Web Design for Developers will show you how to make your web-based application look professionally designed. We’ll help you learn how to pick the right colors and fonts, avoid costly interface and accessibility mistakes—your application will really come alive. We’ll also walk you through some common Photoshop and CSS techniques and work through a web site redesign, taking a new design from concept all the way to implementation.

Web Design for Developers: A Programmer's Guide to Design Tools and Techniques
Code • Errata • Discussions
300 pages, Oct 2009
ISBN: 978-1-93435-613-5

Buy Now

 Buy the eBook and get these DRM-free formats:
  • PDF
  • epub (for iPhone, Sony, etc)
  • mobi (for Kindle, etc)

This title is currently available in Beta. Buy it now, and you'll be able to download successive releases of the eBook as the authors add material and correct mistakes. You'll get the final eBook when the book is finished.

If you buy the combo pack (Beta eBook + Paper Book) now, you'll get the Beta eBook now and the paper book when it's released on (we're currently estimating November 15, 2009, but these dates can change).

 

About this Book

Developers don’t get to spend a lot of time thinking about design, but many secretly wish they knew how to make their applications look just a little bit better. This book takes you on a journey through a web site redesign, where you’ll learn the basic concepts of design, color theory, typography, and accessibility.

You’ll learn how to take a sketch and transform it into a digital mockup in Photoshop, and then finally into a working web page. You’ll see how to develop logos, icons, and buttons using Illustrator and Photoshop, and then code a web page that will load fast, be easy to maintain, and most of all, be accessible to all audiences.

Contents and Extracts

This book is currently in beta, so the contents and extracts will change as the book is developed.

Full Table of Contents
  • The Basics of Design
    • The basics of the site (re)design – Redesigning Foodbox
    • Choosing Colors excerpt
    • Fonts and Typography
  • Graphics
    • Designing the Foodbox Logo excerpt
    • Design Mockup – The Structure
    • Design Mockup – The Content
    • Putting the finishing touches on the Mockup
  • Building the Site
    • Building the Home Page with XHTML excerpt
    • Creating Assets From Our Mockup
    • Defining Your Layout with CSS
    • Replacing the Section Headings using the Coverup Method
    • Adding Styles
  • Preparing for Launch
    • Working with Internet Explorer
    • Accessibility and Usability
    • Search Engine Optimization
  • Recipes
    • Building a Favicon
    • Photoshop Techniques – Quick Mask
    • Photoshop Techniques – Dodge and Burn
    • Photoshop Techniques – Adjustment Layers
    • Javascript Image Rollovers
    • Random Images
  • Resources
    • Photoshop – A brief primer
    • Recommended Reading

About the Author

Brian Hogan has been developing web sites professionally since 1995 as a freelancer and consultant. He’s also built small and large web sites and web applications using ASP, PHP, and Ruby on Rails. He enjoys teaching and writing about technology, particularly web design and development.