The Non-Designer’s Web Book is a pretty, full-color guide for aspiring Web designers. The authors first explain how to browse and search the Web and then discuss how to plan and post a Web site. Then they get you into the real work of designing Web sites, whether for business or personal purposes. The authors teach you basic design principles--covering such areas as alignment, proximity, repetition, and contrast--and then discuss design issues that are specific to the Web: You learn about creating pages with careful attention to color, graphics, typography, tables, and more. Finally, you learn how to test, fix, upload, update, and register your site. The book isn’t an HTML primer, but you do get a few tips on tweaking your pages by editing HTML code. The authors discuss a variety of Macintosh and Windows programs for creating Web pages, such as Adobe PageMill, Claris Home Page, and Microsoft FrontPage, and they also discuss image editors, such as Adobe Photoshop. At the end of each chapter there’s a quiz for reviewing what you’ve learned.

While the second edition of The Non-Designer’s Web Book won’t answer all of your technical questions about the inner workings of the Web, it explains most of what a beginning designer needs to know: what the Web is, how it gets to your computer, how to use it, and, most of all, how to design for it.

Any artist can tell you that you have to know how a medium works to get the most impact from working in it. A basic understanding of how the Web works enables the good designer to create the most effective sites. This book thoroughly discusses the different kinds of graphics that are used on the Web, when to use one over another, how to make the most of text styles, and how to design navigation systems.

The comparisons are the best stuff here--good design vs. bad design, why designing Web pages is different from designing printed pages, and why a site looks terrific on one monitor but terrible on another. Two chapters on properly preparing graphics and setting typography for use on a Web site describe how to avoid obvious mistakes that would make your work look amateurish.

Not limited to design, The Non-Designer’s Web Book shows how to get a site up and running, register the domain name, and add it to search engines. After the design is finished and implemented, the site has to be uploaded and updated; this is explained, too.

If there is one fault with this book, it’s the lack of information on specific authoring tools. The barest overview of the current crop of tools appears in chapter 3, "Just What Are Web Pages, Anyway?", but a discussion of why you should choose one package over another is absent.

Don’t let that fault stop you from buying this book, however. Plenty of magazines regularly have Web authoring tool "shootouts." What the magazines don’t do, and what The Non-Designer’s Web Book excels at, is tell you how to make well-designed pages. If you’re going to build Web sites, for either personal or professional use, but you have no clue where to begin, start with this book. It’s easy to read, devoid of confusing jargon, and full of dos and don’ts to help you avoid common snags. --Mike Caputo

Robin and John have updated their best-selling book on Web design by adding more creative ideas, useful techniques, and current technology, all of which can easily be implemented by both inexperienced Web designers and professional designers or programmers. If Web design seems beyond your grasp, this book will change your mind. Even if you already have a Web site, youÕll find valuable ideas, techniques, and inspiration in this work. ItÕs a Web design book that will wake you up creatively, rather than put you to sleep with code.

While the second edition of The Non-Designer’s Web Book won’t answer all of your technical questions about the inner workings of the Web, it explains most of what a beginning designer needs to know: what the Web is, how it gets to your computer, how to use it, and, most of all, how to design for it.

Any artist can tell you that you have to know how a medium works to get the most impact from working in it. A basic understanding of how the Web works enables the good designer to create the most effective sites. This book thoroughly discusses the different kinds of graphics that are used on the Web, when to use one over another, how to make the most of text styles, and how to design navigation systems.

The comparisons are the best stuff here--good design vs. bad design, why designing Web pages is different from designing printed pages, and why a site looks terrific on one monitor but terrible on another. Two chapters on properly preparing graphics and setting typography for use on a Web site describe how to avoid obvious mistakes that would make your work look amateurish.

Not limited to design, The Non-Designer’s Web Book shows how to get a site up and running, register the domain name, and add it to search engines. After the design is finished and implemented, the site has to be uploaded and updated; this is explained, too.

If there is one fault with this book, it’s the lack of information on specific authoring tools. The barest overview of the current crop of tools appears in chapter 3, "Just What Are Web Pages, Anyway?", but a discussion of why you should choose one package over another is absent.

Don’t let that fault stop you from buying this book, however. Plenty of magazines regularly have Web authoring tool "shootouts." What the magazines don’t do, and what The Non-Designer’s Web Book excels at, is tell you how to make well-designed pages. If you’re going to build Web sites, for either personal or professional use, but you have no clue where to begin, start with this book. It’s easy to read, devoid of confusing jargon, and full of dos and don’ts to help you avoid common snags. --Mike Caputo

If you think web design is beyond your reach, or if you want your existing web site to look more professional, this thoroughly updated classic is the place to turn! In these pages, best-selling authors Robin Williams and John Tollett share the creative ideas, useful techniques, and basic design principles that are essential to great Web design-all in the context of the most current technology, software, and standards. Throughout, the authors' aim is to inspire you and spark your creativity rather than sedate you with pages and pages of code. To that end, you'll find loads of real-world examples, interesting illustrations, and the simple instructions you need to implement the techniques and concepts described in these pages.

could not put it down
I read this entire book in three days and learned so much about everything. There is not a lot of technical information in the book but design concepts and things that will just make you so much more prepared for designing websites. I have also read Robin Williams other books and I am totally in love with her writing style. Check them out if you haven’t already.

Type design for Web Pages
Excellent source of well-timed information.

The author knows how to write a technical book that women will understand.

Excellent Book
I have only read about 6 chapters but there is so much basic information available about what is important when designing a web page. I am using this for a college course and this is preparing me to design a hypermedia project.

An OK book
This book is OK for someone who might be trying to teach another the principals of webpage design. I had to buy it for a graduate level textbook and didn’t see much use for it. It might be better used in the K-12 area, not college level.

Web book
I was required to buy this book for a grad course. It is to the point and easy to understand.

Out of date
This book is seriously out of date for modern web design and development.

Very, very useful
I bought this book for a college class I was taking but found that it was far more useful than just fulfilling a class requirement. This book details what is needed in creating a website from beginning to end, including how to be found on search engines and how to make your web site not look amateurish. The authors include plenty of pictures and graphics to illustrate their points, and do not write in "techo-garble" which keeps the average layman at arm’s length. I highly recommend this book to ANYONE considering making their own website.

Great Tips
This book was a required text for a class I took on web graphics and layout. I was very impressed with it. I have experience with coding HTML/XHTML and CSS stylesheets, but the books that taught me this didn’t focus on the art. That’s when this book comes in. It is simply written and I learned an incredible amount from it that makes every webpage I do now more professional. Other reviews complained about the bias towards Photoshop and Dreamweaver. While this is true, the point of the book is not to teach how to use the design tools - it is to teach design. Pick up a book about the graphics and web editor programs you intend on using for how-to. This book is focused on visual layout and aesthetics, and the book does it well. Many examples are given of before-and-after design, along with tips on alignment, fonts, and navigation. It is a great book to have for design inspiration rather than how-to.

Beauty over accessibility
I was hoping this book would be the perfect solution for a class I teach that includes basic Web design and HTML authoring skills, and some of the information hits the mark perfectly. One thing emphasized in my class, however, is accessible design for people with disabilities, and this book does not address that issue at all, except for color blindness. Many of the tips and techniques, particularly about the use of frames and design tables, are out of date in terms of accessible design. Many of the ideas, if implemented poorly (which would tend to be the case by novices), would render beautiful but inaccessible (to people with disabilities) web sites. In the book’s favor, it does cover cascading style sheets (CSS) for visual layout, but the importance of using that technique for accessible design is not mentioned. That said, this is a beautiful book with many "before and after" makeovers of how simple changes, such as font size and alignment, can increase appeal and usability.

Great for High School Teachers
This book is EXCELLENT as a source for explaining concepts. There are LOTS of tutorial books for teaching HTML and specific software programs to generate the code, but THEY don’t guarantee because a website ’works’ logistically on a server, it WORKS for the intended audience.

Excellent Step-by-Step Web Design Book
If you are looking for a book to tell you all you need to know about HTML, don’t look here. But if you have a basic knowledge of the web (well, maybe even if you don’t) and just want an excellent book to teach you the fundamentals of web design, this is the perfect choice. I’ve been searching for months to find a book that could walk me through designing my own family website and this has been exactly what I was looking for. And truly, the book does take you through things step by step. Visually pleasing, full of examples and useful information, this book is beside my computer almost daily. Even after completing it, there are plenty of things to refer back to, including a great chapter on advanced tips and tricks that I used today when I wanted to force a link in my site to open in a new browser window. I have never felt the need to review a book before, but I’m so pleased with this purchase that I just had to make an exception.

Excellent book for general audiences
Some people (like me) feel like they are being reluctantly pulled into the twenty-first century. Keeping up with the technology that kids are being introduced to in elementary school is a challenge. This book teaches both technical web site building and excellent design skills in a humorous and delightful way. The authors might be designers/technical writers, but they have poetic souls. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learned alot from it.

Very Good for Some Folks
Nowadays, everyone seems to have a website, from the largest Fortune 500 companies to the person next door. Some internet service providers even offer on-line software for their customers to create sites. Unfortunately many of these sites are awful. Navigation is often difficult and the graphic design is frequently an obstacle to visitors.

Readers should note that this is a new 2005 edition of an old favorite, and reviews of the second edition may not be applicable.

This book is aimed at helping people not trained in graphic design to put together better web sites. After a curious discussion of search engines, the authors explain what a web page is, how browsers work, and what servers do. The initial chapters are clearly aimed at people who know little about how the Internet works. Subsequent chapters become more technical, and even experienced site makers may find something they either didn’t know or ignored. The book shows how the four design principles that Williams has emphasized in her other works (alignment, proximity, repetition and contrast) apply to the design of web sites. A chapter is specifically addressed to designing the navigation for a site. The book then discusses the use of color and typography and finishes up with some advanced design tips and information on getting your site on line and getting people to visit it.

The book operates in a curious area between no knowledge and deep technical knowledge. For example, the authors indicate that the preparation of web sites requires both image-editing and web-authoring software, and that the book is not aimed at teaching the reader how to use such software. Yet very frequently, as they explain design principles, they tell how to use software to achieve the design principles. As a result, even though the book seems aimed at beginners, it will help readers if they have some familiarity with software like Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

This book is deceptively easy and quick to read. And yet there is plenty of information between the covers. Although I consider myself to be fairly competent in creating a website, I picked up a lot of tips that can improve the sites I’ve created. In fact, I had a long hiatus in the middle of my reading to return to my site to make some improvements based on the authors’ recommendations.

There are also a lot of little hints that can prove helpful. For example, I never considered that the apostrophe in my websites was actually just a little line, and that I could put in a real apostrophe by typing in some simple code. Although I’ve read a lot of web-authoring books, I had never come across this little gem. Now that may not seem very important but when one adds up all the design tips in this book, one has an agenda for good site design.

I do have one complaint. Some of the illustrations are too small to read, especially if one’s eyesight is less than perfect. I actually had to use a magnifying glass as I examining some of the illustrations. This certainly sets a poor example for a book dedicated to good design.

This book will prove useful to both beginner and intermediate creators of web sites. And even the most experienced web designers may find something that will make reading this book worthwhile.

A wider appeal than the title might indicate...
I’ve heard that the books authored by Robin Williams (*not* the actor) on design are pretty good. I got my first taste of that style today when I finished The Non-Designer’s Web Book (3rd Edition) by Robin Williams and John Tollett. I can see why they are so popular, and why she’s considered a first-rate teacher...

Contents:
Part 1 - Using the World Wide Web: What is the Web?; How to Search the Internet
Part 2 - Making Web Pages: What are Web Pages Anyway?; Things to Know Before You Begin Your Site
Part 3 - Design Issues on the Web: Print vs. Web and How it Affects Design; Basic Design Principles for Non-Designers; Designing the Interface & Navigation; How to Recognize Good & Bad Design
Part 4 - Color, Graphics, and Type: Color on the Web; Graphic Definitions You Must Know; How to Prepare Image Files for the Web; Typography on the Web; Advanced Tips & Tricks
Part 5 - You’re Done - Now What?: Test & Fix Your Web Site; How to Upload & Update Your Site; How & Why to Register Your Site
The Stuff at the End: Quiz Answers; Index; Colophon

It’s probably best to first figure out the target audience for this book. It’s not a book full of HTML syntax and how to code JavaScript routines. If you’re looking for that, move on quickly. The main focus is learning how to build aesthetically pleasing pages by using solid design techniques, even if you’re not a graphic artist. The assumption is that you’re using WYSIWYG-type web page development tools that shield you from hard-core HTML coding. That assumption frees up the reader to concentrate on images, layout, color, font, and all the various things that can make a page look professional or amateurish. The writing is extremely conversational (more so than I’ve seen in nearly any other book) and maintains a humorous tone throughout. Basically, it’s fun to read and the information gets absorbed without much effort.

While it might be tempting to say only beginners should read this book, that might be an undersell. When the authors get into the technical aspects of graphics, even the regular web developer (who is more focused on code than graphical design) would pick up more than a couple things. Again, web developers who focus more on code don’t tend to have a good eye for graphical layout. I know I fall squarely in that category. Even the basic tips presented here should help me make some improvements on a number of sites I’m working on. And I’m sure this is much to the delight of my user base...

So... provided you’re not picking it up to learn HTML, you should get *something* out of the book. And if you’re not a graphical artist by trade, it’s a *sure* bet you’ll walk away better equipped to catch attention on the web...

Good Starting Book, Especially from a Design Aspect
This is the new third edition of this book, and I was surprised with how up to date it is. For instance there’s a comment about Macromedia Dreamweaver saying that Macromedia was purchased by Adobe, so Dreamweaver information may move to Adobe. (It hasn’t happened yet, October 05.)

In many ways this book is like most beginning web design books. That is, it’s about the web and how to do a page and authoring software and all that sort of stuff. These areas are very well done, and as a professional designer the pages really look good as well as conveying information.

The real strength of this book is in it’s comments on design. Here are some web sites that show really bad design. Bad layout, bad color, bad nearly everything. These then lead to some pages that show good design. Even a few of getting rid of bad design elements and then going to good elements make pages much, much better.

I have just three minor complaints.

Web Authoring -- she likes the simple packages where you don’t do any code. Everyone I know sooner or later begins to do HTML.

She is a strong recommender of Adobe Photoshop, including the comment that if you don’t know it now you will in the future. Maybe, but there are competitors.

She uses a lot of full page graphics. If all of your visitors have broadband, this isn’t a problem. But note the big sites like Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Adobe, spot graphics only. Full page graphics may have a nice appearance, but only if you have broadband. Over a slow link your visitor may get tired of waiting before he gets to see your pretty graphics.

Great for the early beginner
I used this book for a class, but it’s good for a beginner. This book goes into what the internet is as though we don’t know. If you are deciding to design web pages and you need a lesson on what the internet is and does, then you have a lot more work to do then this book will tell you. But you can skip those chapters and get to the stuff for general beginners and then it gets good from there. It will talk about design, definitions that are important to know for beginners, how to get photos and video up on your site, and registering your site.
So should you buy or not? Early beginners - YES Beginners - YES Intermediate and advance - NO

The Non-Designer’s Web Book
I bought this book because it was being used in a class I was taking. It’s a nice book and easy to read. Great for people who don’t know much about the internet or webpages.

The 3rd edition, forthcoming, probably corrects these flaws.
Wait for the third edition, which is due out in late August 2005. Perhaps it will contain more useful information about Cascading Style Sheets, which are almost an afterthought here. The web-safe color chart and explanation is useful, along with the section on typography. There’s also a reasonably clear explanation of using Adobe PhotoShop to create repeating backgrounds. But the cute graphics are like jelly beans spilled over the pages.

Great, but some information dated
After having read the Non-Designer’s Design Book, I immediately ordered this one. I think it is very good, and as the first, it really boils everything down to the important things. For me it has just the right amount of depth. Sometimes, very important ideas are deceptively simple. From a web design point of view, Robin & John get to these basic, simple yet critical aspects, and you can walk away and use them immediately.

The reason I only gave four stars is that I think some of the technical web stuff is a bit dated. The best example is the discussion on Frames. My understanding is that Frames are now to be avoided if you want to maximize search engine effectiveness. If it were to be updated today, maybe they would change these things.

And, having said all that, I wouldn’t get the book for the web primer section. Get it to improve your design. These guys (sorry Robin) know how to design and convey that knowledge to the visually handicapped among us (like me).

Very much worth the money.

Excellent Instruction for Those Just Starting
"The Non-Designer’s Web Book, 2nd Edition" is perfect for those of you who want to build your own site but don’t want to use one of the canned templates so many ISP’s offer.
Ms. Williams advice is, as usual, right on target and very easy to understand. Her humor is understated and well placed, encouraging the reader to continue in the project at hand. The book has plenty of color illustrations and screen shots, and is peppered with great advice on creating graphics, getting your site listed, basic design principles, and even a few lessons on HTML coding, if you like.
Each chapter concludes with a short quiz to help cement the principles that were just taught, and her coverage (despite what some people have written) of the basics is just what is needed for those of you who have skipped over an idea or two and wonder just what the heck something such as the difference between search engines and directories are.
Starting on page 50 is a Ms. Williams takes you through setting up a page and the associated site, step by step, in a concise, easy to understand way. It covers such things as typing and formatting text, changing colors, creating links and adding an email link, adding graphics, setting up a table, explaining what frames are and how to use them, and finally, adding some HTML code, if you want. These topics are the very basics of web construction, and the author expounds on them in later chapters, but it’s especially nice that she distilled them into a short, easy to read section (that is extremely well illustrated) so you don’t have to hunt through the rest of the pages later.
Some people have taken exception to the Netscape emphasis. They fail to realize that when the book was written Netscape was still a big player, and that IE’s implementation of standards left a lot to be desired. Also, someone has stated that there are big errors throughout the book, but I haven’t found any, and the example the reviewer gave (directions to use a page-sized graphic as a background) doesn’t exist. In fact, Ms. Williams stresses that’s just want you DON’T want to do.
There is a slight Mac-bias, but it is slight, with plenty of screen shots of Windows software along with the appropriate instruction. Given that the design industry is predominately centered on the Mac platform, this preference is easily understood.
All in all, this is one of the best books out for learning the basics of setting up your web site, as the title implies. You won’t go wrong with Robin William’s books, and this is just one example of why: clear writing, excellent advice, easy to follow instruction.

Good book for teaching
 
We have been teaching 17-year old kids Web Publishing for many years. The Non-Designer’s Web Book (1st -> 2nd Edition) used to be our textbook. We only realised how useful this book was after we replaced it with another textbook last year, now we change it back.

With lots of visual examples and straight-to-the-point explanations, this really is the Web book for beginners.

Also, although our teachings have been PC-based all along, we have no problem with the book at all.

Very good, but...
This very fine book is well written, beautifully illustrated and generally most helpful. However, there are two parts to the book.

1. How to create a web page.
2. How to create an outstanding web page.

The 2nd part is outstanding, but the first part suffers from trying to be all things to all people. There are many web authoring packages, so I decided on the free FrontPage Express and Internet Explorer. The authors admit that they prefer Netscape, and appear to have a preference for the Mac. While they tried to be helpful to people who made my choices they failed. I was unable to finish the first exercise because their instructions on how to create an internal link makes no sense in FPExpress.

If you are comfortable with web design, and want to learn about design, color, balance etc. this is the book for you. But if you, like me, still find the whole idea of creating a web page intimidating you would be advised to find a different book; perhaps returning to this one when you have mastered the basics.

Very complete for the beginner!!
This book was awesome! It is generated toward the beginner with very simple explanations and wonderful pictures so you know exactly what they are saying. But even the experienced web designer can gain from this as you see your own work through more simple eyes.
Lots of ideas, explains from thought through concept, even shows you what NOT to do. Touches bases on color, graphics, search engines, typography. I was very impressed by this book and if you are a beginner this really is the book for you. I was very surprised to the amount of information and the wide range it covers in such a little book!