Web Style Guide:Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites - Hardcover

Lynch, Patrick

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300076746 ISBN 13: 9780300076745

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1999

Synopsis

This essential guide for Web site designers offers clear, concise advice on creating well-designed and effective Web sites and pages. Focusing on the interface and graphic design principles that underlie the best Web site design, the book provides anyone involved with Web site design -- in corporations, government, nonprofit organizations, and academic institutions -- with expert guidance on issues ranging from planning and organizing goals to design strategies for a site to the elements of individual page design.Shifting away from the emphasis of many authors on HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and glitzy, gimmicky graphics, Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton discuss classic principles of design, how these principles apply to Web design, and the issues and constraints of designing complex, multilayered sites. They address the practical concerns of bending and adapting HTML to the purposes of graphic page design.This book grew out of the widely used and highly praised Web site on site design created by the Center for Advanced Instructional Media at Yale University (info.med.yale.ed/ cairn/manual/). At this site, readers will continue to find updated color illustrations and examples to complement and demonstrate points made in the book, as well as useful and current online references.

About this title

Review

In 160 pages of expert instruction, authors Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton put the essence of the Yale University Centre for Advanced Instructional Media's wonderful online site design guide into traditional print.

The book begins the presentation of its helpful and forward-looking advice with a discussion of the overall process of defining the objectives and users of your Web site, as well as the goals you will use to measure your progress. The authors then use time-tested, traditional print concepts to clearly illustrate how to make your site interface welcoming and efficient. High- quality illustrations show how to design for overall style and professional appeal. The sections on typography and editorial style set this manual apart from many Web style guides with attention to the fine details that separate the good sites from the great.

Multimedia elements and cascading style sheets (CSS)are covered but within the overall context of building a fine site--not with the usual hype. Media compression and delivery are addressed at a high level with concrete suggestions on formats, frame rates and image sizes for a well-balanced approach to multimedia.

One of the great things about using this guide is that the actual site it is based on is available. You can read about a thoughtfully-written topic and then go online to see the concepts in action. Web Style Guide delivers some of the most holistic coverage of site design you'll find. --Stephen W. Plain, amazon.com

Review

"A style guide for the interface with real long-run value, showing us deep principles of design rather than simply fashion and technology." -- Edward R. Tufte

"At last, a book on the design of Web sites with the viewer in mind ... It intelligently and succinctly discusses all those topics so badly neglected by most Web sites." -- Donald A. Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things and The Invisible Computer

"Helpful and forward-looking advice." -- Stephen W. Plain, Web Development Editor, Amazon.com. A top-10 choice for 1999

"This is one of the best design books that I've seen, catering specifically to information-oriented sites ... The Web would be an easier world to navigate if all Web designers read this book." -- Deborah Lynne Wiley, Online

"Web Style Guide is sort of an 'Elements of Style for Webmasters' ... Authoritative factoids are sprinkled throughout, and ground the book in logic while elevating it above some of the brightly coloured hyperactive Web design manuals out there." -- J. D. BIERSDORFER, NEW YORK TIMES CIRCUITS SECTION

Edition details

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0300076746
• ISBN 13: 9780300076745
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 172