Design books

If you want to add more power and functionality to your Web sites, add some database applications like a powerful shopping cart or a fun quiz game. Such applications make your site more dynamic, allow you to gather information, and provide customized experiences for your visitors. Creating Database Web Applications with PHP and ASP teaches beginning and intermediate designers the fundamentals of creating complex Web applications. By covering both open source (PHP/MySQL) and proprietary tools (Microsoft ASP and Access), readers gain insight to the strengths and weaknesses of each. In addition, they learn how to work with both sets of tools and determine which works best for their projects. Practical examples, including a shopping cart and quiz show, are used to teach the basic concepts behind creating and testing database code. Every example is also provided in both PHP and ASP for easy comparison and use. With the knowledge and experience gained here, beginners will learn the fundamental concepts behind these two technologies, while more experienced developers will learn which technology works best for their specific needs. Exercises, questions, and projects are included with each chapter.

Although recent findings show the public increasingly interacting with government Web sites, a common problem is that people can’t find what they’re looking for. In other words, the sites lack usability. The Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines aid in correcting this problem by providing the latest Web design guidance from the research and other forms of evidence. This unique publication has been updated from its earlier version to include over 40 new or updated research guidelines, bringing the total to 209. Primary audiences for the book are: Web managers, designers, and all staff involved in the creation of Web sites. Topics in the book include: home page design, page and site navigation, graphics and images, effective Web content writing, and search. A new section on usability testing guidance has been added. Experts from across government, industry, and academia have reviewed and contributed to the development of the Guidelines. And, since their introduction in 2003, the Guidelines have been widely used by government, private, and academic institutions to improve Web design.

Here's an indispensable source of practical advice and creative inspiration for anyone designing screen-based communications-from Web to CD-ROM and beyond. From Jack Davis, co-author of the award-winning Photoshop Wow! Book, and Susan Merritt, this book covers the conceptual process, design fundamentals, and essential interface components. It includes over 50 case studies and more than 600 full-color examples of highly successful and creative interfaces for marketing, sales, education, and portfolio presentations.

There’s a real connection between craftsmanship and Web design. That’s the theme running through Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design, by bestselling author Dan Cederholm, with a chapter contributed by renowned Web designer and developer Ethan Marcotte. This book explores CSS3 that works in today’s browsers, and you’ll be convinced that now’s the time to start experimenting with it.
Whether you’re a Web designer, project manager, or a graphic designer wanting to learn more about the fluidity that’s required when designing for the Web, you’ll discover the tools to create the most flexible, reliable, and bulletproof Web designs. And you’ll finally be able to persuade your clients to adopt innovative and effective techniques that make everyone’s life easier while improving the end user’s experience. This book’s seven chapters deconstruct various aspects of a case-study Web site for the Tugboat Coffee Company, focusing on aspects that make it bulletproof and demonstrate progressive enrichment techniques over more traditional labor-intensive methods.
Subjects covered in this book include:

• building for unanticipated future use

• progressively enriching designs using CSS3 properties

• using RGBA color for transparency with an alpha channel

• modular float management

• crafting flexible frameworks

• fluid layouts using grid-based design principles

• craftsmanship details on typography, jQuery, and shifting backgrounds

The video included with this special edition features author Dan Cederholm as he illustrates 10 essential Web design guidelines. Enhancing the content in this book, the Handcrafted CSS: Bulletproof Essentials DVD will arm you with a checklist to make your next project a flexible, adaptable, and wellcrafted design.

Serves as a comprehensive introduction to effective website design, while giving the reader a thorough understanding of how to build useful Web pages/sites that reach and meet the needs of their target audience.

Create Fantastic Web Sites with Advice From Some of the Best in the Industry

Professional Web Design presents guidelines for professional Web development, including communicating with clients, creating a road map to a successful portfolio, rules for professional networking, and tips on designing user interfaces for business Web applications. Inside you’ll find some of the best of Smashing Magazine’s coverage of professional Web design and the business side of Web development, with advice from trusted experts who will help you learn how to respond effectively to design criticism, use storytelling for a better user experience, and apply color theory to your professional designs.

Topics covered include:

• Harsh Truths about Corporate Web Site – Paul Boag
• Portofolio Design Study: Design Patterns – Vitaly Friedman
• Creating a Successful Online Portfolio – Sean Hodge
• Better User Experience with Storytelling – Francisco Inchauste
• Designing User Interfaces for Business Web Applications – Janko Jovanovic
• Progressive Enhancement and Standards Do Not Limit Web Design – Christian Heilmann
• Color Theory for Professional Designers – Cameron Chapman
• Is John the Client Dense or Are You Failing Him? – Paul Boag
• How to Identify and Deal with Different Types of Clients – Robert Bowen
• How to Respond Effectively to Design Criticism – Andrew Follett
• Web Designer’s Guide to Professional Networking – Steven Snell
• Expert Advice for New Web Designers – Various

Proving clear, concise advice from industry experts, Professional Web Design will help you get started on creating fantastic Web sites with top tips and advice from some of the best in the industry.

Smashing Magazine (smashingmagazine.con) is one of the world’s most popular Web-design online magazines. True to the Smashing mission, the Smashing Magazine book series delivers useful and innovative information to Web designers and developers.

• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a Web markup standard that allows Web designers to define the appearance and position of a Web page using special dynamic effects
• This book is the perfect beginner reference, showing those new to CSS how to design Web pages and implement numerous useful CSS effects available
• Seasoned For Dummies author Richard Mansfield explains how CSS can streamline and speed up Web development
• Explains how to take control of the many elements in a Web page, integrate CSS into new or existing sites, choose the best coding techniques, and execute advanced visual effects such as transitions
• U Features a special discussion on browser incompatibility issues involving CSS and how to solve potential problems

The increasingly common use of fast-speed Internet connections over the past few years has considerably increased designers? possibilities to use advanced capabilities, including larger image files. Furthermore, it is clear that web design is reaching its maturity: whereas in the past many designers were hesitant to make the change from print to web, many designers now primarily work in web design. The results of these developments can be seen in this year?s edition of our best-selling WEB DESIGN INDEX: as ever, the most accurate overview of the state of the art in web design.

The most effective web sites are those that can attract and keep customers by being user-friendly and easy to navigate web sites are discretionary use systems, where the user is king and can easily move elsewhere if presented with ambiguities or confusing options. Web sites MUST be designed with the user as the primary concern if they are to succeed. User Centred Web Design is an original and practical guide to designing or transforming successful interactive web sites, focussing on designing for the end-user. In a concise, readable text it presents an overview of user-centred interactive website project management and design, providing practical advice and proven methodology, as well as ideas and tips for ensuring that the final design meets the needs of both client and end-user. This book questions the usefulness and purpose behind commonly-used methods and thinking and will encourage you to develop more creative and user-centred solutions and to embrace more effective management of web design projects.

The Photoshop Anthology is full-color, question-and-answer book for Web Designers who want to use Photoshop to build Websites and create better looking web graphics more effectively.
The book covers:

• Photoshop interface tricks & shortcuts
• Basic Skills: Transparencies, rounded corners, blending images, matching colors and more
• Buttons: Creating buttons and tabs in various shapes and form factors
• Backgrounds: Making various gradient and textured backgrounds
• Creating text effects, texturing and shadowing text, wrapping text around a curve, and more
• Adjusting Images: Removing blue tints, darkening and lightening images, fixing red-eye, removing dark shadows, sharpening images and more
• Manipulating Images: Creating fish-eye effects, removing imperfections, making product shots for ecommerce and more
• Creating Web Interfaces: Best practice & time saving ideas including how-tos on slicing images, creating rollovers, and more
• Advanced: Generating thumbnails, animated GIFs, bulk watermarking, sharing Photoshop Actions and more

Additionally, the book will walk you through the entire process of designing a Website in Photoshop - from using layers to keep organized to using the slice tool to create individual Website elements.