Advanced Web Design
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Advanced Web Design |
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Meanwhile, you can see how the move is progressing at the status page.
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Introduction Finding other books |
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Introduction |
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These are books I recommend about Advanced Web Design; they are mostly aimed at advanced developers or people responsible for large-scale web sites. Though even 'large-scale' is a flexible concept: one 20-page site can be much more complicated than another 100-page site, so you might want to have a look at the Basic Web Design page and other pages in this Bookstore section as well. These books are about how to get from idea to a usable, navigable and effective web site. And what lies beyond. |
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Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
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Background
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Of course I'm biased by the books I already have. By now, when I see an O'Reilly
book I simply think "This must be good". Well, this book just strengthened my preconceptions: It really is excellent.
This deceivingly slim volume has lots of content and has become a classic in the field.
You can read an excerpt from chapter 6 ("Designing the Search Interface") before deciding you must have this one (I did
exactly that!).
Get it!
Lois Wakeman
commented:
Particularly strong on principles for organising, labelling, navigating and searching for information
on a web site.
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Designing Large-Scale Web Sites: A Visual Design Methodology
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Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internet and Beyond
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Background |
Jakob Nielsen publishes his bi-weekly Alertbox columns about (mostly) web site usability on his own
site; they are often eye-openers and if you like those as much as I do, I'm sure you'll like this book as well.
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Elements of Web Design, 2nd Edition: The Designer's Guide to a New Medium
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Secrets of Successful Web Sites: Project Management on the World Wide Web
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Background
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Funny, really: I've seen David Siegel haters turn into fans overnight after getting this book. Even if you don't like the visual approach he advocates in the second edition of his other book Creating Killer Web Sites, he does apparently understand the process of creating a web site. When a corporate web site comprises more than a dozen or so pages, project management becomes all-important and this is what this book is about. But Siegel continues to cause controversy - so maybe you should find out for yourself!
David Siegels' companion web site for this book includes page templates and other resources for building a project site. But get the book first, so you know what to do with them!
Jerry Muelver commented:
His site map graphics are ugly. I liked the concept of a project site -- it parallels my
approach to the production of technical documentation. The job negotiation and management stuff is entertaining,
but not original. It seems like a rehash of the Jerry Del La Femina stuff on advertising, in the 70's. Worse, he
views a web site only as a mildly interactive ad -- content for display, not for personal enlargement.
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Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing
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Background
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I'll admit it, I picked up this book because it's simply beautiful! In the preface Philip Greenspun
explains how together with the people at Morgan Kaufman, he set out to make the world's first coffee table computer book - and he's succeeded
admirably. But when I started leafing through the book I soon found there's a lot more to this book than glossy paper and pretty (and often
witty) photographs on every other page or so. In an anecdotal style, Greenspun treats the whole field of web publishing and web-based
services, from online communities, to publicizing your site, sites that are really programs and sites that are really databases, and much
more, all from a background of hands-on experience. Sit back on your couch with it, and enjoy; you're bound to learn something (or a lot)
as well. Useful tips, for instance:
Final tip
Reorganize your file system after you're listed in all the Web directories, after folks at other sites have linked to articles on your server, and after seach engines have discovered your site. That way, users will be sure to get "404 Not Found" messages after finding your site in Yahoo or WebCrawler.
(So who's Alex? That's the dog, who of course has a personal website of his own.)
Get it!
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Designing Easy-to-use Websites: A hands-on Approach to Structuring Successful Websites
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Finding other books |
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You can use these search forms to search Amazon.com's or Amazon.co.uk's catalog for books, software, and more. And
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Beyond graphic design: a large web site must be more than a thick glossy brochure.
Information design is the focus here, while usability and user interface design play a major role. The book provides
a methodology, covering the complete development process from the setting of objectives through implementation.
The 'Easy-to-use' in the title is somewhat misleading since you won't find much about usability per
se. Instead, the book promotes a rigorous approach to develop a website, not unlike a well-run software development project (only with
continuous updates). The idea is that usability is much more than layout and link colors, it comes naturally from a well-planned
database-driven site using a content management system that scales well, raises productivity, and dramatically reduces operating budgets.
UML is used throughout the book as a method, with copious schemas illustrating
concepts. The accompanying CD is a disappointment, though: you'd expect at least a trial version of a program to make all those
UML schemas, but all it contains is trial versions of IBM's Homepage Builder and
PerfectPhoto.
let me know
