The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

While several of the reviewers for this title were critical because they felt it was below their skill level or, in other cases, felt that the use of PhotoShop examples were not appropriate for the book's audience, I found this title to be a perfect introduction. I'm a PHP / MySQL hobbyist and found that while my various little applications worked, the finished product just didn't look good. This book provided an excellent foundation to help me remedy that problem.The book discusses 'Layout and Composition', 'Color', 'Texture', 'Typography', and Imagery'. I enjoyed that it was written in an appropriately relaxed tone with touches of humor here and there. And while I didn't have PhotoShop when I read the book, I found the PhotoShop -specific examples very interesting. In fact, I was inspired to go out and buy a discounted copy of PhotoShop to give some of these techniques a try for myself!

I'm a programmer with an artistic side that is waiting to be born.I didn't realize that web designers are actually artists bringing their talents onto a monitor screen (duh?). They go through formal training and education in graphic designs, theories, etc and they use all of that to get a site looking good. I always thought websites somehow would just look good on the front end if someone just casually work on it and as long as us backend programmers are at work then all is well (too much credit to back enders here huh?)Anyways, I found a few interesting things in this book. The color wheel was good. I've been wondering why my color combination never work out right. The rule of 3rd is good. The different sample of websites gave me a keener way of categorizing layout types. The stock photo sites are good resources. The steps the author takes towards developing a layout is good - planining, contemplating, matching colors with company's themes/logo...I can see how the designer comes up with a layout, which is of much use.The book feels a bit too general, however. I give it 3 stars. The first couple chapters of the book was best for me. The chapter on typeography was the least enjoyed. Some of the photoshop's "how to's" steps by step were oddly given since the book isn't about how to use photoshop. It felt like these were "fillers" of the book.

As other reviewers have mentioned, this book is an introduction of design principles for non-designers. It's written so well that a person without any art background like me can understand it. I know many people don't have a few thousand dollars to hire a designer to design their website. This book may help you start design websites by yourselves. I said help you start. You'll definitely need more help. This book let you know what kind of help you need so you can go to internet or other books.I read other books on web/graphics design but those were too heavy and I was overwhelmed and just couldn't finished them. This one is the best. And it only has 168 pages.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird is a concise book about basic design principles. To some, design is something that is tough to grasp and is a mystery to understand. To others it simply comes naturally. If you find yourself struggling with design and need some direction, then this book is for you. Throughout each of the chapters Jason breaks down the specifics of layout and composition, color, texture, typography, and imagery.Jason states his intended audience as someone who might be:...squeamish about choosing colors, feel uninspired by a blank browser window, or get lost trying to choose the right font.It is important to note that this book is not a book about code, but is about principles, inspiration, and education. With that brief disclaimer out of the way, here is a breakdown of the content found in the book.The journey starts with chapter 1 and layout and composition. Before any keys are pressed on a keyboard, there is much work and research to be done. Jason talks about his design process and starting things off right with your clients. He gives a brief definition of what makes up good design. I am sure this could be many different things to different people, but he stresses the key points in relation to user interaction on the web. How easy is it for people to find what they are looking for? Does the design help them achieve their goals, or is the design visual eye-candy that inhibits them completing a specific task? Is the navigation and information easy to understand? Can the user navigate without feeling lost? The design process takes time.Next he looks to the anatomy of a web page. Many pages have a consistency to them. There is a navigation, sub navigation. A masthead with branding information. There might be a search field to help locate different pages. There are an array of columns used for placement. There is a footer that usually has more details or contact information. These are just a few, and they don't all have to look the same.The next few pieces discuss grid theory, balance, unity, and emphasis. Each of these play an important role on how your information is presented. Aligning your items to a grid. Aligning your type to a vertical rhythm. Having balance between your sections. Having unity in your sub-pages as the navigation gets deeper. Placing emphasis on any given section. Each of these are discussed in detail and are accompanied by examples found on the web.This chapter rounds off by Jason showing some bread and butter layouts, finding inspiration on and off the web, giving introduction to some new and fresh trends (you know, the Web 2.0 stuff), and then begins the application that we will watch unfold throughout the rest of the book, a website for Florida Country Tile.With a firm foundation of layout and composition beneath us, it is time to address the aspect of color. We have all seen beautiful color combinations, and most likely our fair share of not-so-friendly-to-the-eyes color combinations. How do you go about selecting a color scheme for your website? Jason starts this chapter off by discussing the psychology of color. Color theory simply addresses how people react and relate to different colors. There are many variables involved, and some of them are even geographical in nature. What types of colors should you choose for your target audience? Looking to develop a site for a restaurant? Find out how different colors convey different emotions in your users. Color theory gives great insight into how people perceive colors found on your website.The next few sections discuss things such as the temperature of your colors, the value of your colors, and then into a little bit of color theory. Each of these pieces are given adequate attention with even more examples shown. Things start to get fun as he moves into color theory. Here is where we see some methods used to creating elegant color schemes. No longer do you have to randomly select colors, now you can give your entire website some of that balance that we discussed above. Selecting a color scheme can be very difficult, but as Jason shows there are many options to selecting a color scheme that will fit the needs of your site. As he shows the process for creating a color palette, he moves on to the process of selecting a color palette for the application section. The Florida Country Tile website is starting to get filled out with an elegant color scheme.The application is starting to come to life. We have a layout, we have a color scheme, and now it is time to see how we can make some subtle improvements through the use of texture. This chapter defines such things as points, line, shape, volume and depth, and pattern. Each of these come with illustrations to further elaborate on the topics. After looking through each of these things, Jason moves to the practical side and building your own textures for your website. This includes subtle background textures, textures for use as borders, and textures are backgrounds for different elements on a page. He gives the application a subtle enhancement by adding a textured background. Things are starting to evolve even more, and the site is starting to take form and life. Background images, drop-shadows, and section separators are just a few ways textures can be used to enhance a layout.One of the often overlooked aspect of a website is that of typography. This is mainly due in part to the small selection of fonts available to web designers. Jason covers some ways to get around this shortcoming by use of sIFR and other image replacement techniques. Image replacement has been discussed in depth in many different avenues, and Jason doesn't spend much time discussing these. This is an out of classroom assighment for you as the reader.Now it's time to dive in a little deeper. The next few sections are a brief history lesson. He discusses things like letterform, text spacing, letter spacing, text alignment, adjusting line height for an optimal reading experience, and some of distinctions of typefaces. Here you will see a breakdown of serif versus sans-serif, and some of the different variations of each.With the history behind us, we move forward to what it takes to choose the right font for your project. This is always dependent on the client and the branding that needs to take place. Choosing a typeface is sometimes a difficult process, especially with the large amounts of fonts and variants available to you as a designer. Jason moves on to apply some of these principles to the application that we have been working on. He chooses the fonts he will use throughout the website, both in images and in the body of the pages. He proceeds to add some text on top of the imagery, as well as give some breathing room and separation to the content on the homepage.Our journey to design bliss is coming to a close. The last chapter discusses adding imagery to give your site a bit of visual flair. Again, Jason begins with a few sections covering some history, what to look for, and where to look for it. This includes the legal implications of the different kinds of images that you may come across. Once we safely secure the images we want to use for the website, and are sure we have full permission to do so, we then move to cropping, adjustments with photoshop, and the different formats and resolutions available to use. Here we see a brief discussion of applying CSS to achieve some re-usable border treatments to our images. Finally, all of this knowledge is used to extend upon the application and give it its final touches.verall, this book is an excellent resource for those seeking design instruction and inspiration.Overall, this book is an excellent resource for those seeking design instruction and inspiration. The book is filled with screenshots of different sites and sources for inspiration as the author encourages us to look around for inspiration in our own designs. Seeking inspiration doesn't always mean emulation. Find a way to make things your own for you and your client. As a reminder, this book might seem elementary for those who have a background and education in design. This book is for those looking to take small steps to improve their websites.I did have one qualm with this book. This book is primarily constructed of principles, history, and philosophy of design. This means discussion of code and application specific techniques are kept to a minimal. However, given the target audience, it seems as though Jason makes many assumptions about the understanding of Photoshop and the techniques described therein. I know that it would take extra time to explain this process, and he even gives a disclaimer that it is hard for him to explain his entire process. Maybe it would have been nice to have an appendix with some more details to the Photoshop techniques he discusses throughout the book.

I've just about finished the book, but was here ordering another in this series because this one has answered a million question. Reading the book is painless. Heck, it's almost enjoyable. I didn't want to know code. All I wanted to achieve was a working understanding of website design so that I could communicate ideas effectively to a web designer. BUT if I were planning on getting my own website on its feet, I would still find this design book invaluable in guiding me through the decision process necessary for creating a cohesive, sharp, expressive web design. Now I'm off to get Site Point's book on 101 Photoshop tricks for websites. Yep. I'm jazzed.

I like everything about this book! It's a quick read as it's succinct (even though the tone is relaxed and chatty) and there are lots of images. I agree with the other reviewers, the use of example images to illustrate points is very useful. Highly recommended.

This is a good book for newbies or for practitioners who have gravitated to web design without formal training in the basics.As a Ux Architect I found the info on wireframing virtually non-existent, but found the info on colour and fonts fairly useful. My main gripe would be that the examples are old, (but I did buy a second-hand 2007 edition) and the book is a bit thin on the ground. My advice would be to buy it second hand and you will pay the price that it probably should have been originally.

Interesting read, with lot's of detail, but, if I'd realised the version I purchased was a first edition 2007 I wouldn't have bought it. Some basic bits still relevant, but unfortunately the majority of the book is just too dated to be of much use today. Fortunately an up to date 4th Edition of the book is being published July 2020 and should be well worth purchasing.

I am not a great web site developer, let alone developer, but I found this book lacking and did not give me anything of great significance. If you are already familiar with the basics of design, e.g. colour matching, etc, then there is not going to be much new for you.