Customer Reviews

Web Design on a Shoestring

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Web Design on a Shoestring is divided into two parts: Production covers planning the site and marshaling assets; The Tools covers content management, standards compliance, and web hosting and domain registration.

Ms. Bickner's theme is that proper planning will keep your project in line and your clients' expectations in check. The point almost goes without saying, but the value in this book is its practical approach that is backed up with checklists and planning documents to put the advice into play.

Plenty of real-world examples inform this book. Chapter 7, for instance, shows a step by step transformation of a web page built on tables and presentation tags into a standards-compliant page based on CSS. I have read a couple of other makeover articles, but Ms. Bickner does a superior job of showing the before and after and describing how to get there. In the process, she makes a compelling case for the value of standards compliance in terms of efficiency and results.

Some sections I found difficult to understand, and while it might be me, I think some editing was needed.

My notes have a number of sections to re-read for solutions to problems I have encountered and for things I want to do better. The sections on planning a site are required reading, and I personally found the CSS makeover to be instructive and actually inspiring. The style is informal but not overly chatty, with good charts and instructive examples, and with suggestions based on sound judgment.

Despite some unevenness, this book has value for anyone making the step from tagging pages to developing full web sites. While the focus is on the small-scale or part-time designer, Web Design on a Shoestring has lessons for anyone who works with limited time or resources.

For a long time I've hoped that someone would write a book like this. I've also feared it, because the wrong writer, by taking a superficial approach, would kill the topic ... and I believe this is a subject that cries out for more than one book. Fortunately, Bickner's book does the topic justice.

First a confession. As a web designer with over seven years' experience, I've designed, coded, and produced more than 50 Web sites in my career but never once had the opportunity to work on a big budget project ... not even during the so-called dotcom boom years.

So what Bickner talks about in this book is not a new world to me, it's the world I work and live in. This makes me a writer's worst nightmare, because I feel I know as much as anyone about exceeding expectations with little to no support. I expected to be able to trash this book but instead I found myself learning a lot. The chapters on hosting costs and gotchas and on content management systems were particularly useful.

There's also a risk that a book like this will be too general for its own good, but Bickner seems to know what to include and what to leave out. Her focus is consistent throughout ... it's all about delivering great results even when your budget is laughably small. She writes well and respects the reader's time. I like this book, will keep it on my desk, and recommend it highly.

I was talking with a friend who had just had a web site built. It was a simple site with attractive graphics and probably fewer than 10 separate pages. It had no shopping cart, and suffered from the typical Flash intro that interrupted visitors before they had time to explore what they wanted. I offered a gentle critique, and then casually asked him how much he paid to build the site. I could hardly contain my shock when he waved his hand in the air and said, "oh, about $20,000".

If he (and I aim this at any solo entrepreneur, or anyone else with limited resources) had read Carrie Bickner's book first, he might have spent as little as a tenth of his eventual cost, with greater satisfaction, and the ability to update his site more easily and inexpensively in the future. Bickner takes a holistic view, looking at the fabric of the site from initial planning, to hosting, to web standards. She's also ready with suggestions along the way to economize, whether it's by backing-off features you can't afford, through savvy design choices, or in careful selection of service providers.

Be warned: this book assumes a fairly broad array of skills and knowledge that one person alone might not likely hold. You may gloss over her suggestions for planning, usability, copywriting, and design without understanding their necessity. Likewise, the technical discussions of CSS, XHTML, content-management, and web hosting may be too detailed or obscure for your liking or experience. This is not a guide for beginners. If you've never launched a site before, use this book with trusted colleagues who have, and who are willing to share Bickner's perspective.

Though she mentions it only in passing, her New York Public Library Style Guide is a wonderful parallel resource that ties her into the web standards community. Once you tap into Jeffrey Zeldman, Eric Meyers, or other folks in and around alistapart.com, you'll appreciate even more how Carrie Bickner's simple little book is tied to the cloth of the web universe. This is a handbook (not a cookbook) that you might have around for a while.

Counting "only" 215 pages, this is a rather "thin" book. But make no judging mistake here. This book covers all the essential topics to building modern websites: usability, accessibility, writing for the web, design, CMS, web standards... If you are the designer pressed for time, you can easily read it in a couple of hours, and if necessary once again the next day, and the next day... The book clearly references other "industry standard" books if you want to learn more about each individual topic.
A great overview of what modern web design should be. Clean, short and to the point.

On a tight budget? Overwhelmed and overchoiced by your design options? Read this book and learn how to create spectacular web sites without cramping your wallet or your client's image. Carrie Bickner guides you through the ups and downs, ins and outs of designing great web sites while keeping your budget low and your sanity in check. Chapter 5 is especially meaty giving good examples on the use of colors, typography, and images; and the benefits of separating content from design with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). She also tells you how to minimize your web site costs by piggy-backing on other web site domains until you can afford your own DSN.

As a web designer myself, I have definitely gained some insight into developing my online writing style, balancing client expectations with realistic work loads, and the undeniable advantages of using web standards at all costs. Buy this book, you need it!

Before I review this, I must say one thing. If you have ever seen the movie "This is Spinal Tap" you will laugh when you see the figure on page 30 and remember the bass player saying, "making a big thing out of it would've been a good idea."

Since the dotcom bubble burst, web designers have been expected to deliver whizz-bang websites for pocket change. They are supposed to do the work of five people with a fifth of the budget. This book is intended to help the designer who is trying to work within a tight budget.

"Web Design on a Shoestring" is packed with tips on planning, testing, and building websites when working with small margins. It is full of helpful advice about where to go for low-cost resources, such as image libraries and web hosting providers. Plus there is a special section about saving time and money by designing with web standards.*

I heartily recommend this book to any web designer who is feeling the pinch, and to others who would like to make a few extra bucks for their efforts.

*For more on designing with web standards, I recommend a book by Jeffrey Zeldman, called ... er ... "Designing with Web Standards". Some might say that they were a match made in heaven...

The extraordinarily helpful information I gleaned from Ms. Bickner's book saved thousands for my small architectural firm. Armed with the succinct overview of web site development this invaluable reference provides, I was able to ask the right questions of prospective developers during the vetting process. The best part is that I understood what they were talking about when my questions were answered. Bonus: because of her well-chosen case studies (contrary to a previous members' unnecessarily brutal shredding of what turned out to be, in my opinion as a visual designer, the most attractive of a very fine bunch), I was assured that good design and pleasing aesthetics were possible within smaller budgets. In short, before you decide to dive in and bring your business to the web market, buy this excellent resource. Having the knowledge Ms. Bickner shares in this engaging read is the equivalent of having a consultant by your side during the complex web development process.

For me Ms. Bickner breaks no new ground in this book. However, the compilation of all this info in one place makes it so convenient and very useful. If you work on small budget web dev/design projects you owe it to yourself to keep this book within arms reach. Her thoughts on developing a project plan are great as are the content management tips. This book belongs on your desk.

A confession: I'm not a designer, have no tech. cred but love the web and work with designers frequently. That's what's so great about Carrie Bickner's book. It speaks to the professional and the interested amateur alike, with equal intelligence and without oversimplifying, in clear, engaging prose, a rare compliment for a technical book. Reading it, I feel empowered as a web design customer. I know where and how my money is being spent, where I should save and where I should not. It did me a great service and was pleasent to read to boot. Highly recommended.

I wanted to like this book. I really did.
As a web designer who has worked on many 'budget' sites, I was hoping to glean some insight into streamlining my workflow to rock out a great site at a great price.
Unfortunately, the book didn't do that. True to it's name, however, many of the sites it references as examples do look, well, cheap.

For example, one of the sites mentioned in the first chapter cost $2500 (according to the book), consisted of lousy (really low quality) photography, large blocks of text which don't ever seem to make any point, and the site owner didn't even get his own domain name or hosting account! All he gets is four meaningless pages with bad photos and you can't even squeeze the low cost of registering a domain in the $2500 budget?!

I mean, what the heck is that?
Since when are cutting the domain name and hosting out GOOD ways to save money? It seems they also cut out the main reason for the site because even after looking at it several times, I don't see the point.
Furthermore, how are users supposed to find the site?
And if anyone did find it, what would they use it for?
I honestly think this client could have saved $2500.

A look at the site of the 'shoestring designer' responsible for this 'creation,' it is easy to see how the point was missed. Her site consists of mystery meat navigation, really really really small link text that only appears when you mouse over really really little squares (and the squares are on the right, the text that appears is centered a little lower on the page), the text images used as headings are all but illegible, and this site also rambles on with long meaningless blocks of text. Does it validate? Yes. But is there a valid reason for this site to exist? I think not.

To be fair, if you're a novice designer, you might be able to find some good information about standards and CSS, but I'm afaraid you might also mistake some of the poor examples as 'good design.' I am sure you can find something else out there that is better, however.
If you're already designing sites of any size larger than 4 pages, then I am afraid there is little here of any value.

In any case, don't waste your money.