Editorial Reviews:
Do you keep an archive of killer Web sites? You're not alone. Fifteen leading Web designers reveal the secrets behind their favorite sites in the updated edition of Web Design Studio Secrets. Featuring interviews with the experts, undocumented tips and techniques, and full-color illustrations in an oversized format, this edition also presents case studies packed with advice. Discover what's in a winning site -- Dynamic HTML, Flash animation, and JavaScript rollovers are among the contenders. The CD-ROM contains demo software from key industry players, artwork from the book, and QuickTime interviews with featured artists. With Web Design Studio Secrets, 2nd Ed., you'll find out what the competition's been up to and how to use it to your advantage.
If you could call up some Web designers on the phone and pick their brains, the resulting bits of wisdom from those conversations might be a lot like this book. Web Design Studio Secrets profiles 15 designers, with brief rundowns of their careers and their insights on designing for the Web. Less a how-to and more like a collection of conversations, this book nevertheless includes bits of code, down-and-dirty instructions for applications such as Photoshop and Flash, and plenty of specific tips and color screen shots. A companion CD-ROM includes phone interviews with the designers, in QuickTime format. Designer Jeffery Zeldman's chapter on font usage and CSS is excellent. It offers advice and spotlights some great Web sites on these subjects--like The Little Shop of CSS Horrors (www.haughey.com/csshorrors). Neil Robertson explains the JavaScript behind rollovers and Lisa Lopuck does a nice job explaining tweening GIF animations. Lopuck's lesson in Flash animation, however, is too cursory a tutorial for beginners yet too elementary for those intermediate users looking for something more. Paul Ingram's discussion of Flash is more helpful, although it's not so detailed that beginners won't still need their manuals. While coverage of HTML in the book is fairly basic, the subject of DHTML fares better. Thomas Noller's Defy the Rules (www.defytherules.com) Web site uses a constant parade of layers to describe Adobe software. However, Noller's chapter only allows a peek over the designer's shoulder; readers don't really learn how to hand-code DHTML or incorporate it into pages created with Web-layout applications. Some parts of the book seem dated in this second edition. A number of chapters teach formerly complicated processes for tasks that are now easy--optimizing GIFs, for example. Also, at least one interviewee on the CD-ROM says HTML editors aren't useful, citing PageMill as an example. This conversation clearly precedes the advent of the Dreamweaver and GoLive editors. These parts of the book and CD-ROM should have been replaced in the new edition by hints on how to use these major Web design applications more effectively. --Angelynn Grant Topics covered: Interviews and biographies of 15 Web designers (including tips on HTML, DHTML, and GIF and Flash animation), storyboarding and planning a site, managing Web sites, working with databases, choosing navigation strategies, and publicizing a site. The CD-ROM includes demo software for Extensis and Macromedia, freeware and shareware, QuickTime interviews with designers, links to helpful Web sites, and project files referenced in the text.
Customer Reviews:
Displaying 1 to 5 of 19 total reviews (Page 1 of 4):
 Bad coffeetable book
If you want a book to put on your coffee table that will tell people that you know absolutely nothing about web design then look no further. I bought this book from Amazon and it is one of the worst books I have ordered. Yes, there are lots of full color pictures of websites... so what? I can go on line and see web sites... Where is the in depth design analysis? Not to be found here. Besides most of the sites it exhibits are static 'home page' style sites. Not one of these is a high-volume commerce site - these 'home page' sites are the kind of sites that don't even require an analysis of design past a few minuets to think up what you want to display and how you want to put it on the page - which is all the book talks about from a most puerile point of view. It was a while back when I bought the book so I actually feel very guilty for not posting this review sooner to help dissuade some of you from making a bad purchase, sorry!  It was good for me.
A lot of very useful info in a small book. I'm less than half the way through and I've already learned enough to make it worth the investment to me. The chapter on Using Tables was just what I needed. I would recommend this book to other beginners who are still trying to make sense of it all.  Get it!
This book is worth the reading for anyone in the industry as it keeps you focused on what's important, the user. Books that give accounts by other designers are more desirable than those by a single author attempting to "spew" his or her view of "what is proper web design."Though I thought the accompanying CD was rather weak, I appreciated being able to see the visual aspects of how the designers put the sites together, as well as reading their thoughts on it. There's a good variety of topics covered, though some of the more technical ones may have been disserviced by the lack of space to adequately delve into the specifics. In all, it's worth it for any designer to have in his or her library. Required reading for Web designers
This book presents analysis and how-did-they-do-that descriptions of numerous aspects of Web page design and production. The first two chapters covering general design issues and navigation are exceptionally good and should be read by anyone who makes Web pages. These chapters stress the overall need for usability and speed and discuss why sites that don't take their audience into consideration are unsuccessful. The remaining chapters are each geared to specific aspects of Web design that may be of interest to graphic artists designing for the Web; they cover such topics as Web graphics, fonts, animation, multimedia, and 3D worlds. In fact, some of the chapters are so specific that they may not be comprehensible to readers who don't work with Adobe Photoshop every day. The book includes a CD that has interactive examples and demo software for some of the design products mentioned in the book.While the overall quality of the book is quite good, the technical chapters on HTML and JavaScript are rather weak- -new users of either of these languages won't find these sections very illuminating, and experienced users won't find many new tips either (the example figures showing HTML code are barely legible). The chapter on Web type starts off by considering usability issues, but soon turns to snazzy ways to make an artistic point, seemingly forgetting the needs of users (as well as search engines, which read only real text, not animated gifs or Shockwave). The book is definitely geared towards graphic artists, almost assuming that the readers are working on high-end Macintosh computers. Certainly, any graphic artist designing for the Web will find tremendous value in this book, as well as general readers interested in Web design.  Web Design Studio Secrets
This is a good book for beginners to get some overall concepts formulated of what things are possible on the web and some good clues as to how to acheive that end. No real tutorials offered and you should have other texts or the web to glean that info... More Customer Reviews:
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(19 reviews)
