Web Style Guide, 2nd edition

This free book, The Web Style Guide, 2nd edition, teaches you Web page and Web site design principles, along with tips and tricks, ranging from interface design to editorial style and graphics. It provides you a high level of understanding which will assist your Web development and design efforts. Whether you’re a newbie to Web design and development or a veteran, this book will give you insight into Web site design that you have not had before, bringing you a more reasoned and realistic perspective. The information given in this Web Style Guide is based on the functional concepts of design, but it also discusses Web site accessibility, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and flexible page design. Material covering information architecture, site maintenance, and multimedia design is also included. The second edition offers added illustrations and updated Web site examples to show current best practices.

Web Style Guide, 2nd edition


Chapter 1: Process

• Before you begin
  • Planning
  • Developing a site specification
• The site development process
  • Site definition and planning
  • Information architecture
  • Site design
  • Site construction
  • Site marketing
  • Tracking, evaluation, & maintenance
• References

• Web page design versus conventional document design
• Make your Web pages freestanding
• Basic interface design
  • User-centered design
  • Accessibility
• Navigation
• References

• Organizing information
  • “Chunking” information
• Site structure
  • Basic information structures
  • Creating site diagrams
• Site design themes
  • Training
  • Teaching
  • Continuing education
  • Reference
  • Entertainment and magazine sites
  • News sites
  • E-commerce
• Site elements
  • Home pages
  • Menus and subsites
  • Resource lists, “other related sites” pages
  • Site guides
  • “What’s new?” pages
  • Search features
  • Contact information and user feedback
  • Bibliographies and appendixes
  • FAQ pages
  • Custom server error pages
• Internet versus intranet design
  • Design standards
• References

• Visual hierarchy
• Consistency
• Page dimensions
• Page length
• Design grids for Web pages
• Page headers and footers
• Page layout
  • Layout tables
  • Fixed versus flexible
  • Other uses for tables
• Frames
• General design considerations
• Cross-platform issues
• Accessibility
• References

• Characteristics of type on the Web
• Content structure and visual logic
  • Cascading style sheets
• Legibility
  • Alignment
  • Line length
  • White space
  • Typefaces
  • Type size
  • Case
  • Emphasis
• Consistency
• Cross-platform issues
• Accessibility
• Type graphics
• References

• Organizing your prose
• Online style
• Titles and subtitles
• Links
• References

• Characteristics of Web graphics
  • Color displays
  • “Browser-safe” colors
  • Dithering
  • Screen resolution
  • Gamma
  • Graphics and network bandwidth
• Graphic file formats
  • GIF files
  • JPEG graphics
  • PNG graphics
  • Imaging strategies
  • Summary: File formats
• Images on the screen
  • The screen versus printed color artwork
  • Complex illustrations or photographs
  • Diagrams for the computer screen
• HTML and graphics
• Accessibility
• References

• Applications for multimedia
• Web multimedia strategies
  • Audio only
  • Slide shows
  • Video
  • Animation
• Preparing multimedia
  • Processing
  • Delivery
• Design and multimedia
• Accessibility
• References

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