Sexy Web Design: Creating Interfaces That Work [Paperback]

Elliot Jay Stocks (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

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 (March 19, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980455235
• ISBN-13: 978-0980455236
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #88,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

  #57 in

  Books > Computers & Internet > Graphic Design > Website Architecture & Usability

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sexy Design Made Easy., April 5, 2009

By	G. Barber (Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sexy Web Design: Creating Interfaces That Work (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.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sitting under a mentor for a couple of hours, April 10, 2009

By	Jeff Bridgforth (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sexy Web Design: Creating Interfaces That Work (Paperback)

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.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I believed in miracles..., September 27, 2009

By	Thomas John Zakrzewski (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Sexy Web Design: Creating Interfaces That Work (Paperback)

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 vague and sometimes inane generalizations; e.g., on page 97: "Make your color choices wisely..." Wisely? If I knew how to do that, I wouldn't have spent $40 on this book. And on page 100: "If your eyes feel happy, then go for it." And clap your hands, if you know it.

Then suddenly in the space of 10 pages the author presents his final website design with detailed rationale, plunging from a 10,000 foot overview to a 20X dissecting microscope inspection. I only wish I could have understood what he was talking about as he peered through his lens.

And where in all this is the "Sexy" promised in the title? The author seems to think the font Museo is "a very sexy font" (page 127), and also, generally speaking, trying anything "a bit out of the ordinary" (page 128). Yes, I suppose a bit of judicious rebellion has a certain beauty to it.

On a positive note, the book is only 146 pages long. My eyes didn't feel happy most of the way.