
Ask HN: Best Books for Learning Web Design? - mitchelldm7
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?
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LarryA
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.

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Sargis
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.

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DanielBMarkham
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=...](http://hn-
books.com/#BC=0&E0=2&EC=1&FC=0&Q0=3&QC=1)

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

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Cyph0n
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.

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ch00ey
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/>

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icco
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
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.

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

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eswat
_Don’t Make Me Think_ by Steve Krug

 _The Elements of Typographic Style_ by Robert Bringhurst

 _Non-Designer’s Design Book_ by Robin Williams

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

