Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to (X)HTML, StyleSheets, and Web Graphics

I teach introductory web design in an art college's continuing education program and this is the book I started recommending to my students (who are often artists, writers or designers wanting to develop basic web design skills) after one of my students purchased it as a HTML/CSS reference book. This book is ideal for a complete beginner, more advanced web students may need or want something more sophisticated.Here's why I recommend Learning Web Design to my beginner students:1) The book is in color. Most (possibly all) of the HTML and CSS reference books my students buy are in black and white. For creative, non-technical folks, this can be a challenge--wading through page after page of black and white text can be mind-numbing. The design of the book uses color to indicate key pieces of code, etc, which is very helpful for beginners.2) The book doesn't cover everything--and doesn't pretend to. It thoroughly discusses the basics of HTML, CSS, web graphics and the process of creating a web site and introduces some intermediate concepts, but really only covers what 90% of beginners need to know.3) The writing tone is friendly (I like the Dummies Guides for the same reason), which is great for non-technical users.4) The exercises that accompany each lesson are good, and are nice jumping off points for students.5) The discussion of graphics is better than in most books I've seen--it seems that a lot of basic web design references drop the ball in this area, probably because they're trying to cover so much material in the HTML & CSS sections.

I was actually quite terrified of web design before reading this book. It really changed my mind completely. It is easy to follow with full colored pages and the author puts some real personality into teaching web design. The tutorials are to the point and they don't drag on into boredom at all. It is especially good for those of us that are making the transition from print design to web.I absolutely love this book and I actually feel like I have accomplished a lot just by reading it. I understand a lot about XHTML and CSS and I am ready to take my learning further. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to explore web design, especially if you want to do it correctly! You will not learn any poor techniques in this reading.Do not pay attention to some of the negative reviews. Obviously you will not be an expert web designer after completing this book. That is not the point. Maybe the words "Learning" and "beginner" mentioned in the title were not specific enough to lead some people to the understanding that this book doesn't feature every single bit of code in existence for a reason! However, it does show readers enough material to confidently build great looking webpages with minimal and simple markup!Over all, this book is exactly what the title claims to be. A starting point and a great one at that!

For those who are serious about learning web design and its concepts and new standards, here is my favorite book from O'Reilly: "Learning Web Design" by Jennifer Niederst Robbins. This book is "a beginner;s guide to (X)HTML, style sheets (css), and web graphics.This book was a great insight on using HTML markup for structure and css for presentation. I heard this concept for a while, but couldn't quite grasp it until I read this book. It gave real examples with downloadable files and it's structured more like a classroom in a book so you can follow along the lessons. Jennifer also gave some exercises to test the readers understanding of the material and provided the solutions so reader can check their work. Since I actually was working on menus for my clients, the menu example really came in handy.This is my very absolute favorite book on web design and I highly recommend it for anyone trying to understand the concepts of HTML markup and CSS

This book provides a very thorough survey of building web pages using XHTML guidelines. The book progresses logically and intuitively, however that is one of it's main drawbacks. In my opinion the book would benefit from being more hands on. As it stands, there is a distinct lack of application after understanding. It would serve the book better to use a fusion of CSS along with XHTML so that one could learn both types of documents at the same time in order to develop an understanding of how the two work together.That being said, I learned a ton from this book and am now able to make my own web pages. I consult the book often when need requires and find it very useful and easy to use.

Sono stato colpito da questo libro, perché spiega alcune cose sul design delle pagine web che non avevo mai trovato spiegate bene in un libro di "teoria". Vengono descritti il layout a due colonne, a tre colonne, l'utilizzo di menu verticali, orizzontali, sidebar, ecc.Ben fatto.

I've recently tried to get into web design (especially graphic design), and after researching into a lot of different beginner's books, I chose this one. I found that the author, Jennifer, wrote it as though she speaks to you as a student rather than an expert, and she wrote it as though she speaks to you, rather than everyone. Personally, this helps me to learn things faster immensely. I'm still only in the first couple of chapters, but I have flicked through a lot of the pages, so I can give a slight explanation as to what to expect. At the beginning, Jennifer openly admits that this book is aimed more towards graphic design than any of the other disciplines in web design, but she also gives good suggestions as to what equipment you'd need (on both a professional and hobbyist level, and from inexpensive to industry level). Another thing I like is that she doesn't just chuck you into web design; she'll give you explanations as to where the Web came from, what abbreviated terms such as HTML and CSS stand for and she places tests in areas to make sure you have subjects based on that chapter to revise. She also informs you as to what tasks and talents you should expect to do and have within each field of the web design industry. As the book delves in further, she explains much of the differences between using, say, GIF & JPEG and how design can influence both your customer's mind and your computer's data. Overall, it's a great book for my needs!

Ich habe dieses Buch schon vor ca. einem halben Jahr gekauft, und es ist mir beim Web Design - obwohl ich ein stark Graphik orientiertes Fach studiert und dauernd mit Web-Design zu tun habe - immer noch eine meiner liebsten Gedächtnisstützen. Umfassend, gut verständlich, und nicht zu detailliert sondern auf das Wesentliche in der Praxis ausgerichtet ohne flach zu sein. Ob für Beginner - OK, wenn sie seit Jahren mit Programmierung bzw. EDV zu tun haben und in Design kein Neuling sind, so dass Sie den Überblick als solchen schätzen können weil ihnen viele Details schon bekannt sind, so betrachtet - auch für Beginner, da die Anleitungen hervorragend gelungen sind.

Around 6 years ago I got into web design, and then I stopped around 4 years ago. Then I went into OOP, and planned to start working with HTML and CSS again but never really did. For my University program I have co-op terms, meaning I get work experience related to my field. I ended up getting employed as a Web Programmer. One of the main requirement was experience with HTML/CSS/and Javascript. I found that I remembered little of HTML and CSS, so I decided to search for a book. To be honest I did judge this book by its cover. It was so colorful and pleasant on the eyes that I decided it would be a perfect book to start with. Next to that it had a section for graphics which I believe is important for web designing. (Although I should mention I skimmed through the graphics section. it's fairly basic so I decided not to read it).Overall I believe this book is an excellent resource for beginners and those looking to refresh or update their library. I actually feel I have learned so much from this. The only thing I really disliked was their form section. I mean, she gives us a practice problem using a type she didn't even introduce. That kind of made me disappointed. Besides that, the rest of the book is pretty good. I loved the CSS section and my eyes have now been opened to CSS. I definitely recommend this book to any beginners, or people looking to update their library.

非常によいです。１からWeb Designについて学びたいけど、どうしたらいいのか分からないといった人におすすめ。基礎の基礎から上級者向けのものまで体系的によくまとまっています。各章ごとに練習問題が挿入されていて学習したことの確認と復習に役立ちます。また、非常にやさしい言葉遣いで書かれているので、英語のニュースサイトを読める程度の力があれば読解には問題ないでしょう。もともとHTMLは英語圏発祥なので、下手に「要素」やら「属性」やら日本語に訳して学習するより、向こうの言葉で学習するほうが頭の整理をする上で最終的にはよい気がします。（個人差はあるでしょうが）これ一冊で基本はすべて押さえられます。買って損はない一冊です。