Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: Bulletproof Web Design
Iain Laskey adds another book to his essential reading list
| Product | Bulletproof Web Design |
|---|---|
| Company | New Riders |
| Web | www.newriders.com |
| Price | £28.99/$39.99 |
| We like | Superb style and content, essential nuggets of information |
| We don't like | Nothing |
| Rating | 10/10 |
| Requirements |
One of the hardest parts of any serious web design is the creation of page elements that work properly across a range of browsers, systems and users.
There are plenty of books and web sites that explain how to achieve many of these tasks but few go the full distance in showing how it all fits together. Bulletproof Web Design aims to plug that gap with a mere 260 odd pages. Can it do it?
BulletProof Web Design by Dan Cederholm is a slim volume with a fairly high price for its page count. However, this book has a genuinely different approach that more than justifies the price.
Bulletproof Web Design follows the same approach for each chapter. It starts with a requirement such as scalable text, navigation, tables, fluid layouts and so on. It shows the usual technique then discusses the various problems that technique could have in the real world. It then goes on to provide the 'bulletproof' solution and a summary.
For many web developers, this book will be a real eye opener as many of the issues it covers will simply not occur to them, especially those who are self-taught and haven't had the benefit of an experienced developer to learn the subtleties from.
What really helps with each chapter are the illustrations. These include exploded 3D views of the page showing how it is built up of various stacked elements as well as close ups showing which parts are graphic elements and which parts are CSS styling and how the two combine seamlessly. The code examples are also well done with changes highlighted clearly and screen shots showing exactly what the change has done to the page being designed. Usefully, you can download the finished examples from the author's web site at www.simplebits.com
What we really liked about Bulletproof Web Design was the relative lack of out and out hacks. Most of the bulletproof techniques used are pretty standard stuff but have just been done a little more thoughtfully than the usual standard solutions. The author does however rely on the now famous box model hack for Internet Explorer font handling and with the imminant release of IE7, this will probably no longer be needed. On the other hand, the author does explain well why the hack is used so it is easy enough to ignore it once IE7 is out in the wild.
All the example pages looked clean and modern so much of the example solutions can be used pretty much as is without too much further tweaking to suit your own pages, assuming you are using a contemporary design yourself of course.
One of the book's real strengths is that you don't need to be an HTML or CSS guru. As long as you are familiar with the basics, you'll be able to understand and follow all the examples. The author's explanations are clear and articulate and the layout is easy on the eye making it a real pleasure to read.
Conclusion
We think Bulletproof Web Design is one of the best books out there on web design and deserves to join the still fairly small number of classics such as the Zeldman book that every web developer should have on their shelf. If you're ready to go to the next level with your web pages or even just starting out and want to be sure your designs are done right, this is one purchase you won't regret.
