Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites

This essential guide for Web site designers provides practical, 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, this book offers invaluable help on a full range of issues, from planning and organizing goals to design strategies for a site to the elements of individual page design.

In 160 pages of expert instruction, authors Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton put the essence of the Yale University Center 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