- Paperback: 237 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing; 1 edition (1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1568303467
- ISBN-13: 978-1568303468
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 17.2 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 739 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,138,771 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Yes! The Web design book that many have prayed for is here! Roger Black has rejuvenated many a magazine with his insight into how graphic arts really work. Now he turns his well-toned eye to new media, demonstrating which principles are universal, which simply don't translate well from print, and which allegedly great new ideas should be jettisoned before they do any further harm. Just thumb through this gorgeous book and you'll see that Black knows how to make graphics sing or howl--on a newspaper page or on a 14-inch monitor. Highly recommended.
From Library Journal
Black could have been content to be one of the most successful magazine designers around, but he has increasingly focused his attention on the Web. Here he sums up his insights in chapters such as "Rules That Work"; "What Not To Do on the Web"; "Classic Design"; "Where Am I?"; "Type"; "Writing for the Web"; and "Video on the Web." You'll learn that putting up screen after screen of text is a waste of time because people on the web don't want to read anything. At least that is what Black says. If you have a web site then you need to read this book. Essential for all collections.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A web site hobbyist gets schooled,
By
This review is from: Web Sites That Work (Paperback)
I run a website purely as hobby. Having never taken a single graphic design or html course, or read a single book on the subject, I picked up this book at a book wholesaler and got it out of curiosity. I found it to be a non-threatening and friendly introduction to basic rules of web design. Before I went simply on what I thought looked good and what loaded fast. Now I know just a little bit more that can really make a page work well. Particularly helpful is the chapter called "Web sites that DON'T work."
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
2.9 out of 5 stars (43 customer reviews) 10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
First-year design principles + a lot of hot air,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Web Sites That Work (Paperback)
I had a lot of problems with this book beginning with its misleading title. "Web Sites That Work" makes it sound like you can expect some technical information. Not so. There's basically nothing here that actually tells you how to produce a web site that works. There are almost no references to HTML, web-safe colors, CSS, or any other technical aspects of web design. Authored by "ROGER BLACK with Sean Elder", the book is structured like a long softball interview with questions for and quotes from Black & members of his design firm. I found this profoundly irritating; it was distracting and it made the book seem transparently self-serving. As for the content: lots of largely irrelevant glossy photos, not a lot of actual information imparted. If you're looking for a retrospective of Black's career, and lots of pictures of his big pumpkin head, you'll love it. But otherwise there's not a lot here. Black gets around issues like file size & optimization by ignoring them, claiming that everyone will have broadband by the end of 1998 anyway. So he feels free to use big-ass graphics with ludicrous download times to mimic print design. It's 2000 and I don't know about you but I still have a modem. Which may be why I never visit any of the sites that Black designs. And regarding Black's vaunted classic design principles, ANY first year course in design, or basic graphic design text, will teach you everything this book does and more-- and you won't have to swim through Black's heavy egocentric pontification to do it. And how about the design? The book is heavy, expensive, and somewhat pleasing to the eye, but ironically enough it's not designed very well! There's not much organization and a lot of the pictures seem randomly placed on the page. My final judgement: 50% of this book slams everyone else trying to do web design for doing it wrong; 40% of the book lards praise on Black & his lackeys for their approach to design. The other 10% is the useful information that managed to sneak through. I got it on clearance for $2, which is about what it's worth in my estimation. It would be nice if there was a book that taught web programmers about classic design principles-- including how to implement them successfully on the web. But Roger Black's book isn't it.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of flash, mostly trash,
By Naomi Baldwin - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Web Sites That Work (Paperback)
Although this book is very pretty with lots of ink, thick pages, and nice graphics, I thought that the information value was very low. All of the information that was worth anything could have fit in a magazine article. This book seems to be a "look how cool Roger Black is" book, and it even has a little section in the back all about Roger Black, in case you didn't catch it from the rest of the book. Roger Black's Web work is very nice, so he has a lot to brag about, but this book should not have been the way to go about it. Although his Web design may work for certain audiences, there's much more to it than this very opinionated (and limited) version. He should stick to magazine design. Don't waste your money. This book is not only over-priced because of the flashy presentation, but it's not even worth the content.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not very good sites in this book,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Web Sites That Work (Paperback)
Where do I begin? The author makes a point of saying he will not write in the first person (ala David Siegel), but the text of the book is basically interviews of Black and his employees, all speaking in the first person. Opposite from his list of ten biggest web mistakes is a screen shot of a "good" web site making one of the blunders he mentions (its the porsche ad). Most of the text is an ad for his firm, almost all example sites are his, which by the way don't look too easy to navigate. Case in point is the graphics-heavy Discovery Channel Online page, which has no heirarchy and a confusing array of links jumping from it, and if you check out the current page (www.discovery.com), you will see they abandoned it for a more traditional page. The two-page spreads of the author and his resume at the end left me wondering why they were there. The biggest beef I have with Mr. Black is that he talks crap about new designers, how he hates new-school ideas coming from someone who isn't formally trained. I have heard that opinion a million times from people who think everyone has to go through years and years of pain and torture before they deserve any respect. If someone makes great pages, or great art, who cares if they were classically trained or not, just swallow your pride and admit it is good work, even if it comes from a 15 year old
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