RS Designs

Because I am a self-taught designer and coder, I have wanted to take some graphic and web design courses to fill in the gaps in my knowledge and to learn new skills. Time and money restraints have meant that I have not been able to pursue my desire for formal education; however, that has not kept me from actively seeking to learn more.

It was only two weeks ago that I finally visited my county’s public library for the first time. We moved here two and a half years ago, and since I absolutely love reading, I am shocked that I hadn’t been to the library long before. My children and I returned for our second visit on Monday of this week, and I had a light bulb moment when I realized that, “hey! this library probably has some design books that you could check out!” Lo and behold, they did, and I did. *smile*

I checked out The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating and HTML4 Web Page (by Paul McFedries), Sams Teach Yourself to Create Web Pages in 24 Hours (by Ned Snell), HTML for the World Wide Web (5th edition) with XHTML and CSS (by Elizabeth Castro), and Web Design on a Shoestring (by Carrie Bickner).

I started reading the last listed book first because I am in the middle of some large (for me) web design projects, and my budget is definitely a shoestring! I found this book to be most helpful and highly recommend your reading it whether you only design your personal blog/website or whether you are in the web design business, like I am.

The book is divided into two parts: Production and The Tools. In first section, Ms. Bickner talks about:

• The Secrets to a Successful Shoestring Project - use resources you already have, limit the number of decision-makers involved in the project, have a clear focus, and dare to do less
• The Pound Wise Project - write out your project goals, document the functional requirements, create a technical requirements document, keep all documentation nearby
• Usability on the Cheap - thrifty user testing, keep it simple, build a reusable HTML library
• Why Good Copy Counts - words matter more when you have few resources, good copy can elevate a low-budget site, write in a way that is honest and straightforward, keep it simple but not simplistic, avoid spelling and grammatical errors
• The Design: Looking Good with Less - limit the number of fonts you use, stick to only two or three good fonts, don’t waste money on bad fonts, save time and money with well-formed markup and external Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), stick to only two or three good colors, reduce the cost of photography and illustrations while still achieving a polished look

The second section covers The Tools:

• Content Management on a Tight Budget - determine what you really need, be creative, do-it-yourself CMS, automate as much as possible, consider open-source CMS
• Save Time and Money with Web Standards - do invest time and money in making your site standards-compliant; separate between structure and presentation, build one site well, take advantage of the design strengths of CSS
• Bang-for-Your-Buck Hosting and Domains - sometimes cheap does mean disreputable, watch out for hidden costs, compare bandwidth limits, and consider hosting your own site

What coding or design book would you recommend? Why?