Non-Designer's Web Book, The (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

by Robin Williams (Author), John Tollett (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
While the second edition of The Non-Designer's Web Book won't answer all of your technical questions about the inner workings of the Web, it explains most of what a beginning designer needs to know: what the Web is, how it gets to your computer, how to use it, and, most of all, how to design for it.

Any artist can tell you that you have to know how a medium works to get the most impact from working in it. A basic understanding of how the Web works enables the good designer to create the most effective sites. This book thoroughly discusses the different kinds of graphics that are used on the Web, when to use one over another, how to make the most of text styles, and how to design navigation systems.

The comparisons are the best stuff here--good design vs. bad design, why designing Web pages is different from designing printed pages, and why a site looks terrific on one monitor but terrible on another. Two chapters on properly preparing graphics and setting typography for use on a Web site describe how to avoid obvious mistakes that would make your work look amateurish.

Not limited to design, The Non-Designer's Web Book shows how to get a site up and running, register the domain name, and add it to search engines. After the design is finished and implemented, the site has to be uploaded and updated; this is explained, too.

If there is one fault with this book, it's the lack of information on specific authoring tools. The barest overview of the current crop of tools appears in chapter 3, "Just What Are Web Pages, Anyway?", but a discussion of why you should choose one package over another is absent.

Don't let that fault stop you from buying this book, however. Plenty of magazines regularly have Web authoring tool "shootouts." What the magazines don't do, and what The Non-Designer's Web Book excels at, is tell you how to make well-designed pages. If you're going to build Web sites, for either personal or professional use, but you have no clue where to begin, start with this book. It's easy to read, devoid of confusing jargon, and full of dos and don'ts to help you avoid common snags. --Mike Caputo

From Library Journal
Lynda Weinman (Coloring Web Graphics, Deconstructing Web Graphics, and Designing Web Graphics, all LJ 5/1/97) is the designer's designer, but most people on the web don't know much about color theory. This book is for them. It covers everything from what the web is and how to search it to uploading finished pages and registering a web site. Very clearly written and well illustrated, this will circulate in virtually any library. Markup Languages The Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is considered too complicated for most people undertaking web-page construction, but the intricate structure provided by SGML is invaluable for large linked document sets. Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) uses SGML as its conceptual model but can be quickly mastered and is the now-familiar, relatively simple coding used for web-page design. To further complicate matters, Extensible Markup Language (XML) has been created as a sort of a half-way point between underperforming HTML and too-complex SGML. Here are some titles to help clear it all up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 2 edition (September 18, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201710382
• ISBN-13: 978-0201710380
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (80 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #493,038 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great book for beginners; good for advanced webheads., July 29, 1999

By	Chris d'Aquin (Buena Vista, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Non-Designer's Web Book: An Easy Guide to Creating, Designing, and Posting Your Own Web Site (Paperback)

Just like the title says, if you have little or no design experience/training, this is a great book to have. But even if you have been designing web sites for a while like me (3 years), there are plenty of things you might find useful.

The book is full-color. Much of it assumes you know little about computers, HTML, and the Internet. It also assumes you are using one of the popular HTML editors and graphics programs like Frontpage and Photoshop. Even with these liabilities, there are wonderful principles, tips and techniques provided by the authors that should benefit even experienced designers.

For me, the meat of the book was the middle where it describes the basics of design, color, layout, and typography. The advanced tips and tricks chapter also offered some tidbits I hadn't thought of before. However, I breezed through the beginning and ending chapters (on the Internet, web pages, site organization, uploading your site, and testing it) because they had little to offer I didn't already know. But for a beginner this may be valuable information.

One reason I wanted this book was all of its beautiful and creative design examples. If I am stumped on how to design something, I will pick up this book and see if it may inspire me. The authors didn't provide "cutting edge" type graphics, but examples that are simple, colorful and effective.

122 of 133 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Very Good, February 3, 2002

By A Customer

Forget this book! There's a better solution. I bought this book based on my experience reading the author's Non-Designer's Design Book. I would strongly recommend buying that. The Web book though, is trying to give you overall information on a variety of software that really benefits no one particular user. A lot of the generic tips are good, but included is a lot of information on specific products, such as Photoshop, that are promoted as the ultimate for Web design. Photoshop is very expensive, and I already have Corel Draw and PhotoDraw. Most beginners would not run out and buy Photoshop anyway.

Aside from the scattered info about various software, there are also too many mistakes. As is pointed out in many other reviews here, Netscape is not preferred, and has not been the leading browser for a long time. Page 208 has a serious mistake recommending loading an entire page size graphic in order to get a horizontal block across a page. A color filled table is the correct approach. This was unfortunately typical of many errors that I found.

I have to admit that I was looking for a more design oriented book since I have some Web authoring experience. After reading the book I believe I can offer a better solution to someone looking for both design and Web building information. First, buy Ms. Williams Non-Designer's Design Book. Second, decide on which Web authoring software you might want to use. Third, buy or scavenge all the written information you can about that software. This way you will have the design information, and you'll have specific information about what YOU will actually be using. Many of these books give tips peculiar to Web design. For someone that's an absolute Internet novice, start with a book that tells you what that's all about first. They're plenty of them out there.

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Web Design Concepts With a Lighter Touch, September 27, 2000

By	Karen Hertzberg (Oconomowoc, WI United States) - See all my reviews

Too many web design books approach the subject with a jargon-laden, heavy-handed approach--not so with THE NON-DESIGNERS WEB BOOK. Williams and Tollett explain the Web, as well as design concepts, with a touch of dry humor and a unique, ultimately readable style. Reading this book is a joy due to its simple, accessible style and conversational language. It's probably one of the few web design books you'll ever read from cover-to-cover.

Who is this book for? It's mostly for the design novice. If you have any amount of experience working with the Web and creating websites, some of this stuff is going to be a little simplistic. Even so, read this book for the design concepts it presents. Too many so-called web designers know the technical aspects of creating a website, but fall far short when it comes to design skills. The basic principles put forward in this book will make you a better designer. They certainly worked for me!

If you're designing a website and you know nothing about design, invest in this book. It's a sure winner!