Beaird's book is very well written and a great help in understanding what make a beautiful website. Given how many truly bad websites are out there more designers need to read this book.
Before setting up the website for Snappy Sayings: wit & wisdom from the world's greatest minds I read Beaird's book and two or three others. I found his the most helpful. Now that my website is up I am going back to "The Principles of Beautiful Web Design" to improve what I have. His design ideas even helped me with the layout and design of Snappy Sayings: wit & wisdom from the world's greatest minds. I wonder if he knew he was also helping make book designs more beautiful?
There is so much in this book that web designer who are from the techie side can easily use. Years of design school and experience in an easy to understand and use format is what makes this such a great book.
A good overview
This book reads fine and is light reading. Good enough to get familiar with the subject and go through quickly. Suitable for those unfamiliar with the process one takes to web design. For those who have built sites, it maybe too basic and familiar, at least for me it was.
First the materials and printing. The materials used on the inside was printed on stock that resembles paper used for kids coloring books. With such a strong title as "PRINCIPLES" associated with art/design type of work, it should be printed on heavier paper, and glossy too. An example would be the same stock as what Adobe uses in its Classroom In A Book series.
Next, price. $39.95 retail for this quality of book is too high for what it delivered. I seen much more stronger books with greater detail, more content, and better quality printing. This 160 page book should fall in the $29.95 and under category. Compare this book with the O'Reilly books which offers more technical depth, even the Head Rush series as well and its not on the same level.
Finally, the material. The coverage was good but it just felt too light in material. The problem is, it didn't feel authoratative, lacked depth, and looked to "Dummy" like to be titled THE PRINCIPLES OF WEB DESIGN.
"A Simple Guide To Web Design" would have been more appropriate. While I did get something out of it, it really wasn't something that deserves a "Wow this is the best book on web design" award.
Beautiful Web Design
This is a great book to learn about and review principles of design, especially web design. It is an easy read, well structured and, as I visual learner, I love the many pictures and figures throughout the book. This is a simple step-by-step guide to web design that I recommend. Enjoy!
Great summary of design principles for the web
I enjoyed reading this concise and comprehensive summary of general design principles for the web. It stands out among the very few graphic design books available for web developers. It should be a must have for anyone in the field.
Beautiful indeed
This is not a hands-on book; this is more of a "look at these pretty websites" book. But it's one of the best of its breed. The examples are well-chosen and illustrate important principles in layout, color and typography that the author touches on lightly and enjoyably.
