Design for the Web (Beta)

In Design for the Web, you will learn design theory through practical advice and real-world code. We will reveal the tricks of the trade and how your designs can be both effective and successful. We will also lay out a map of the different design specializations, and talk about how those designers approach a project from start to finish.

Read a sample chapter

This is a pre-release. The price will increase to $20 when the content is complete and edited.

Why write this book?

I encounter a lot of developers and regular people who use the internet daily, are surrounded by good design, and yet get intimidated when it comes time to talk about organizing information and picking colors. This book is design, demystified.

Is this book for me?

Design theory and design thinking can be learned at any age by anyone. You don't need to have any prior design experience, but we will assume you are familiar with common design patterns on the internet. We won't spend time explaining how HTML and CSS work, but we will point out some best practices to help you improve your skills and build scalable and maintainable code. This book is ideal for a developer wanting to learn to design their own projects or for a beginning designer to hone of their craft.

Table of Contents

Design Disciplines

• Visual Design
  
• User Interface Design
• User Experience Design

Elements of Art & Design

• Color
• Form & Space
• Balance
• Rhythm
  
• Abstraction vs Skeuomorphism
• Typography
  
• White Space & Readability
  

Layout

• Writing Semantic Markup
  
• Hierarchy (Visual and Markup)
  
• Grid Systems
  
• Vertical Rhythm
  
• The Fold
  

Getting humans to do what you want

• Color Psychology
  
• Invoking Action
  
• Using Icons (Responsibly)
  
• Optimizing Forms for Conversion
  

Design is for Everyone

• Conventions and Consistency
  
• Responsive Design
  
• Accessibility
  

Planning a Design Project

• Iterative Design Process
  
• Sketching
  
• Prototyping
  
• User Testing
  

Design for the Web is written by Joshua Ogle.