Above the Fold: Understanding the Principles of Successful Web Site Design Paperback – 25 Mar 2011

Absolutely fantastic book, contains the very basics of design theory for print and web and goes right up to usability and business values such as search engine optimisation, marketing, conversion and analysis of visitors.Wether you're just starting to get into web design, or have been in it since the early days, there will be something to learn from this book and the information is delivered in a beautiful manner.If you do not know how to code websites using HTML and CSS, I highly recommend getting "HTML & CSS - Design and build websites" by Jon Duckett (ISBN: 978-1-118-00818-8) to accompany this book. Those two go hand in hand in teaching you how to create stunning websites and put across the information very clearly and elegantly.

Well it is a book about design, so it should look good and be useable, but not all books on design are!This is a well designed book. It looks great, it's well structured and makes sense. It shows plenty of examples of what works, and can be a rich source of ideas on the look and feel of things, as well as on the thinking processes that underpin the visual, i.e. helping the user to find what they want as quickly and easily as possible, so they don't leave your sites confused and/or dissapointed.An excellent book, well put together.

Out of date - a nostalgic trip down the memory lane of the internet. AH the heady days of windows xp and firefox. Sadly, once the rose tinted visions of the past have, er, past we are left with a book 4 years and hence a lifetime in the internet world OUT OF DATE. Stop banging on about fire Fox (who?) and write a new version covering mobile internet. Would ask for my money back but can't spend SHILLINGS!

I found this book in a store on the high street and then ordered it from Amazon as it was half the price!I have worked in website production for 13 years and still found this book very useful. It covers a lot of the basics but also serves to highlight many practices that have become normal practice these days. As we all know, the internet changes really fast but this book gives a great snapshot of what is happening now and how to make your sites the best possible.The book is well written and has great illustrations which makes it a really easy read.

I always taught a small segment of lessons on the subject of "white space" on a page and artistic placement of items on a page. I tried to teach my high school students to look at the pages of books and posters they liked and pick apart what they liked about the composition of those things. In a way, this book is similar, although much more sophisticated, than the simple lessons I taught my students, hoping to help them make their projects better. I would recommend this book for everyone. You never know when understanding how the eyes and brain process the placement of items on a page will make the difference between being average or successful.

Brian clearly put a lot of thought and careful consideration into the structure, content and flow of the book. It's well done. I've been building websites for 4 or 5 years now and this is the first book I've found that does a good job of walking the reader through the entire thought process of planning and creating a structured strategy for designing websites. If you're sold on the idea that smart thinking and great design thrive on a methodical approach, this book will delight you. That said, it's not a how-to book on building code or using tools like Photoshop, so if you're just getting into web design and you're itching to learn specific skills for building stuff, you'll probably want to hold off on buying this for now and come back to it later when you're ready to start doing professional projects. Just do so knowing that, when you do eventually come back and read it, you'll probably kick yourself for not having read this one upfront ;-).For those of you interested in buying the book, here's a quick list of pros and cons:PROS (many):- There's zero fluff-factor. Brian did a solid job of explaining things simply and succinctly and moving on. Every page gets straight to the point. You'll get through it quickly without feeling like you wasted any time.- It's easy on the eyes. There are plenty of visuals to support the content. If you surf though CSS galleries a lot looking for inspiration for your projects, you'll also get a lot of value just from flipping through the pages.- It's an ideal start for aspiring design professionals because it provides a comprehensive, horizontal look at the design process end to end. If your goal is to learn how to manage big design projects, the book helps you develop an essential vocabulary and a broad awareness of things you need to consider (and why you do) before you get started.CONS (few):- The information in some sections is a little "light". At 255 pages, that's not really a knock. There's plenty of great info to chew on. The book was clearly designed for breadth, rather than depth, which is why it succeeds in giving the reader a complete and broad awareness of the design process. Depth needed to be sacrificed in order to cover everything. Entire books have been written on each topic covered in this book (like SEO, typography, usability etc). The good news is that being aware of why these are critical steps in the process will aid you in your search for deeper dives into how this stuff is done.- No suggestions for further reading. Recognizing that this book was designed for breadth, it would have been useful to have had a short list of suggested resources in each section to guide the reader to deep dives. Including a vetted list of "further reading" would have been great. This isn't a make or break by any means, it's just a nice to have.Overall a great book that you'll probably want to keep in your collection.

Very good book - interesting. Many illustrations.

Awesome book! Fun to read and much better than the newer version. The author keeps you engaged through out the whole book and doesn’t bore you with terms. very good for quick learning of the basics.

If you are looking for a good read on guidelines for design and print this book is it! If you are just starting out to build a website from scratch it is filled with excellent easily understood information. Great book to understanding the layout flow of a website and grasp versatile CSS (Creative Style Sheet) codes. The book relates history of print ink layout and how it applies to web site design. It covers topics of white space and hierarchy of space along with readability, legibility and how that applies to font selection in order to create a user friendly enhanced web site. It goes on to help web site builders understand the importance of personal brand recognition through imagery applied for impact. The most important steps of research and discovery for your customer that includes a asset inventory and sitemap mock up along with prototype comps.