The Web Design WOW! Book [Paperback]

Jack Davis (Author), Susan Merritt (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201886782 | ISBN-13: 978-0201886788 | Publication Date: April 10, 1998 | Edition: First Printing CD Included

Here's an indispensable source of practical advice and creative inspiration for anyone designing screen-based communications-from Web to CD-ROM and beyond. From Jack Davis, co-author of the award-winning Photoshop Wow! Book, and Susan Merritt, this book covers the conceptual process, design fundamentals, and essential interface components. It includes over 50 case studies and more than 600 full-color examples of highly successful and creative interfaces for marketing, sales, education, and portfolio presentations.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This outstanding full-color guide teaches you how to apply design principles to the creation of on-screen interactive media-- primarily Web sites and, to a lesser extent, CD-ROMs and floppy-disk presentations. The authors first provide an overview of what you need to consider when creating a Web site or any other multimedia project. They discuss production methods and teach you how to define your purpose and audience; decide on your project's organization, content, and navigation; and assemble, test, and market your final product. Next they delineate the various interface elements you need to consider, such as buttons, backgrounds, typography, animation, images, video, and audio, and they discuss the trends in each area, such as the decreasing popularity of beveled buttons and the increasing popularity of 3-D graphics, interactive help, and user feedback. The following chapter is devoted to teaching you five basic tenets of good design, including clarity, consistency, and contrast. The following chapters show you successful Web sites and CD-ROMs in the areas of marketing, entertainment, education and training, publishing, portfolios and presentations, and sales. These case studies show lots of graphical elements along with explanations of why certain approaches work and others do not.

There's very little emphasis on the tools you need to accomplish the design of your site or CD-ROM. But, where such information is relevant, the authors mention the Windows and Macintosh products designers used to create a special graphic or effect, or products frequently used in general, such as Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Flash. Unlike other books in the Wow! series, the focus here is not on software how-to tips but on design tips, so just about anyone--whether beginning designer, creative director, production manager, or marketing professional, for example--can learn what's important in planning, designing, finalizing, and updating good sites and CDs. One thing that's consistent with the series: each topic is addressed in one or two pages, so you get a quick glimpse into each topic and therefore an easy way to browse to find whatever might interest you. The included hybrid CD-ROM comes with demonstration versions of WYSIWYG and standard HTML editors and full versions of Netscape Communicator 4, Internet Explorer 4, Macromedia Shockwave and Flash, RealPlayer, and GIF and other Web utilities. --Kathleen Caster

From the Back Cover

Here's an indispensable source of practical advice and creative inspiration for anyone designing screen-based communications--from the Web to CD-ROM and beyond. From Susan Merritt and Jack Davis, coauthor of the award-winning Photoshop Wow! Book, The Web Design Wow! Book covers the conceptual process, design fundamentals, and interface components; includes over 50 case studies; and features hundreds of full-color samples showcasing some of the most successful and creative interfaces for marketing, education, sales, and portfolio presentations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; First Printing CD Included edition (April 10, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201886782
• ISBN-13: 978-0201886788
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,392,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Only Eye Candy with no substance., April 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Web Design WOW! Book (Paperback)

With my first browse, it appeared this book would be a worthy addition, but once I got into the meat of the book I found it had very little worth except for a few inspirational moments. The title leads you to believe it is about the web. Actually about have of it is. The other half is on CD design and packaging. Most of these designs would be way to graphic intensive for a smart web page. Also there is no info on how these designs were actually accomplished. No case histories. Only skin deep reviews about the project. For me, it would be unwise to spend the [money] on this publication. This is truly only eye-candy.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiration and Refinement..., April 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Web Design WOW! Book (Paperback)

I'm a web designer that needed inspiration for fresh ideas. This book provided me with a systematic way of coming up with ideas and designing from the ground up. It also inspired me and gave me new ideas by looking at the beautiful graphics of other sites. I was pleasantly surprised that this book teaches you the principles of design and marketing while using various successful websites as examples (I thought it would just be a showcase of pretty pages). I just wish it wasn't paperback as I'll probably wear it out very quickly from reading it over and over...

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Caution: This book can be dangerous to your business, August 31, 1998

By 

Walter H. Bock "Wally Bock - Author, Blogger,... (Charlotte NC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Web Design WOW! Book (Paperback)

This book is not only bad, it's dangerous.

Let's start with truth in advertising. This is the WEB design wow! book, yet many examples are from CD-ROM and disk applications which don't work with the same strengths and limitations as the web.

Now, on to the content. If you design a web site based on what you get from this book you will produce a cumbersome, lumbering, self-congratulating and user-losing-site. The book exalts stunning graphic design at the expense of usability and routinely calls for the use of exotic plug-ins that simply aren't in the toolkit of most business web users.

There is no attention paid to underlying information design or nonlinear information design. No mention is made of simple navigational options (navigation choices at the top and bottom of pages, site indexes). Devices, such as splash screens which are generally ineffective get prominent play, and techie solutions predominate. For example, the book discusses simplification by using a GIF animation instead of a Shockwave plug-in, but never discusses the appropriate places and methods for using animations.

In short, this is not a book about web design, which is about information design, functionality and graphics that support business objectives. Instead it's a book about graphic design and how it might apply to the web. The graphics are stunning, but if you're looking for how to design an effective business web site, read the research that's out there on what business users want, and save the bucks you'd spend on this book.