Product Description

No matter how visually appealing or content-packed a Web site may be, if it's not adaptable to a variety of situations and reaching the widest possible audience, it isn't really succeeding. In Bulletproof Web Desing, author and Web designer extraordinaire, Dan Cederholm outlines standards-based strategies for building designs that provide flexibility, readability, and user control--key components of every sucessful site. Each chapter starts out with an example of an unbulletproof site one that employs a traditional HTML-based approach which Dan then deconstructs, pointing out its limitations. He then gives the site a make-over using XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), so you can see how to replace bloated code with lean markup and CSS for fast-loading sites that are accessible to all users. Finally, he covers several popular fluid and elastic-width layout techniques and pieces together all of the page components discussed in prior chapters into a single-page template.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18201 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 312 pages

From the Back Cover
No matter how visually appealing or content-packed a Web site may be, if it's not adaptable to a variety of situations and reaching the widest possible audience, it isn't really succeeding. In Bulletproof Web Desing, author and Web designer extraordinaire, Dan Cederholm outlines standards-based strategies for building designs that provide flexibility, readability, and user control--key components of every sucessful site. Each chapter starts out with an example of an unbulletproof site one that employs a traditional HTML-based approach which Dan then deconstructs, pointing out its limitations. He then gives the site a make-over using XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), so you can see how to replace bloated code with lean markup and CSS for fast-loading sites that are accessible to all users. Finally, he covers several popular fluid and elastic-width layout techniques and pieces together all of the page components discussed in prior chapters into a single-page template.

About the Author
Dan Cederholm is a Web designer and author living in Massachusetts. He's the founder of SimpleBits, a tiny design studio. A recognized expert in the field of standards-based Web design, Dan has worked with Google, MTV, ESPN, Fast Company, Blogger, Odeo, and others. He embraces flexible, adaptable design using Web standards through his design work, writing, and speaking. Dan is the author of two best-selling books: Bulletproof Web Design (New Riders) and Web Standards Solutions (Friends of ED). Dan also runs the popular weblog SimpleBits, where he writes articles and commentary on the Web, technology, and life. He also plays a mean ukulele and occasionally wears a baseball cap.

Customer Reviews

Something for Everyone
Another fine book from Dan Cederholm. This time around he divvies a typical web page down to its components - text, navigation, boxes and rows and the layout itself and explains and demonstrates the most bulletproof way of implementing them in a standards-compliant way.

In each chapter he'll pluck a real-world example to deconstruct, tell you why it's not bulletproof and offer a rebuild in a very easy to follow manner using XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets. He'll then explain why his solution is bulletproof.

There's something here for everyone, I consider myself pretty knowledgeable on the CSS front but I've said "Ohhhh, that's neat" a few times already (I'm hopping around the book). Which is another point, it's very accessible in that respect - no reading chapters 1 to 4 before tackling the issues presented in chapter 5 (hypothetical use of numbers).

Beginner or expert alike, I think you'll like this book a lot.

A must for developers, designers, and hobbyists.
If you design or develop web sites then you really have to read this book. You may, as I did, think that you know a thing or two about putting together a website. Well this book in combination with Mark Pilgrim's dive into accessibility guide, and Dave Shea's CSS Zen Garden, have taught me otherwise.

While other texts explain the why, this explains the how - and it does it very well too. This is a hands-on book that takes a number of websites, points out what is wrong with them, and re-creates them using web standards. That is not to say the book preaches in a condescending tone about standards - it simply points out why the bad way is bad and the good way is good. It then does what so many standards evangelists fail to do and actually give practical guidance on how to improve websites.

Even if your eyes haven't been opened to the negative effects of poorly marked-up and low-accessibility websites you will not regret buying this.

Excellent book for intermediate web designers
A best practice CSS & XHTML book aimed at the intermediate-advanced web designer. If you're a beginner looking to learn CSS web design I suggest you look at The CSS Anthology or Web Standards Solutions books first, then come back to this book to polish your skills.

The book dives straight into common approaches to everyday techniques. It makes an explanation as to why it may not be the best solution and suggests `a bullet-proof approach' and justifies its reasoning. The book is one of few with colour illustrations which is nice and makes for clearer example images. The book concludes with a chapter demonstrating all the examples in a single website. There are some good techniques in this book and there's bound to be something new even for the seasoned CSS web designer.