotion on the overall user experience. In a way this book is well worth its cost for this chapter alone.
6) Final wrap is with the Deliverables, so now you have that sexy design, how do you organise your Photoshop layers, deliver that mockup, slice the design quickly and write that style guide, well in this chapter Elliot tells us how.

I have yet to read the perfect book, this had a few things that annoyed me, there was one instance where I thought the layout of the pages could have been executed in a different manor. But overall that was a minor point. Nothing that I would discount the book for.

Sexy Web Design is by in large a good reference book.

Full of little hints and tips that will help all but crusty old designers like me. And even then if you have had your eye off the ball for an instant, I bet you will still get something out of this book.

Now if you are looking for a Photoshop guide or a CSS design book, this is not for you, this is about design!

So if you have a design flare, and need to know how to design web sites then this is the book for you.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Sitting under a mentor for a couple of hours April 10, 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really enjoyed seeing the process that Elliot goes through to come up with a Web design. It was like I was sitting with him having me explain his process while coming up with a design. As a veteran designer, there were a lot of little tips that will help me add to my arsenal.

I think the value of this book is being able to have someone mentor you. Elliot has proven "sexy web designs" so he is one you would want to have mentor you. I believe I will become a better designer after sitting under his tutelage.

My only disappointment is the price of the book. Sitepoint seems to price all their books at $39.95 regardless of amount of content. This book was a quick read and I think it would have been better priced at $24.99 or less.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Basic web design process book August 12, 2009
Format:Paperback
Although the book is very well written, it's mainly orientated towards basic web making process, not design. The process is described in a good way, but the design phase is mainly unexplained. Book's title shouldn't emphasize design nor interfaces.
If you're interested in design more than in whole process of making website buy book The Principles of Beautiful Web Design.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars Clutter
If you ever watch the TV show Horders and find it inspirational then this book is for you.

There is nothing "sexy" about the results of his website design goals. Read more
Published on April 6, 2011 by Mdlle Tarponne
4.0 out of 5 stars Designing Websites in an Appealling Way
(I'm reviewing the Kindle Edition.)

It delves into the decidedly unsexy aspects of designing a website behind the scenes, such as researching, site interface,... Read more
Published on March 30, 2011 by Todd Elliott
2.0 out of 5 stars Lack of depth
Interesting book overall, but I was disappointed by the lack of depth on the subject. I am not a graphic designer, I just like design in general, unfortunately I didn't really... Read more
Published on January 8, 2011 by M. Antoine Merour
3.0 out of 5 stars Broad but shallow, you can probably skip it
This book deserves 3 stars for presenting a clear and straightforward overview of the entire web design process, from initial consultation to deliverables. Read more
Published on December 21, 2010 by steveosan
4.0 out of 5 stars A great resource for newcomers and those who want to go into this...
I'm a coder by profession. Sometimes I adventure myself into the webdesign area. Although I know HTML, CSS and Photoshop pretty well, laying out information and making a good... Read more
Published on October 6, 2010 by Gregório Melo
4.0 out of 5 stars Well written
This book offers nice insight into web design, and while not being all inclusive, does a nice job of pointing the student to more in depth resources that expand upon the ideas... Read more
Published on July 6, 2010 by Joe Freeman
5.0 out of 5 stars Top Notch Creative Design Book
I was overall impressed with this book. It has an amazing assortment of creative ideas and makes a great reference book when I'm trying to find something that just "clicks". Read more
Published on February 10, 2010 by Bonnie J. Carter
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must
This book is a must for web-designers and even for web-developers to figure out how design process happens.
One of the best books i've ever read.Strongly recommended.
Published on November 18, 2009 by Mustafa Namoglu
3.0 out of 5 stars Misleading Title
This book promises a lot, but offers very little. The title and description made me assume I would be learning about design theory and when and why to use certain design elements... Read more
Published on October 27, 2009 by J. Winger
1.0 out of 5 stars I believed in miracles...
The author spends the first 118 pages sharing a pretty basic (and decidedly unsexy) overview of the non-aesthetic aspects of website design including more than a fair share of... Read more
Published on September 27, 2009 by Thomas John Zakrzewski
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