Customer Reviews

Web Sites that Work

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I had a lot of problems with this book beginning with its misleading title. "Web Sites That Work" makes it sound like you can expect some technical information. Not so. There's basically nothing here that actually tells you how to produce a web site that works. There are almost no references to HTML, web-safe colors, CSS, or any other technical aspects of web design. Authored by "ROGER BLACK with Sean Elder", the book is structured like a long softball interview with questions for and quotes from Black & members of his design firm. I found this profoundly irritating; it was distracting and it made the book seem transparently self-serving. As for the content: lots of largely irrelevant glossy photos, not a lot of actual information imparted. If you're looking for a retrospective of Black's career, and lots of pictures of his big pumpkin head, you'll love it. But otherwise there's not a lot here. Black gets around issues like file size & optimization by ignoring them, claiming that everyone will have broadband by the end of 1998 anyway. So he feels free to use big-ass graphics with ludicrous download times to mimic print design. It's 2000 and I don't know about you but I still have a modem. Which may be why I never visit any of the sites that Black designs. And regarding Black's vaunted classic design principles, ANY first year course in design, or basic graphic design text, will teach you everything this book does and more-- and you won't have to swim through Black's heavy egocentric pontification to do it. And how about the design? The book is heavy, expensive, and somewhat pleasing to the eye, but ironically enough it's not designed very well! There's not much organization and a lot of the pictures seem randomly placed on the page. My final judgement: 50% of this book slams everyone else trying to do web design for doing it wrong; 40% of the book lards praise on Black & his lackeys for their approach to design. The other 10% is the useful information that managed to sneak through. I got it on clearance for $2, which is about what it's worth in my estimation. It would be nice if there was a book that taught web programmers about classic design principles-- including how to implement them successfully on the web. But Roger Black's book isn't it.

Although this book is very pretty with lots of ink, thick pages, and nice graphics, I thought that the information value was very low. All of the information that was worth anything could have fit in a magazine article. This book seems to be a "look how cool Roger Black is" book, and it even has a little section in the back all about Roger Black, in case you didn't catch it from the rest of the book. Roger Black's Web work is very nice, so he has a lot to brag about, but this book should not have been the way to go about it. Although his Web design may work for certain audiences, there's much more to it than this very opinionated (and limited) version. He should stick to magazine design. Don't waste your money. This book is not only over-priced because of the flashy presentation, but it's not even worth the content.

Where do I begin? The author makes a point of saying he will not write in the first person (ala David Siegel), but the text of the book is basically interviews of Black and his employees, all speaking in the first person. Opposite from his list of ten biggest web mistakes is a screen shot of a "good" web site making one of the blunders he mentions (its the porsche ad). Most of the text is an ad for his firm, almost all example sites are his, which by the way don't look too easy to navigate. Case in point is the graphics-heavy Discovery Channel Online page, which has no heirarchy and a confusing array of links jumping from it, and if you check out the current page (www.discovery.com), you will see they abandoned it for a more traditional page. The two-page spreads of the author and his resume at the end left me wondering why they were there. The biggest beef I have with Mr. Black is that he talks crap about new designers, how he hates new-school ideas coming from someone who isn't formally trained. I have heard that opinion a million times from people who think everyone has to go through years and years of pain and torture before they deserve any respect. If someone makes great pages, or great art, who cares if they were classically trained or not, just swallow your pride and admit it is good work, even if it comes from a 15 year old

It's ok, Roger definetly has some knowledge. The best information comes from Jakob Nielsen, check out his site useit.com and his books to design successful, user-friendly, and attractive sites.

All Black talks about is himself, his organizations, his work, and his beliefs. As insteresting as some of those are, this book gives a very poor overview of what makes a good web site, and fails to feature a wide array of design styles and site examples. Reads like one long Black advertisement.

Not to take anything away from Roger Black - he has designed some very aesthetically pleasing web sites - but what was this book supposed to be about? Certainly it gave great insight into his mind and methodology, but that is all it gave. To read it you would believe that he is the only designer out there, and that Red and Black (although nice) is the only acceptable color palette.

Also, if this is a testemant to effective content organization, why was I constantly flipping back and forth between incongruous pages and superfluous magazine designs from the sixties? Yeah this guy had a great career, but that's not why I bought the book.

And another thing - this book is the definition of overly designed. Is that to make up for the lack of content? Were all the saturated glossy pages supposed to make us think that our money was well spent on this self-serving egomaniac?

Save your money, this book isn't worth it.

The recommendation above by Amazon's internet reviewer makes me doubt if they even read the books they review. Ironic since Black didn't really write the book either, using a ghost writer. I didn't find any photoshop techniques, and Black wasn't giving away any tips other than to copy his style almost exactly, which you can find for free by reading the mostly damning reviews given here. It's a glossy book worth buying if you like looking at pitures of Roger Black gazing at his monitor, and listening to all his employees recommend their own services to you. It should be called Web Sites that Wank, as this is all Black is doing in his book. He should be paying you $45 to read this.

What Black has to say about web-design in this book would fit onto a single 640x480 screen in 72 point bold. He fills a book with pictures of his shaven head, repeats pictures of his own sites, and strangely, since the cover claims he wrote the book himself, quotes himself in the form "Black says". I read the book in a library, and would want to go to his office if I had paid the $45 cover price. Black no doubt sees this as controversy, but the guy is a pseud, and it seems from what he says in his book that others do all the design work anyway. Don't pay for this advert for Black's company and Adobe. Boycott the man, the publisher and maybe stop even looking at the web, for if this is the future of web design then we will only be seeing self congratulatory web sites in black and white and red with big serif fonts.

In response to the reader from Frederick, Maryland (Below), Black espouses himself throughout much of what amounts to a printed commercial.

I thought I was buying a book that was packed with knowledge and tips on making a 'web site that works' but instead got a cheesy autobiography with the design history of several magazines, some very short lessons in typography, and tons of pictures of this Roger Guy. (How about putting in some more pics of websites that work instead?)

I believe that Black Really wanted to write an autobiogrophy about himself, but realized that no one would buy it, so he disguised it as a seemingly helpful book hoping to make some money.

Roger, I have nothing personal against you, but you cost me 40 bucks to listen to you talk about yourself and I'm not happy. Do us a favor and make your next revision more about 'Web Pages That Work' and less about the 'Life and Accomplishments of Roger Black: Lord and Inspiration of the Magazine Industry'.

I have a bit of a problem with Roger Black, in regards to his ego versus the repetitive nature of his work. I like his clean designs, but this is a guy who never tries anything new. He's been lucky to make a career of it. With this book, he seems to officially be resting on his laurels. Not much effort here except on the printer's part. Glad I didn't pay full price for this multi-page "gee, look at me" self-promo piece for Mr. Black. But my big problem is that...WHO PROOFREAD this thing? there are phrases that repeat over and over, multiple spellings of certain words and phrases, typos, and just plain misspellings. "Kristy Brinkley"? "Adobe After Affects?" There's dozens of them. Hmmm. Seems like it was rushed out with not much integrity. Mr. Black, if it's got your name on it, and you are the perfectionist you seem to be, then find a better proofreader--or do it yourself. It's embarrassing. Oh, and I double-dog dare you to NOT use red in a design.