Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Resource for Beginners
Review: A lavishly illustrated book, the Non Designer's Web Book is an excellent intro into the world of web design, particularly for people who are based in print media and want to break out into web design, but don't know how to translate their previous graphic design experience onto the web. Although it doesn't go into extreme detail about the more specific aspects of web building (don't expect step-by-step instructions on how to build tables or forms here), it does give you a nice overview of web design, so that you will get a basic understanding of the medium you're working in. So, if you're kind of fuzzy on the web to begin with and don't understand why there are different graphic formats, how people created cool layouts using tables, or what in the heck "plug-ins" are, by the time you reach the end of the book, you'll be going, "Ohhhh, so THAT's what RGB and java and dithering mean!" That's the beauty of this book: it explains everything in a highly enjoyable, casual style without confusing you with elaborate techno-speak or boring you with too many programming details. I can't recommend this book enough. Oh, and while you're at it, look into picking up "Elements of Web Design" by Darcy DiNucci another nicely illustrated introduction to web design book for beginners.
Rating: 
Summary: A few years too late
Review: I enjoyed the non-designers print book, but the web book was disappointing. Specifically, it was a few years too late in what it was suggesting for me to be able to recommend it as anything but basic or background reading.
A lot of the tricks and work-arounds presented were useful a while back but have now been replaced by common Javascript actions (eg, pre-loading images). Similarly, the author writes as if the browser wars were still being fought, when IE has pretty much won (I agree it's sad, but it's true).
A lot of the history and background information presented is still true, but this book is a fair way behind even common practice, let alone the cutting edge. The book may be useful for novices, but there are much more up-to-date texts out there.
Rating:
Summary: Makes the best of a bad situation.
Review: Given that designing a cool site is NOT simple--nor fun in my opinion--this book does as good a job as possible of getting you from zero to art designer/typographer/webmaster. Using this book, along with the GoLive Quickstart book, (price) worth of classes & 17 calls to Adobe, I managed to make a Yahoo Site of the Week in just under 9 months. And I was already pretty handy with Photoshop!Along the way, several people told me "You could just as easily learn HTML and not have to deal with user-friendly software". I suspect they were right. Still, a great job, all things considered. Besides, how many books would they sell if they said "It ain't easy but this will help".
Rating:
Summary: Mac bias
Review: This book is strictly for beginners. Lots of good information but Robin Williams has a very BIG Mac bias and repeatedly bashes any Windows program. Also her Photoshop tips are for an old version and aren't very helpful.
Rating:
Summary: Mandatory reading for programmers
Review: As a technical team leader, this was one of my first stops to try and become visually aware - an important skill to have if one is in the web-publishing business. This book should be mandatory reading for all those web-application programmers out there who are absorbed in the technology, but who sometimes forget that human-beings need to be able to use the tools that they are developing. (This review refers to the 1st edition of the book).
Rating: 
Summary: Great!
Review: I really learned a lot from this book. Prior to reading it my knowledge of the web was very limited...for example, I had heard of "frames" on a web page before, but I didn't really know what "frames" were. I also learned about different types of graphic files (TIFF, GIF, JPEG) used on the web, "web-safe" colors, guidelines for good web design, web navigation, etc. The book is loaded with clever illustrations and the each topic is explained clearly. It was great to learn so much from a book that was also enjoyable to read.
Rating:
Summary: Great for Web Design!
Review: Robin's other book, Non-Designer's Design Book, was great at introducing simple design techniques. This one, however, takes it a step further, by introducing and talking at length about color, and of course, web design. I love this book! I am about to order the second edition, which I hope will be better because it's been updated to be more current with technology. Robin's writing style is simple, to the point, and interlaced with humor. I am one who knows computers and the various programs to make pages, but I have no artistic ability. This book and Robin's other books have helped me to understand many simple design techniques to make my pages look much better.
Rating:
Summary: fine for beginners
Review: I would only recommend this book to someone who is a beginner or one who can not differentiate between good and bad design. I had hoped that this book would spend more time relating traditional graphic design rules to the web. I was disappointed. My take-aways from this book are limited to a couple alignment rules and a interesting idea for hiding large image downloads. If you understand how to use fonts and organize information on a web page, don't bother.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: Unfortunately I was required to purchase this book for a Web class that I'm currently taking, even though I'm already an accomplished Web designer. I found a few errors in the book and also didn't care for the opinions expressed in it. If you're thinking of purchasing a book to learn how to design Web pages, look elsewhere. There are plenty of other great books out there. But this isn't one of them.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: This is a great book. I cannot remember when I have gotten so much useful information from a single source. I am a novice at web site design and development and this book answered most of the questions I have been trying to find answers for. And it does it in straight-forward, plain English. I keep re-reading and I like it better each time. The book is well laid out with plenty of white space and illustrations next to the text-no flipping pages to find a picture of what you are reading about. If I have any criticism it is that, as a PC user, I felt a little neglected at times.
|
