Chapter 5, "Aesthetics," is the fun part of design. Sometimes people get caught up in scrimping on this part when deadlines loom, but this is what will impress people even if they are not aware of the subtlety that goes into it. It is what will have them coming back for more. You will examine design techniques like the rule of thirds, decide if you should make it flexible, fixed, or fluid, how to bring mood to your site, work with color, imagery, and typography.
Chapter 6, "Deliverables," now will show you how to take what you have done and package it for the client. This will be handled from two different perspectives; first with the delivery of mockups for client approval, and next with the delivery of images ready for development. Here you will see how to keep your layers in Photoshop organized, how to export the images, how to present mockups in a browser, and how to create style guides.
Sexy Web Design is a good, well balanced guide that steps you through the basics of web design. It does not go into a lot of heavy design theory and keeps to a straight to the point motif. Keep in mind that this about design and not about how to use Photoshop to make designs.
It will be of most benefit to someone who is new to design and wants to understand the steps that are needed to create a good design. If you have been doing design for years, there probably is not a lot that you will learn from here. But if you are new to web design or trying to learn more about web design from a basic level, then I highly recommend this book.
Article comments
1 - Rob
As a student studying web, advertising and multimedia design I found this article very useful to me and I also believe that anyone who plans to become a professional web designer needs to research on latest web design trends, etc. Also since I notice that the market is quite saturated with web designers we have to figure out what we can offer to the consumers uniquely and try and distinguish ourselves from the rest of the market in a positive sense.
2 - Zoltan H
Just finished a review of this book too. It's a good book if your not looking for a PhotoShop tutorial. The section on structure is very good, esp. wireframing.
3 - Paul Fearn
Sounds like a useful book. Other books such as Nielsen's Designing Web Usability, and Mullet & Sano's Designing Visual Interfaces are worth a look as well. Designing Visual Interfaces was written in 1995 but it's principles still hold true.
4 - Graffiti
I read this book, its really great. It helps a lot with the most stuff u need for a proffesionell looking website, there is everything u need. u can buy it cheap on ebay, since its older.