Ask HN: Best Books for Learning Web Design?

19 points by mitchelldm7 14 years ago | 10 comments

We've all talked about the best books for learning programming ... but for those of us who are graphically challenged, do any of you have recommendations for books on web design?

LarryA 14 years ago |

The ones I've found that are good starting points:

Stylin' with CSS by Charles Wyke-Smith - its mainly a (good) CSS book but gives enough hints at good design so you don't go overboard.

Handcrafted CSS by Dan Cederholm with Ethan Marcotte - again CSS tutorial with emphasis on good design with CSS.

Once you get the handle on those (or before hand) check out the great examples in CSS Zen Garden. ( http://www.csszengarden.com/ ) Something you can pick apart and analyze. The cool thing about ZenGarden is the HTML is always the exact same file it's the CSS and graphics that make the designs different.

Beware web design books that concentrate purely on web design - some of them are trying to be too artsy and cutting edge, look inside the book before buying... also some may be specific for templates in WordPress, Joomla or some other CMS.

Sargis 14 years ago |

I have seen this question come up on HN countless times, but I have yet to see a good answer. Why hasn't anyone written a good web design tutorial/book? I've read quite a few Photoshop/css tutorials, but none of those helped me understand the fundamentals of good design. The only thing that helped me suck less at designing was the "Non-Designer's Design Book", so I suggest reading that for starters.

DanielBMarkham 14 years ago |

I used to respond to book requests so much on hn that I created a website where you can review hacker books and share your list with other folks over here. hn-books.com

For web design, here's my list: http://hn-books.com/#BC=0&E0=2&EC=1&FC=0&Q0=...

Note that if you like, you can sort by knowledge level and book format.

Cyph0n 14 years ago |

HTML Dog is a good place to start for both HTML and CSS: http://htmldog.com/book/

I used it (to some extent) to learn both, but still haven't grasped how to work with CSS layouts and build a real web page. I don't blame the book though - I blame my laziness.

The online version is free to view, and there's a paperback edition available for purchase.

ch00ey 14 years ago |

I'm not quite sure on books, but there are a TON of resources out there to help you get a solid web design foundation.

Here are two resources that I read daily and provide a lot of good juicy material:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/

icco 14 years ago |

I don't know about books, but I took an introductory art class at my local junior college and it helped me a lot. Just understanding the basics of color and how artists go about laying out pictures translated a lot to helping me at least understand why designers did things online.

mannicken 14 years ago | |

I found abstract art to be related to web-design closely, in that a web-page is essentially a piece of abstract art: shapes of various size and color that in conjunction help us navigate to text/content we want.

pramit 14 years ago |

The Success Manual - contains summaries of some useful web design books. http://thesuccessmanual.bighow.com

eswat 14 years ago |

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams

imp 14 years ago |

For HTML/CSS, Bulletproof Web Design is a great book. It doesn't get into graphical design though.