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NC Buy "The Club" -

Teach yourself Great Web Design on $7.00 per day
Reviewed By: Delmer Wells

"... a valuable resource for anybody
thinking about putting up a web site."


"Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week" (henceforth referred to as TYGWD) weighs in at 384 pages and comes with a companion CD. Included on the CD are PC and Macintosh freeware and shareware programs, graphics you can use as you create your own web site, as well as sample web pages and challenge exercises. The back cover of the book indicates it is targeted toward new to casual users. I'm guessing this means new to casual web designers, as some of the exercises in the book - well, even installing the shareware programs - falls beyond the skills of most new users I run across. The price is $49.99 in the U.S., and $70.95 in Canada. 

The authors of the book make it very clear that TYGWD is not intended to be an HTML primer. Its focus is web site design. The book provides instruction on how to make a site look better, suggests things that designers can do to keep people from clicking away from their site too soon, and gives tips on what to do to keep them coming back. Readers will be able to pick up an HTML tag here and there but shouldn't expect to walk away from the book fluent in HTML. 

The book is divided into seven sections - Day 1 through Day 7 -- of two chapters each. Each chapter ends with a "Challenge Yourself" exercise that is completed using information drawn from the chapter. As one might expect, the exercises become more challenging as the reader makes his way toward the end of the book. An early activity asks the reader to use a pencil and paper to make a sketch of her proposed web site, whereas a later exercise has the reader creating animated GIFs. Any software needed to complete the challenges is included on the CD-ROM. 

The book covers a lot of ground. Readers are given instruction on how to make good use of fonts, how to use tables, when to use frames, color selection, graphics use, adding sound, etc. Readers are also given plenty of instruction on what not to do - don't use too many graphics or graphics that are too big; don't use too many fonts; don't use too many frames; make wise use of color. How do you know what is too much or too little - good or bad? The authors provide guidelines and there are plenty of full-color examples of good and bad web sites and design elements provided in the book and on the CD. 

"Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week" has a lot to offer and will prove to be a valuable resource for anybody thinking about putting up a web site. I think that $49.99 is a lot to ask for almost any book. The cost is easier to justify in this case as the information presented in the book isn't going to be outdated with the next release of some software package. 

Title: Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week
Author: Anne-Rae Vasquez
Publisher: Sams.net
ISBN: 1-57521-253-6
List Price: $49.99

"... a valuable resource for anybody thinking about putting up a web site."

Digital Design Lessons: UBC Internet Program Participant Writes Book on Web Design

For Immediate Release
VANCOUVER - June 23, 1997: Web authoring takes on a double meaning for University of British Columbia Certificate in Internet Publishing participant Anne-Rae Vasquez who, in addition to creating Web pages, also writes about them in her new book Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week. Written with co-author Paul Chow and published by SamsNet Publishing, Vasquez’s book teaches the novice Web site publisher tips and techniques for turning ho-hum web pages into eye-catching, well-designed sites.

"It’s not hard to put up a site on the Internet," says Vasquez, "but if you want to stand out from thousands of other sites and keep visitors coming back, you need a site that’s esthetically pleasing and thoughtfully designed." Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week teaches basic design elements, such as white space, layout, typography, colour, graphics and animation. It also shows common design errors and how to avoid them. "We’re proud that one of our program participants has co-authored such a useful book by a major publisher," states William Koty, Coordinator of the UBC Certificate in Internet Publishing. "It’s a statement about the quality of the program and the high caliber of its participants."

Anne-Rae Vasquez lives in Vancouver and has been involved with the Internet since the early 1990’s when text-based Web browsers such as Lynx were the norm. "Having been online since the beginning of the graphical World Wide Web, I’ve seen my share of good and bad Web sites." In addition to many years of practical experience, Vasquez’s formal training at UBC’s Certificate in Internet Publishing and her work with AR&B Internet Site & Publishing Inc., the Web design company she runs with co-author Paul Chow, have made her a relative expert in this new field. Vasquez and fellow UBC Internet participants Brian Waring and Simone O’Bryne have founded The Digital Artisan, an online resource directory for media-related employers and freelancers.

Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week includes a CD-ROM and has an accompanying web site which can be found at www.arnb.com/webdesign/. The book is available at bookstores across Canada for a suggested retail price of $70.95 Cdn.

Launched in January 1996 by Continuing Studies’ Computer Science Department, the UBC Certificate in Internet Publishing now has over 80 participants. Targeted to communication professionals with diverse backgrounds, the curriculum teaches all aspects of Internet publishing, including design, authoring, programming, project management and online marketing. UBC Continuing Studies also offers over 50 Internet-related courses each semester for the general public.

et@ Online Review

teach yourself Great Web Design in a Week
Anne-Rae Vasquez and Paul Chow

This book grabs your attention immediately. It is in full colour. As you glance through the pages, your eyes sight colourful images of colourful websites - and it rapidly becomes apparent that, for a better read, you need to sit down with more time.

The authors jump straight into it - head, body and foot ! Like they say: "Using your head wisely; Do you like my body ?; Who reads your bottom ?" That just about sums up why you can design great web pages in a week !

You cover two chapters per day over a seven day period. At the end of the week, if you have faithfully followed the tutorials, you can justly claim to be "HTML enabled".

As the authors say anyone can learn basic HTML but that doesn't mean they will have great web pages. Why design by trial and error when this publication provides short-cuts to effective design ?

The authors show you ready-to-use techniques: layout, images, animated GIFS, typography, buttons, backgrounds, a user-friendly interface, researching, effective navigation, effective colours, style sheets, frames and tables, and lots of interesting and useful links.

In short, this book is about great design - and the authors deliver what they promise.

The CD-ROM includes all the examples from the book as well as useful software to speed up your design efforts.

http://www.froschweb.com/iac/5.html

Internet Advanced Class

"...Let's first review some ideas we had earlier on and illustrate them using do's and dont's in web design (partly adapted from: Anne Rae Vasquez and Paul Chow, Teach yourself great web design in a week, Sams.net, 1997)"

Creating Simple Web Pages for Teachers

• Maran, Ruth and Paul Whiteheadd.  Creating Web Pages Simplified.  Foster City, CA:  IDG Books Worldwide, 1996.
• Lamb, Annette.  Spinnin' the Web: Designing and Developing Web Projects.  Emporia, KN:  Vision to Action, 1998.
• Vasquez, Anne-Rae and Paul Chow.  Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week.  Indianapolis, IN:  Sams.net Publishing, 1997

Phone:  770/898-0176
Fax:  770/898-0185

School e-mail: pges@henry.k12.ga.us
These pages maintained by Dianne Prager, Library Media Specialist 
Updated 1-14-99 "

Dateline: 09/07/97

There is no trick to putting up a commercial Web site. Anyone can do it with a little knowledge and a little work. But making one that really shines, and works--that's a different matter.  In a previous feature article called, Adding Credibility to Your Web Site, I said there is more to putting up a winning Web site than just a good design. You have to establish the credibility of your business with everyone who visits your site.  This week I want to provide a list of resources you can use to turn a merely functional site into a spectacular site that is sure to draw raves and customers.

Where to Start

The first thing to do is to determine what you are trying to accomplish with your site. Then think about who your audience is. Is it a arrow audience or a broad one? What type of style will appeal best to that audience: formal, quirky, professional, trendy casual? What types of graphics, audio, video will your audience expect?

It takes bandwidth to achieve many of the coolest effects. That translates into waiting time for the viewer. Will your audience have the patience to wait?  Finally, will your audience be willing to purchase y our products or services online, or will they just want information?

Often the best place to start work on a Web site is to look at other sites. Find the best and the worst sites out there, and focus on those that do something similar to what your site will do.  Look at the features that make each site outstanding or horrible. You'll soon notice certain similarities among sites. The best ones will present their material well. They'll grab the viewer from the start and entice them to explore the whole site. The purpose of the site will be clear from the start and throughout the whole site. There will be a certain constancy throughout the whole site in terms of colors, fonts, graphics and information. One of the most important ways to establish credibility on a site is always to have contact information on every page. The site should be easy to navigate. No dead ends, broken graphics, missing pages or construction signs. Bad sites will fall down in all of these areas.

There are bad  pages all over the Web. You can find many of them in one place at  Web Pages That Suck. You'll get a few laughs and learn how pages suffer because of a lack of good content and design.

Truly good sites exist as well and one way to find them is to look at the sites that issue awards which you can do by following the award link back to the site that issued the award. The most useful sites here are those that list the criteria they use to give out awards. If the criteria match your needs, use use them and the winning sites as models. A good example is  Marketing Excellence Award winners from Focus Associates

Designed to Help

Once you've figured out the purpose of your site, its audience, and the overall impression you want to create, it's time to do some storyboarding and mapping. Storyboarding helps you create a flow and a constant theme and look throughout your pages. Mapping helps you determine what to put where, to see what is missing, and to maintain a sense of structure for your site.

Doing these on paper may seem old-fashioned in this day of WYSIWYG editing, but putting ideas and structures on paper is still an excellent way to see what you are doing before you start creating your site and often can help you come up with new, better ways of creating your site.

There are many resources you can turn to for help when designing your site. Some good books include Teach Yourself Great Web Design in a Week by Anne-Rae Vasquez and Paul Chow, Creating Commercial Web Pages by Brian K. Murphy and Laura Lemay, and Creating Commercial Web Sites by Brad and Kim Hampton.

On-line Web page design resources are numerous. You can find hundreds at Yahoo!, but here are some good sites to look at first:

• a tutorial for designing a business Web site
• online publication devoted to Web page design
• tips from Web page conception to programming
• design help for those who know htmL or who have a WYSIWYG editor
• a place to learn basic Web page design
• a good design resource directory
• Web authoring and design tips
• listing of recommended design resources and tools.

Specialized Help

There are also plenty of Web sites that offer help for specialized aspects of Web page design such as creating logos, banner ads, compression, graphics and more. Sites of special note include:

• tips for using color graphics and compression
• how to create a logo and many other useful tips
• lots of graphics tips and tricks
• Java scripts for the taking
• backgrounds, balls  and graphics programs.

In case you start to get carried away with all the graphics effects you can create (remember The Web Pages That Suck),  read The Color of Money which cautions against using distracting colors and backgrounds on Web pages.

Get Graphic

You can find free graphics all over the Web.  Check these out first:

• animated GIFs and more
• how to develop and design good Web graphics
• more animated GIFs, divided into categories
• all kinds of graphics freebies
• graphics techniques, images, icons and tools.

The Last Words

Before you finish up your Web site, remember two things:

1. People use all kinds of browsers, with all kinds of settings on all kinds of computers. Check out as many as different configurations and combinations as you can. Just because you have a T-1 connection for your Pentium II with its 21" monitor running Netscape Navigator 4, don't expect everyone else to. They don't. Always remember to consider monitor size, resolution, connect speed and loading time before you get too fancy on our site. To see what your pages look like on different browsers, try Bobby, a program that finds htmL incompatibility problems for different Web browsers.
2. The WWW really is the World-Wide Web. You can get visitors from anywhere in the world. Thinking International is a checklist of considerations before you launch your Web site in other countries, The World Is Your Market: Multilingual Web Sites tells why a business with a Web site is inherently an international business and how to make your site international user-friendly, and When In Paris: See Your Site as Others See It provides tips on internationalizing your Web site. Sensibilities and sensitivities vary with cultures and countries, so exercise a little caution if at all in doubt and seek help from professionals if you anticipate a large international market exposure