Principles of Beautiful Web Design Review
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is a great introductory book for every future web professional. Even if you already have a couple of web sites under your belt, you could still learn a bit or two.
Jason Beaird brings the overview of design basics. He covers the theory of layout, color, texture, typography and imagery, but not only that. The book explains the origins of some widely used terms, for example a comp. Not being a native English speaker, I used to think that this is short for (layout) composition, but it’s actually short for comprehensive artwork (or dummy). Another “A-ha” moment was the advice on pressing
I love how Jason explains things. For instance, he shows that the style is something easily accomplished by choosing an appropriate texture. And if you thought that repeating background patterns were unfortunate 1990’s trend, you’d be surprised to find that some of the leading industry creatives, for instance Veerle Pieters and Jason Santa Maria use them on their awarded personal sites. With his examples, the author teaches that in web design – the line between horrible and beautiful is sometimes very, very thin.
Still not sure? Read sample chapter.