Resources for Web Development Students @ Robin’s Blog

I just finished reading Sexy Web Design Create Your Own Stunning Web Interfaces That Just Work by Elliot Jay Stocks and I wasn’t disappointed. This book gives a detailed look at the process of creating a Web design.

The book is divided into six chapters:

Interfaces – Gives an overview of the design process. Essentially this is a nice overview of what the book will cover in the remaining chapters.

Research – Discusses the importance of creating a design brief which explains what the client expects from the design. It includes questions to ask when developing the brief. Essentially the brief will give you the goals of the site and act as the guide for the rest of the site’s development. It also discusses branding, inspiration galleries, and useful tools.

Structure – This chapter delves into creating sitemaps, sketches, diagrams, and wireframing.

Navigation and Interaction – Different types of navigation (global, local, pagination, and breadcrumbs) are discussed in this chapter, as are different styles (horizontal, vertical, drop-downs, tabs, and collapsible/expandable). It also discusses forms, ecommerce, and multimedia content.

Aesthetics – There is a short introduction to layout and composition, but the author recommends that the audience read The Principles of Beautiful Web Design which is already required reading for our course. This chapter focuses on the type of layout to select (fixed, fluid, or elastic), using grids in design, specifically the 960 Grid System, color basics and tools, consistency, volume and depth, pattern and texture, imagery, illustration, iconography, and typography. It then discusses pulling it all together to create a “Sexy Web Design”.

Deliverables – This chapter discusses the best way to show your clients the mockups, how to organize the design comps, exporting images, creating functional mockups and the development of style guides.

This book does not cover HTML, CSS, or Photoshop – it’s about planning and design. The author uses great visual examples and has links to terrific articles on the Web. It’s a clear and concise guide to creating modern Web sites.

Sexy Web Design Create Your Own Stunning Web Interfaces That Just Work will be required reading for the course. This book should be read in conjunction with the Photoshop unit. The book is available at Amazon for $26.37 (new) and for about $22.00 used.