Design books

The increasingly common use of fastspeed 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 bestselling WEB DESIGN INDEX: as ever, the most accurate overview of the state of the art in web design.

". . . a book that should be forced on every developer working today.
If only half the rules in this book were followed, the quality of most programs would increase tenfold." -Kevin Bachus, praising Theo Mandel's The GUI-OOUI War
A total guide to mastering the art and science of user interface design
For most computer users, the user interface is the software, and in today's ultracompetitive software markets, developers can't afford to provide users and clients with anything less than optimal software ease, usability, and appeal.
The Elements of User Interface Design is written by a cognitive psychologist and interface design specialist with more than a decade's research and design experience. Writing for novices and veteran developers and designers alike, Dr. Mandel takes you from command-line interfaces and graphical-user interfaces (GUIs) to object-oriented user interfaces (OOUIs) and cutting-edge interface technologies and techniques. Throughout, coverage is liberally supplemented with screen shots, real-life case studies, and vignettes that bring interface design principles to life.
Destined to become the bible for a new generation of designers and developers, The Elements of User Interface Design
Arms you with a "tested-in-the-trenches," four-phase, iterative design process
* Analyzes well-known interfaces, including Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2 Warp, Microsoft Bob, Visual Basic, Macintosh, and the World Wide Web
* Schools you in object-oriented interface (OOUI) design principles and techniques
* Offers practical coverage of interface agents, wizards, voice interaction, social user interfaces, Web design, and other new and emerging technologies

Dreamweaver is Macromedias best-selling web design/development environment, and the updated version of Dreamweaver will be available later this year. Dreamweaver has the capability to generate dynamic website code using server-side languages like ASP, PHP, and ASP.NET. We know that you don't always require a full database driven site though, so this book focuses on using the latest version of Dreamweaver to design and create usable, standards-compliant websites using XHTML and CSS. One of the highlights of this version is much closer, tighter CSS/XHTML. This book will show you how to make the most of that feature.

After a brief introduction to the latest version of Dreamweaver, and how CSS and XHTML fit into it, Craig looks at using the software for your web design projects in a hands-on, task based manner, covering these topics:

• Setting up a site in Dreamweaver
• Global web site essentials, such as dealing with doctypes, meta tags, comments, and page defaults, and attaching CSS and JavaScript files to your page
• Styling page content properly using CSS
• Working with images
• Creating web site navigation
• CSS for impressive page layouts that work
• Getting user feedback via forms

Following these exercises, the book then shows how to bring everything together with a final case study using Dreamweaver to build a complete web site.

Summary of Contents:

• Chapter 1: A New Kind of Web Design
• Chapter 2: Getting Started with Dreamweaver
• Chapter 3: Setting Up a Website
• Chapter 4: Web Page Essentials
• Chapter 5: Working with Text
• Chapter 6: Working with Images
• Chapter 7: Creating Navigation for Your Website
• Chapter 8: Web Page Layouts
• Chapter 9: Getting User Feedback
• Chapter 10: Putting It All into Practice

You're a beginner who wants to design a state-of-the-art family web site. You've just started a new job, and you need to learn Dreamweaver fast. Or maybe you're a professional who's been using another program but is now switching to Macromedia's leading web design tool. Learning Dreamweaver 8 gets you up to speed, quickly and efficiently.

Straightforwardly practical, with speed as the by-word, this hands-on guide focuses on the best practices for constructing both interactive and static web sites. While explaining core concepts clearly and thoroughly, so that beginners have a solid conceptural and technical foundation, it cuts through the clutter that might slow down a beginner tackling a subject as vast as web design and a tool as robust as Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver 8 Design and Construction emphasizes learning by doing, with short, task-oriented chapters that demonstrate theory by presenting design solutions and explaining the principles that make them work. Plenty of screen shots, illustrations, and sample layouts accompany rapid prototyping techniques for site production.

Marc Campbell has been building web sites since 1997-for everything from comic book fan communities to state government portals and e-commerce applications. A Macromedia Certified Dreamweaver Developer and beta tester, he has taught web design to students at all levels and has written eight books on the subject.

Sidebars in Dreamweaver 8 Design and Construction allow readers to decide how deeply they want to delve into the subject. "Best Bets" offer bottom-line recommendations for those who want to skip the general discussion, while "Behind the Scenes" sidebars provide more in-depth looks at particular topics for those who want more detail. Absolute beginner or faux debutante, you'll learn proven procedures for quickly building Dreamweaver sites.

Web Design with XML is a quick and practical introduction to key XML technologies for the busy web designer. Featuring easy to use techniques and clear examples, Manfred Knobloch and Matthias Kopp show how to remodel XML documents into useful and attractive webpages. The book provides introductions to XML DTDs, Namespaces, CSS, XSL and XSLT with examples that illustrate how the concepts can be used. All examples are available for download on the accompanying website and can easily be used for server-side webpage generation as well as client-side rendering.

The appeal of XML lies in its capacity for content management. When using it in web design the task of the technology should be to implement requirements as closely as possible. By using Web Design with XML you can ensure that your webpages are as efficient, manageable and user-friendly as possible.

As Web designers become more HTML savvy, many turn to Photoshop as their main design tool. And if you're like most other designers who use multiple products to create a finished site, Adobe Photoshop 6.0 Web Design is written just for you. In this gorgeous four-color book, Web designer Michael Baumgardt shows you how to use Adobe's suite of tools for professional Web design. Covering Photoshop, GoLive and ImageReady, this new edition is fully updated to reflect the changes in GoLive 5, Photoshop 6, and ImageReady 3.

The book starts out with the basics of using Adobe tools to create the most important elements of a Web site. Then it demonstrates how to use the newest features, including image compression, creating GIF animations, building dynamic Web content, designing navigational elements, managing Web-safe colors and more.

Keeping your library Web page up-to-date with the latest in Web technology requires understanding XHTML (eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Sauers has written this how-to specifically for librarians and explains:
• Web design standards
• XHTML coding
• Metadata
• XHTML and CSS validation
• CSS classes and IDs
• Conversion from HTML to XHTML
Sauers utilizes library Web pages to illustrate his points. Sample codes and tags are placed alongside computer screen images and quick reference guides to XHTML and CSS code are included. Increase the efficiency, usability, and potential of library Web sites with the help of this readable and practical guide

Design custom web sites with NetObjects Fusion 11

Get up and running quickly on the latest version of the complete, do-it-yourself web site design software. How to Do Everything: NetObjects Fusion 11 explains how to navigate the interface, configure the toolbars and panels, create web sites and pages, position and format text, and include graphics and audio. You'll get tips for designing and structuring your site, and adding advanced functionality, such as search capability, site mapping, forms, FAQs, Guestbooks, and security. Design, develop, publish, and manage your NetObjects Fusion 11 web site with ease using this hands-on guide.

• Build a web site template and pages
• Add text, graphics, and audio
• Work with tables and objects
• Establish site look and feel with SiteStyles
• Set up site navigation and build hyperlinks
• Create a photo gallery
• Customize your site with Flash, Java, and ActiveX
• Collect data with forms
• Set up Frequently Asked Questions and Guestbooks
• Create advanced functionality with custom components
• Publish your site to the web

It’s easy to design, build, and post a Web page with Google Page Creator or CoffeeCup HTML Editor, but a friendly guide still comes in handy. Creating Web Pages For Dummies®, 9th Edition introduces you to Web design software and online page-building tools, and walks you through the process in record time.

Like its previous editions, this book gives you the skinny on getting Web pages up and running with the least amount of hassle. But not just ho-hum Web pages! Yours will look fantastic and be easy to build, and you’ll even get a trial version of CoffeeCup HTML Editor and visual design tools on the bonus CD. You’ll learn to:

• Get a simple page designed and online by the end of Chapter 3
• Optimize photos, video, and audio for the Web and get them onto your page
• Register for a Google account and use the versatile Google Page Creator
• Build pages using basic HTML or CoffeeCup HTML Editor
• Identify and apply elements of design, avoid common errors, and create pages that get noticed
• Maintain control by creating and editing pages in HTML with a text editor
• Understand how image file size affects your pages, how to upload photos to Flickr, and how to add sound and video files to your Web pages
• Develop your pages into a site with CoffeeCup HTML Editor and Visual Editor

You’ll even find out more about blogging and Blogger.com. The trial software on the CD is for Windows, but the instructions for building great Web pages work on any system!

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Creative HTML Design walks you through building a real, working web site, specially created for the lesson plans in this book. In the process, you will learn all the phases of site design--from selecting an ISP and uploading files, to more advanced techniques like adding animation and rollovers. Step-by-step tutorials for Photoshop 4.0 and Paint Shop Pro teach how to design using "safe" colors, make distinctive background tiles, align your graphics, use tables and frames, include JavaScript rollovers, use CSS, as well as numerous other design and HTML features. This book includes a complete HTML 4.0 reference with details on all current HTML elements.