Customer Reviews

Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

It's disappointing to read all the negative reviews of what I think is a very good book. I think many reviewers lack the understanding of just what constitutes a style guide, so I am going to give my best definition of what a style guide is. Style guides, such as the Chicago Manual of Style, are more concerned with good journalistic practices than graphic design, covering such topics as how to treat page titles, the proper attributing of an author, how to construct footnotes, the importance of dating articles, consistent nomenclature, the consistent use of language, and other important but admittedly dry topics. In almost all cases these things will influence graphic design, and some *very* basic, but in my opinion very good, graphic design information is covered. Also covered, to a fairly high level of detail, is information on graphic format and web color, navigation, and basic usability issues. What this book does not cover, and what one should not expect from a style guide, are examples of cutting-edge design, or information on current design trends (or what many of us think of when we thing of "style"). I think all graphic designers would do well to head the advice in this book, and think that most good graphic designers already do, and are probably already familiar with the information presented here. Obviously designers that know the rules usually break them with better results than those that don't. I think most designers will appreciate this book. If you are looking for an example of really cool, award-winning Websites, try the magazine Communication Arts, especially their Interactive Annual. If you are looking for a great book to introduce you to the basics, I haven't found a better book than this.

To sum up:

"Style" means "cool" to most of us. Try Communication Arts Interactive Annual for exaples of current, award-winning "style".

A "Style Guide" is an explaination of common conventions for a given medium. For an example of a good "Style Guide", get this book.

Let's get what this book is NOT out of the way: it is not a technical reference, nor is it a "killer graphic" how to. It is a style guide similar to The Chicago Manual of Style, and covers effective journalistic practices (the importance of dating material, article attributions, references, etc.)and sound layout and navigation strategies. Anyone with any experience in designing web sites will already have a working knowledge of most of what this book covers, but it is still an excellent reference for working professionals, and the best place to start for beginning designers I can think of.

Criticizing this book for hampering a designers "creativity" or use of technology seems silly to me. I've never met writers, editors or graphic designers that complained about The Chicago Manual of Style or Strunk and White. If you want to make sure your site has everything it might need to be useful to the user, buy this book. I also recommend "Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity " by Jakob Nielsen, as well as "Envisioning Information" and "Visual Explanations" by Edward Tufte.

In the last forty years, our fast-paced, future-shocked society has made it harder to comprehend the idea that certain concepts are timeless and enduring. Believe it or not, some things do not have to "improve" every year or be replaced by the latest thing in vogue. That is why enlightened people still read Plato or listen to Beethoven. That is why I am giving this book 5 stars. What it teaches you are classic design concepts, only applied to the Web. Keep it clean and useful, keep it consistent, plan it out completely before you construct a single page. And most important, design it for the intended users, not for your own entertainment. If you are new to Web design especially, this book will get you off to a great start and give you much to think about.

If you are just at the beginning stages of creating a web site - buy this book! It gives you a step by step plan to make sure you think about what you are doing before starting. As the books says "careful planning and a clear purpose are the keys to success in building web sites. . ."

This is not a technical manual or a book to teach design. It's a "think about what you want to accomplish" guide. If you want to feel confident you are getting off on the right foot with your web, whether you are designing it yourself or outsourcing, this book will help tremendously.

Hardcore designers won't like this book, as they usually don't like readability or usability studies. It is a valuable basic reference for business designers for whom the point is clarity and usability, not cutting-edge design. It is valuable for starting a Web project to set the ground rules upon which design is built. I highly recommend it. Use it to avoid building another of the thousands of really bad Websites.

This book provides a concise introduction to principles of Website design. I found the first few chapters, about process, interface design, and site design extremely good. But towards the end of the chapter on page design, some of the advice started to get a little questionable. For example, they explain three ways of using tables to create gutters between parallel columns, but never note what a no-no parallel columns are for Web page design, since they require the reader to scroll down, then up, then down again.

The graphics and multimedia chapters strayed a little from the concept of a Website design manual. Instead of presenting guidelines for effective use of graphics and other media, they presented detailed, somewhat technical information, about media formats and optimizing media for the Web (particularly in Photoshop). This was interesting information in its own right, but I would have liked to read more about using media effectively. One guideline they suggest is to use background images no bigger than 100 x 100 pixels, omitting advice about how to avoid the dreaded repeating border (use width = 1280).

One aspect that makes this book very different from others on the market is that it draws on primarily academic or university-related Websites for examples rather than from commercial sites. The book includes a good list of references and an index.

This book is a good reference book for new web site designers and a good refresher for more experienced designers as well. The chapters flow very nicely and the authors give plenty of attention to the entire thought process of designing a web site without even mentioning HTML, Javascripts, etc. in the first half of the book. Exactly what I was looking for.

What I didn't like, as one other reviewer mentioned, was the fact that almost all the web site examples used in the book were from Yale. My guess would be that if you looked at these sites now (2 years after print), they look different and are laid out differently than as mentioned in the book.

I do like all of the basic design principles that are covered: uses of space, font styles, browser differences, use of graphics, importance of the "above the fold" area of a site, navigation (good section), etc. It was definatley worth the price (under $20) and I will probably read it again within a year after working on some sites. A good reference for us all.

This is not a book on how to do HTML or how to import graphics. This is a book purely about design features of a web site. Most major web sites that you find pleasing and organized and viewable exhibit the design features in this book. Read it. It is enlightening to say the least and I repeat you will find the good features of well designed web sites embodied in this book. If you are more tuned to throwing technology at the visitor versus being visitor focused then please do not read this book because I want your visitors to return to my site and not yours.

The book addresses most of the important issues any Web designer needs to know to be effective in using internet communications media. It is relevant to the full range of users and is the best book I've found to date on the subject.

While designing a website, whether experienced at it or not, this book is invaluable. The folks at Yale know Information Design, and this book proves it.