Web by Design: The Complete Guide (Paperback)

~ Molly Holzschlag (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Successful Web design is the merging of technology and art to create a site that is not only visually exciting, but effective at communicating information. This book addresses all the critical design and technology challenges that Web designers face today. Readers will learn practical design concepts and techniques that apply to all major Web design tools. .

Product Details

• Paperback: 901 pages
• Publisher: Sybex, San Francisco (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0782122019
• ISBN-13: 978-0782122015
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.5 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,245,475 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Important Topics covered but written poorly, January 3, 2000

By	"ranger_fox" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This book is nicely organized, but weighted down (figuratively AND literally) by repetition and unessential conversational language. Structured like a textbook, the last chapter of each section is a review with quizes and exercises. Various and important topics crucial to web design are discussed, and is written in a nontechnical language very easy to understand, although at times the information seems cursory. The conversational language the author uses detracts rather than enhances the text with the non-computer related analogies she uses. On the plus side, there are plenty and a wide selection of different web page examples with source codes. This book contains important basic design information of which every designer should be aware, but the size (it's big and heavy) of the book could be cut down by 1/3 and still retain all its informational content with examples. If you like an introductory web design book that speaks in a user-friendly voice this book might be worth looking through. But the more advanced web developer who prefers more technical depth would do better to look for another design book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars too little real content to be complete..., June 24, 1999

By A Customer

The title sounds great: ... the complete guide. After reading it for a day, I wonder whether the author was plannig writing an sequel to make it complete. The book is a complete disappointment! It's shallow in every topic. For instance, the chapter on web graphic technology sounds like a paid ad. for photoshop. No real reasons were given on why photoshop is great compared to others, only a handful of quotations from other people. The book skips totally about other tools for graphic design. The chapter on web programming is impossibly pointless. It tries to cover a bunch of web languages in 30 pages, and over half of those pages are taken up by half-page sized screen shots that offer little information.

The book is a complete disaster: it's incomplete, shallow, and full of useless opinions and quotations.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars just doesn't do it..., September 26, 1998

By A Customer

This book seems at first glance to be a great book. The cover is magnificent, it has lotsa great info, and many examples of code.

But when you buy the book, and actually sit down to read it, you discover that the first impression just doesn't hold up. First of all, the author, Molly Something, is completely obsessed with herself. The book contains tons of examples, links and images of herself. Even the examples have herself spattered all over them. The second thing that annoys me is that Molly obviously thinks she is in the front of web-publishing, pushing the boundries and making the best sites. This is simply not true. Although the book clearly shows a good path to follow when developing a web site, Molly isn't clever enough to use them practically, resulting in second class web-sites. The design-studio site is an example of this. Fair enough, but not in any means a great site. She breaks all the rules she has set in the book, like not keeping the colors consistant throughout the site, and having navigational icons without descriptions.

The book has also tons and tons of useless code. It is just not interesting, leave it out!

This is just some of the flaws in web by design. Most annoying is the fact that Molly has to have her life, thoughts and images all over the book, examples and tips. Pardon me, but I want to learn how to set up a style-sheet, not listen to how Molly used to be a party-girl, and how her old boyfriend treated her.

The book does an ok job setting up a strategy for developing a web-site. Not great, not fabulous, just ok. Mix this with the annoying things mentioned above, and you have a book not worth buying.