Principle of Beautiful Web design

Review: The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

Travis King

http://freelanceswitch.com/product-reviews/review-the-principles-of-beautiful-web-design/

My web design sucks!

If you’re like me you’ve probably said that to yourself at least once in your career. When you browse through sites like cssBeauty and FaveUp, you are wowed by the beautiful designs, and you can’t help but ask yourself “What am I missing?”

I know some freelancers who come from a development background assume that programmers just can’t design. Others have decided to go back to school to take a course in design. But to be honest, when you are already well invested in your career, it’s often not practical or even reasonable to head back to school.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could get a crash course in design principles? Jason Beaird’s The Principles of Beautiful Web Design to the rescue!

Who should read this book?

Jason admits that the book is geared towards programmers and developers that feel a little squeamish when it comes to design, so if you’re an established designer there’s not much this book can teach you. Also, you’re not going to find step-by-step tutorials here, the book covers design principles not design how-to’s. Think of it as a good starting point rather than a hefty tome that’s going to teach you everything there is to know about design.

I also want to point out that although the book claims to focus on developers branching into design, it does make some assumptions that a developer would already be familiar with Photoshop. With that in mind, I would say the book is going to be of most benefit to those starting into a design career or programmers that have tried their hand at design and would like to improve.

The book is broken down into 5 sections.

Layout and Composition.

There are few things more daunting than a blank canvas. Even when you have an idea of what the client wants - how do you get from the idea to the layout? Jason describes his methods of starting with pen and paper, and drawing out a simple grid to sketch out basic concepts. He looks at balance, unity, contrast and other factors that the designer should consider when putting together his composition.

Color

With over 16 million colors to choose from it’s no easy task to pick a color scheme for your website. It’s even harder when you’re forced to work with client colors that just don’t work. The book dips into tried-and-true color theories as well as the six classic color schemes. Did you know there is a color scheme named Tetradic? Use it in a sentence to impress your friends!

Texture

Texture was a major thing that I was missing in my design. I had no idea how important a role it plays in taking your design to the next level. It’s true that you can overdo it with texture – think web 2.0 wet glass - but a little gradient, pattern, or light and shadow can go a long way to making your design’s pop.

Typography

I bought a whole book dedicated to typography but learnt more from Jason’s descriptions in just 30 pages. So often you’ll see type used poorly or as an afterthought to the design, but there are so many creative ways to use type that we should give careful thought to our font choices.

Imagery

It seems like a no-brainer that you’re going to need images for your site. After all, what would a website be without beautiful images? With that in mind however, you still need to decide if the images you use are relevant, interesting, and appealing. Jason describes where to look for images and how to make your own stand out.

Highlights

When I started into web design over 10 years ago I could look at a website and tell you if it looked good, but I couldn’t really tell you why it looked good. Jason book helps to pull back the cover on web design and removes some of the mystery on why things look the way they do.

• Your web site needs balance. It may not be readily apparent, but if you have heavy graphics on one side of your page, you’re going to need something to balance it out on the other side. Jason illustrates it to hanging a picture lopsided.
• Text and white space are as important and flashy graphics.
• Spend some time on your graphics. Crop them and tweak them till they pop. If you’re using other people work make sure you know their usage rights and don’t just try and gank them from a Google image search.
• Dingbats are your friends. Use them responsibly.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is like looking over the shoulder of a designer and having them explain the methods and reasons for their design decisions. It’s hard to not wish the book was 10x longer, but after all, it’s really only a starting point.

Download Link
Principles-of-Beautiful-Webdesign.zip