12 Web Design Books for Your Christmas List

The season of giving has arrived and it’s time to pick out a little something special for the web designer in your life.  With Christmas approaching, you better act fast to take advantage of free delivery from Amazon.  Below are 12 excellent books to give to your friendly web designer or to reward yourself for a great year.

Designing with Web Standards

Designing with Web Standards 3rd Edition

By: Jeffrey Zeldman

Designing with Web Standards lays the foundation for modern web design by advocating web standard compliant design.  Although this book is not a short read at a whopping 432 pages, it is filled with plenty of tips to create web designs using standards.  This book, now in it’s third edition is a must have for all web designers.

the-design-of-everyday-things

Design of Everyday Things

Donald Norman

Design of Everyday Things is a classic that many designers swear by.  Focusing on the how and why of design, the Design of Everyday Things will open your eyes and show you how design should work to accentuate your product.

crush-it

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion

Gary Vaynerchuk

I love Gary Vaynerchuk and it’s as simple as that.  I have not found anyone with as much contagious energy and passion. Crush It! brings the heat and will reinvigorate you to focus on improving your  business and brand.

designing-the-obvious

Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design

Robert Hoekman Jr.

A great compliment to either Don’t Make Me Think or the Design of Everyday Things, Designing the Obvious focuses on web application design.  Robert Hoekman Jr. brings perspective from working with different clients and offers practical advice on how to conquer many common user experience and design problems.

prioritizing-web-usability

Prioritizing Web Usability

Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen is hands down the most credible author on this list.  With years of usability research and the goto expert for Web Usability, Jakob Nielsen brings an update to his first classic, Designing Web Usability, to focus on new innovations to the Web that will help usability.

speaking-in-styles

Speaking in Styles: Fundamentals of CSS for Web Designers

Jason Cranford Teague

Teague teaches CSS to new web designers using easy to understand methods.  Speaking in Styles is a great introduction to CSS for aspiring web designers or graphic designers looking to add another skill to their arsenal.

bulletproof-ajax

Bulletproof Ajax

Jeremy Keith

Jeremy Keith is a world renowned expert in JavaScript and rich interaction applications.  Bulletproof Ajax focuses on making Ajax interactions degrade gracefully and are not library reliant.  With lots of tutorials and code examples, Bulletproof Ajax is a great read and nice to keep handy for all the useful examples throughout.

A-PROJECT-GUIDE-TO-UX

A Project Guide to UX Design: For user experience designers in the field or in the making

Russ Unger

A Project Guide to UX Design is a must have for leading a web development team from prototype to production.  This book will help freelance designers and design teams conquer problems that arise in the design process.  Offering tips on prototyping, wireframing, SEO and planning, A Project Guide to UX Design will add value and knowledge to all readers.

elementsofuserexperience1

The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web

Jesse James Garrett

The Elements of User Experience focuses on how different elements of user experience can compliment each other to provide a the best experience for your sites users.  Garrett who created Adaptive Path and is a regular in UX journals/blogs, offers designers concise methods to focus on results and ensuring your user experience is adding value to your site.

dont-make-me-think2

Don’t Make Me Think

Steve Krug

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug changed my eyes as a designer, developer and web user.  After reading this book, I looked at websites I use everyday differently and it will for you to.  Focusing on key elements of web design, Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think is a staple for all web designers and a very short read.

handcrafted-css

Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design

Dan Cederholm

The only book on this list that focuses on CSS3 methods for designing websites, Handcrafted CSS is an outstanding introduction to designers new to CSS3.  This book follows the development of Tugboat Coffee Company and how the website uses graceful degradation to enhance user experience for users with newer browsers while still degrading for browsers that do not support CSS3 and other emerging web technologies.

web-standards-solutions

Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook, Special Edition

Dan Cederholm

Dan Cederholm knows how to teach the basics to new users, but still provide value to novice and expert users with his unique perspective.  Web Standards Solutions, the older of the 2 featured Cederholm books, focuses on how web standards improve accessibility, efficiency and provide similar experience across different web browsers.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 9:47 pmand is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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