I`m a Brazilian web designer &
front-end developer.
This blog features some of my projects, illustrations, photographs and thoughts. Enjoy!
Book Review: Sexy Web Design
Have you ever wondered if your design process is the right one for your projects? Have you ever thought that maybe there’s a step missing or maybe a specific phase that needs more emphasis on? After doing some research on the subject I found out that Elliot Jay Stocks, a very cool designer from the UK, had recently written a book about this called Sexy Web Design published by Sitepoint, a cool Aussie based book publisher and web & design reference website.
Overall idea of the book
In this book, Elliot shows you his process of creating a sexy website, from the initial briefing with the client to the final updates on the mockup. The author explains the purpose of each phase, exemplifies showing successful websites online and applies the proper technique on a demo project that is covered throughout the book.
Although the book covers a lot of content, the book doesn’t go very deep on each of them and some topics are left with just a few lines of explanation. Elliot tries to fix this issue by giving external references but sadly they are mostly to Sitepoint links or their books, which sound a little biased. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a frequent reader of Sitepoint‘s website but it wouldn’t hurt to throw a few more references.
The highlights
The chapter which covers inspiration and mood on websites is spot on just like the briefing and initial sketches approach suggested by the author. I like the idea of spending more time away from the computer to get your mind in the right place.
Conclusion
I would really recommend this book to any web designer. Even if you are sure that your design process is good enough for your projects, there’s always something interesting that lights a bulb in your head.
I enjoyed this book, but found some of it common sense. Definitely good for designers who don’t currently have much of a process (straight into Photoshop!?!? The horror!) or are looking to refine or confirm the process they currently follow. I’m currently trying to work in the “getting away from the computer” aspect into the planning phase in hopes of it producing more original and creative work.
Getting away from the computer is the hardest part, specially when you work at an office doing 9-5. It’s hard to justify to your boss that sketching and diagrams are part of the design process as well!