Brilliant Web Design – What You Need to Know and How to Do It

Y.R. Storch Rudall (Computer Science International,Essen, Germany)

Kybernetes

ISSN: 0368-492X

Article publication date: 18 October 2011

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Keywords

Citation

Storch Rudall, Y.R. (2011), "Brilliant Web Design – What You Need to Know and How to Do It", Kybernetes, Vol. 40 No. 9/10, pp. 1552-1552. https://doi.org/10.1108/03684921111169576

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2011, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


When the authors decided to write this guide to web design they were well aware that nowadays everyone who has a computer wants their own web site; a ready market that obviously, needs to be serviced. There is, however, very strong competition in that you can learn to do‐it‐yourself from numerous other publications and, indeed, from the web itself.

The text is designed for the novice as well as the computer user who has simply failed to grasp the essential design techniques as outlined in so many other guides.

It does provide the basics and assumes no earlier experience. We are told that there is much more to web design than simply putting information on a site. It needs to attract potential users and keep their attention for long enough to get the information that the site was designed to present. It also needs to encourage its use by search engines and should be designed with marketing in mind. The authors make the point therefore, that there is more to web design than merely filling a screen even if the contents are both informative as well as attractively formulated.

By prefacing the book's title with the word “brilliant” the authors are themselves using a common method of attracting attention, one indeed used for centuries in the commercial advertising world. It soon becomes evident, however, that this preface indicates a series that also includes many other titles. The book is well structured and begins with the basic ideas that are needed to be understood namely layout, use of colour, design methods, site marketing, etc.

As a bonus, some useful software is provided and common problems are discussed and solutions suggested. Some of the ideas and rules suggested are truly obvious. For example, are there designers who produce sites without first examining the likely requirements of its potential clients?

The book is, of course, designed to be a working guide and it does this well. It is worth reading, of course, but there are other texts that might better guide the novice designer to a more successful final product.

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