It’s a no brainer that Jon Duckett follows up his beautiful, successful HTML & CSS with JavaScript & jQuery. As with the previous book, this one is for beginners. Pleasing design, clear writing, and comprehensive coverage make it an excellent reference. A must-have for web designers who want to add interactivity to their site.
A thorough and compelling biography of Thelonious Monk, a genius of modern jazz. Monk’s music, is often misunderstood, has always been a fascinating matter. Fortunately Kelly knows his music well and brilliantly sheds the light on Monk’s signature styles such as his beautiful melodies, dissonant chords, and complex rhythms. For Monk’s life, which often seemed eccentric and erratic to the public, Kelly provides the charming and passionate side of the man through detailed research and interviews with the people who were closed to Monk, including his family members. For the man who used very few words and whose entire life dedicated to music, this book does do him justice.
A companion to Ethan Marcotte’s Responsive Web Design, Scott Jehl’s Responsible Responsive Design is a required read for front-end developers who want to make the web more accessible and faster. Because of his expertise on web performance and his experience in working in places with limited access, Jehl explains clearly the important of delivering images, CSS and JavaScript without blocking the contents. Even though this one is brief, as with all the books from A Book Apart, Jehl was able to pack all the technical details you need to know to make a better, smoother user experience across networks and devices.
An absolute beginner’s book for designers who want to learn HTML & CSS. My design students prefer this book over Thomas Michaud’s Foundation of Web Design, which I recommended. While Jon Duckett’s clear writing and the pleasing visual layout make this book approachable, it lacks the HTML5 goodies and ARIA landmarks. Perhaps a second edition is needed to bring the materials up to date since it released three years ago.
A solid reference of the latest features in HTML5 and CSS3. Weyl’s clear, approachable writing makes it easy to understand for beginners and practical for more advanced front-end developers. Good to have on hand for mobile web designers and developers.
The first section of Sue Apfelbaum and Juliette Cezzar’s new book gives an informative primer for editorial design and its elements such as format, identity and typography. The book then jumps right into case studies and interviews, which are the bulk part of the book. While the real-world examples are useful, the book is missing the entire practical aspect of designing the editorial experience, something that I was hoping to read and learn when I decided to make the purchase.
As with his excellent JavaScript: A Beginner’s Guide, John Pollock makes jQuery approachable and easy to understand. Pollock not only clearly explains the concept of jQuery, he also walks you through step-by-step tutorials of how to use it. He builds each exercise gently from one to the next. jQuery: A Beginner’s Guide is a required read for anyone who wants to add rich user interaction to the web.
A thorough and approachable guide to UX design. In addition to McKay’s clear writing, do-and-don’t examples make UI is Communication a required read for students and novice designers.
A historical overview of typography in the twentieth century. Blackwell’s accessible writing, clear organization, each chapter covers a decade of the development of type, and rich visual illustrations make the complex revolution of type and typography approachable. While the new, revised edition is completely redesigned with updated information, the original version is much easier to read. The first edition is set in large Gill Sans with just one column. The revised version set in tiny Helvetica with two columns. If you can still find a copy of the original release, I highly recommend it.
A typographic reference that focuses on breath rather than depth. It’s a comprehensive guide you can flip through to find quick answers, practices and inspirations on typography for your projects. Keeping it on your shelf is not a bad idea.