Real Website Design is a new methodology that fuses traditional strengths of structured, stepped, and iterative approaches to design and implementation, sharply focused throughout a project on defining and achieving the desired purpose, usability and aesthetic characteristics – which are essential requirements of any website. This book offers practical discussion of new perspectives on usability and aesthetics, and a down-to-earth, structured approach to designing a website or teaching website design.

Web Design Inspiration at a Glance Volume 2 of The Web Designer’s Idea Book includes more than 650 new websites arranged thematically, so you can easily find inspiration for your work. Author Patrick McNeil, creator of the popular web design blog designmeltdown.com and author of the original bestselling Web Designer’s Idea Book, has cataloged thousands of sites, and showcases the latest and best examples in this book. The web is the most rapidly changing design medium, and this book offers an organized overview of what’s happening right now. Sites are categorized by type, design element, styles and themes, structural styles, and structural elements. This new volume also includes a helpful chapter explaining basic design principles and how they can be applied online. Whether you’re brainstorming with a coworker or explaining your ideas to a client, this book provides a powerful communication tool you can use to jumpstart your next project.

Building an elegant, functional website requires more than just knowing how to code. In Adaptive Web Design, Second Edition, you’ll learn how to use progressive enhancement to build websites that work anywhere, won’t break, are accessible by anyone—on any device—and are designed to work well into the future. This new edition of Adaptive Web Design frames even more of the web design process in the lens of progressive enhancement. You will learn how content strategy, UX, HTML, CSS, responsive web design, JavaScript, server-side programming, and performance optimization all come together in the service of users on whatever device they happen to use to access the web. Understanding progressive enhancement will make you a better web professional, whether you’re a content strategist, information architect, UX designer, visual designer, front-end developer, back-end developer, or project manager. It will enable you to visualize experience as a continuum and craft interfaces that are capable of reaching more users while simultaneously costing less money to develop. When you’ve mastered the tenets and concepts of this book, you will see the web in a whole new way and gain web design superpowers that will make you invaluable to your employer, clients, and the web as a whole. Visit http://adaptivewebdesign.info to learn more.

Every stage in the design of a new web site is an opportunity to meet or miss deadlines and budgetary goals. Every stage is an opportunity to boost or undercut the site's usability. This book tells you how to design usable web sites in a systematic process applicable to almost any business need. You get practical advice on managing the project and incorporating usability principles from the project's inception. This systematic usability process for web design has been developed by the authors and proven again and again in their own successful businesses. A beacon in a sea of web design titles, this book treats web site usability as a preeminent, practical, and realizable business goal, not a buzzword or abstraction. The book is written for web designers and web project managers seeking a balance between usability goals and business concerns. * Examines the entire spectrum of usability issues, including architecture, navigation, graphical presentation, and page structure. * Explains clearly the steps relevant to incorporating usability into every stage of the web development process, from requirements to tasks analysis, prototyping and mockups, to user testing, revision, and even postlaunch evaluations. * Includes forms, checklists, and practical techniques that you can easily incorporate into your own projects at http://www.mkp.com/uew/.

This is a different kind of web design book. Above the Fold is not about timely design or technology trends; instead, this book is about the timeless fundamentals of effective communication within the context of web design. It is intended to help you, the reader, understand the considerations that web designers make when developing successful websites. Above the Fold is divided into three sections: Design & Typography Planning & Usability Business Value Each section represents a phase in the continuous cycle of web design. It's the balance among design, usability, and return on investment that makes a website truly great. Topics covered in Above the Fold include: What makes web design unique The history of web design Anatomy of a web page White space and grid use in web design The elements of web design: color, texture, imagery, scale, depth, animation, and variability Web typography, including web-safe type, images of type, and font replacement and embedding Web project planning Information architecture, including site maps, wireframes, and user flow diagrams The elements of usability: navigation, breadcrumbs, links, search, submission forms, and error messaging Search engine optimization Online marketing, including banner ads, viral and social marketing, on-site marketing, and email marketing Web statistics and analysis

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is the ideal book for anyone who wants to design stunning websites that provide a great user experience. Perhaps you're a developer who wants to understand how to make your applications more visually appealing, or you're a novice who wants to start on the path to becoming a designer. This book will teach you how to: Understand what makes "good design," from discovery through to implementation Use color effectively, develop color schemes, and create a palette Create pleasing layouts using grids, the rule of thirds, and symmetry Employ textures: lines, points, shapes, volumes, and depth Apply typography to make ordinary designs look great Choose, edit, and position effective imagery This easy-to-follow guide is illustrated with beautiful, full-color examples, and will lead you through the process of creating great designs from start to finish. The fourth edition of this bestselling book has been greatly revised and now features: Updated and expanded coverage responsive web design techniques A new sample project New sections on pattern libraries and how design fits on modern app development workflows Common user-interface patterns and resources