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Graphics Books Media Programming Software The Internet Book Reviews IT Technology

Web Design Garage 103

Posted by timothy from the sounds-like-a-winner dept.
jsuda (John Suda) writes "Web Design Garage is a remarkably clear-headed, concisely-written and feature-rich book about contemporary web-design topics. It is part of a "Garage" series of hip-looking, style-laden books published by Prentice Hall (Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference -- PH PTR) and is targeted at the "garage" level designer: small business professionals, hobbyists, and technophiles. It assumes some modest familiarity of HTML and working with Javascript." Read on for the rest of Suda's review.

Web Design Garage
author Marc Campbell
pages 530
publisher Prentice Hall PTR
rating 8
reviewer John Suda
ISBN 0131481991
summary Hands-on Guide to web design and usability

This is not a primer, tutorial, or concept-bound book. It is meant to provide practical guidance and solutions to the most common Web design issues dealt with by Web designers. Author Marc Campbell, offers a set of 86 topics about Web design problems and solutions. The format for nearly all of the 86 topics is to highlight a design challenge, then offer solutions using pictures, examples, and code snippets. Although a good and quick read from beginning to end, the book can be read piecemeal for information and guidance on a specific issue. One can pick and choose topics depending on interest or need.

There are no traditional chapters, only a set of design topics of relatively short length organized into 8 general categories. Those categories include design and usability topics, layout, images, text, links, forms, and two others -- one of miscellaneous items, the other an explanation of basic Web-design material. There is also an index and a short glossary of HTML, CSS, Web, and graphics-related terms.

The fundamental theme of the book is that design and usability are, or should be, the same thing. Usability is paramount, of course, but the author's approach to Web design emphasizes creating a "sense of place": good design unites pages so that they look like they belong together.

This is not an earth-shattering idea, but like most of all of the design treatments, the goal is to design pages which make it easy for visitors to use the site. Many good design virtues are virtually invisible to the casual user. There is a confluence of design and usability; it's only when a design element doesn't work well that it comes to the attention of the user, and that's something to avoid. The author shows by example how design and usability are intertwined.

There are a handful of themes which guide the book. Admirably, the author emphasizes for every design element a concern for accessibility. Many of the design guides refer to accessibility by screen-readers and non-graphic browsers. A second major concern is for compliance with contemporary Web design standards as those promulgated by the World Wide Web Consortium. Consequently, there is much emphasis on the separation of page structure from content, where CSS is used for structure and HTML is used for content. A contrast of HTML and CSS formatting is highlighted in many of the chapters.

There is a large handful of sections which express HTML and CSS formatting differences on page layout, text and image positioning, and other Web design elements. There is clear discussion on how to work with Javascript and stylesheets. The emphasis is on "forward-looking" coding, i.e., clean, standards-compliant, and accessibility conscious. Campbell offers an experienced designer's insights on choices to be made in design components. There is much value for both inexperienced and seasoned designers.

Each topic is richly expressed with clear and straightforward text, illustrations, screenshots, and sidebars on a variety of related matters. There are sidebars throughout titled "FAQs" and "Geekspeak," explaining concepts or terminology for the less-knowledgeable reader. Then there are those called "Tips" which usually offer an insight to practical problems, especially dealing with browser-compatibility issues. There are many useful tables and charts indexing specific tag attributes, with examples. In addition, and most useful, are the "Toolkits" which are sample code snippets. It would have been nice to have the code snippets available for downloading from the publisher's Web site.

This is a dense volume containing all sorts of information useful for the "garage" web designer. For some reason, the depth and weight of the content is reflected in the book itself, which is remarkably heavy, weighing in at a well-produced 29 ounces.

There are many books available on basic Web design, but this one is unusually clear and well-expressed. This is the type of book one keeps handy in the bookshelf next to the computer to access for quick solutions to everyday Web design problems.

You can purchase Web Design Garage from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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Web Design Garage

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  • I'll take content over "hip-looking, style-laden". (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 17, 2005 @06:18PM (#11969995)
    Of course, the eMpTy-V generation probably disagrees with me.

  • take a look in the book (Score:3, Insightful)

    by WaldoXX ( 803727 ) on Thursday March 17, 2005 @06:22PM (#11970023) Homepage
    "This is not a primer, tutorial, or
    concept-bound book. It is meant to provide
    practical guidance and solutions to the most
    common Web design issues dealt with by Web
    designers.

    Each topic is richly expressed with clear and
    straightforward text, illustrations,
    screenshots, and sidebars on a variety of
    related matters. There are sidebars throughout
    titled "FAQs" and "Geekspeak," explaining
    concepts or terminology for the
    less-knowledgeable reader."

    So another HTML for dummies?
    • yay, more "less knowledgable" people making web sites - just what we needed. be sure to check out the publisher's php nuke book for the less knowledgable too...
      • When I started doing web development 10 years ago we were all pretty much faking it, just using good business sense and general programming principles. The field is *still* developing like many others. So everyone has to learn somehow. There is a lot more to go on for companies seperating web hacks/hobbyists from the professionals however. So I wouldn't worry about an influx of what should be hobbyists like after the bubble burst because of this book. :)
      • Why is that bad? Because people who are less knowledgeable about HTML and Javascript have nothing else important to say?

        The only well-presented websites are not only presented by, but composed by professional web programmers?

        I'd have to think that there are at *least* one or two people out there that are smart, but don't know anything about web scripting. Probably.
    • Oh I don't know if I'd agree. I've had a look at some of the other Garage series books and they've been pretty detailed! Then again every one is different so I can't really comment until I've seen the web design one!

  • review? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by CynicalGuy ( 866115 )
    This review doesn't even say whether the book is any good or not.

    • Re:review? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      There are many books available on basic Web design, but this one is unusually clear and well-expressed. This is the type of book one keeps handy in the bookshelf next to the computer to access for quick solutions to everyday Web design problems. I'd personally take that as an "it's reasonably good", and there's lots of comments about why above this...

    • Re:review? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Rating 8 out of 10 - waddya think?

  • Thinking of Us (Score:5, Funny)

    by filmmaker ( 850359 ) * on Thursday March 17, 2005 @06:30PM (#11970079) Homepage
    I would like to thank the author for putting a guitar on the cover of that book. This way, at a glance, a girl would probably think I play guitar. Bonus.
    • I would like to thank the author for putting a guitar on the cover of that book. This way, at a glance, a girl would probably think I play guitar. Bonus.

      This just in: Apple sues publisher for use of a picture of a guitar and the word "Garage", allegedly infringing on their GarageBand [apple.com] software.

      In related news, I am posting this from a Mac. Please, please, folks, don't murder my karma.

      Signing off... this is Amazing Fish Boy... wishing you and yours... a fine evening.

  • Wait a minute.... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 17, 2005 @06:30PM (#11970080)
    I thought we only promoted Apple and Google?
    Books too?
  • I just looked at the table of contents. This seems like just another average HTML/CSS/Javascript tutorial/primer. It's geared toward quick results, and is possibly a good refrence if you tend to forget things, but it's in no way a book that a web developer would want.
    • You're probably right, but personally, I prefer learning from real world tutorials or examples, rather than just textbook style references.

      If I need to find which attribute values go with which tag, I just Google.

    • Informative my ass... the blurb on the front page said as much when it stated:

      "is targeted at the "garage" level designer: small business professionals, hobbyists, and technophiles."
    • I just looked at the table of contents. This seems like just another average HTML/CSS/Javascript tutorial/primer.

      But the guy that actually read the book says specifically:

      This is not a primer, tutorial, or concept-bound book.

      I know a lot of /.ers don't read the linked stories, but when you don't even have to click a link....

      ugh.

  • Designing With Web Standards (Score:5, Informative)

    by Mariani ( 700617 ) <vincent.marianiNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Thursday March 17, 2005 @06:35PM (#11970115) Journal

    Reading this review, instantaniously Designing With Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman [zeldman.com] sprang to mind. It has also been reviewed on slashdot here. [slashdot.org]

    I don't want to be looking down on the book by saying this but judging by the review it sounds like Web Design Garage is kind of a light version.

    • Personally I found Zeldman's book less than practical. It's good background material on the browser wars and the current state of accepted page layout best practices. It's very css oriented and for practical insight into page layout using css you can't do better than Eric Meyer on CSS [ericmeyeroncss.com], except perhaps for his more recent book.

      Web Design Garage covers more than just css layout. The telling comment is perhaps There are many books available on basic Web design, but this one is unusually clear and well-expresse

  • And most importantly (Score:5, Funny)

    by lexsco ( 594799 ) on Thursday March 17, 2005 @06:40PM (#11970156)
    book itself, which is remarkably heavy, weighing in at a well-produced 29 ounces.

    Such a heavy book must contain lots and lots of usefull information!!!!

  • Imagine my surprise (Score:3, Informative)

    by doombob ( 717921 ) on Thursday March 17, 2005 @06:41PM (#11970167) Homepage
    Well, I was looking for books with black and white animals on the covers and then I saw this [amazon.com]. Needless to say, you can't judge a book by its cover. I found it to actually have useful real-world solutions to actual problems I have had in the past. I thought it would be useless and unprofessional, but it was not. It was also the least expensive web-development-related book in the major book chain store through which I was browsing.

  • What you say? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Robotron23 ( 832528 )
    "hip-looking, style-laden books"

    Don't take this as redundant, but since when were web design books "hip" at all? Most beginners in my view would simply want clear concise instructions, and clear concise instructions don't need to be dressed up or "style-laden", the aesthetics of the book are perhaps of the least importance to I daresay ANY web designer.

  • XMLHttpRequest? (Score:2, Informative)

    by sean23007 ( 143364 )
    I was hoping this book would have some valuable information about the XmlHttpRequest object, which is used by Google Suggest, GMail, and other sites around the web. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of information about it available on the internet. The way I see it, unless your site is going to be very simple, this is a technology you should definitely be using for all future projects ... I'm doing all I can with it, but there isn't any good info on it. Does anyone have links?

  • If you need an HTML/CSS/XML primer (Score:5, Informative)

    by fontkick ( 788075 ) on Thursday March 17, 2005 @06:49PM (#11970233)
    Visit:

    http://www.w3schools.com/ [w3schools.com]

    Good stuff, easy to navigate, covers the basics, free.

  • Wow. You people are disgusting (Score:4, Insightful)

    by arhar ( 773548 ) on Thursday March 17, 2005 @06:54PM (#11970272)
    Completely ignoring the review, and focusing only on how the book is packaged (without even seeing it yourselves). Based on author's description of HOW THE BOOK LOOKS, you concluded that it's aimed at the MTV-generation, putting style over content.

    For some reason, most geeks think that anything that looks good is somehow 'below' them. That's why there hasn't been a good-looking Linux desktop GUI yet ... Have any of you ever thought that if something LOOKED good, there might, just might be something worthy under the cover too?
    • Have any of you ever thought that if something LOOKED good, there might, just might be something worthy under the cover too?

      Agreed, but such things ARE pretty rare in this plastic, dippy world. Tech people can be pretty prejudiced against the artistic world. People like me who straddle both worlds can have a rough time.

      Personally, I wuv my Macs, but I'd like to buy a really UGLY computer some day. :-)

    • Damn you mean I am meant to take things on face value, judge a book by its cover and believe the hype?

      So thats what I have been doing wrong all this time.

    • putting style over content.

      You know, I have no problem putting style over content.

      Art is what inspires man. If it were up to the content-nazis, we'd be nothing more than machines... processing data all damn day.

      Art inspires imagination. Imagination drives brilliance. Brilliance drives innovation, and innovation drives society.

      The Renaissance saved humanity.
    • Exactly. Shouldn't we be aiming for great content that's delivered with style?
    • The review is pretty poor, and tells you very little of any worth about the book itself, so it's not surprising people are ignoring it.

      The language used is at times awkward, and you get the idea that the author has used a thesaurus to try and drop some interesting words in place of more commom ones. It suggests to me that he/she is actually quite young.

      The review just way too vague, and reminded me very much of a school book review where it's obvious the student hadn't even read the book, just looked at t
  • Does it include any information on how to build a personal ad/dating site that actually works? I've noticed that all the popular sites look good but prove to be defective upon use. I'm sure we've all noticed this. Please validate me, please...

  • at least it cheap (Score:2, Interesting)

    by qwerbus ( 583999 )
    I don't know about everyone else, but at least this is a book that sounds pretty good without costing 25+ dollars. It seems you can't find a single technical book thats also affordable, so I'd think about pick this one up if only for that.

  • Cool Factor . . . (Score:4, Informative)

    by Java Ape ( 528857 ) <mike,briggs&360,net> on Thursday March 17, 2005 @07:54PM (#11970748) Homepage
    The "garage" books caught my eye at a local bookstore -- definately very stylish looking. However, after spending a half-hour or so browsing the tome, I was left feeling like it lacked focus. As the orignal reviewer indicated, it isn't a tutorial, cookbook, or referece, it seemed to wander through topics, somtimes giving very detailed examples, and sometimes doing vague arm-waving sketches of major concepts. For my money, I think O'Reilly does a remarkable job of delivering content efficiently and accurately.

    On the other hand the w3.org [w3.org] maintains a bang-up bunch of white-papers on all web-related technologies. Nothing say's nerd like volumes of loose-leaf white papers falling out of your attache case . . .

    • Re:Cool Factor . . . (Score:2, Interesting)

      by katdesign ( 808781 )
      I've currently got the 'Actionscript 2 Garage' book on my safari bookshelf, and it seems to suffer from the same lack of focus. Its tone of voice is intended to suggest matter-of-factness (is that a word?) but in fact the book has lots of gaps and covers topics very unevenly. There is no information there that isn't available in other books, only the style is (slightly) different. It does indeed seem to aim for the 'guys working in web design who think O'reilly books are boring' demographic.

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