Thomas A. Powell's "Web Design: The Complete Reference" is not really the book you're looking for if you're merely interested in designing a Personal Web site, although you might well find it an interesting read, and definitely an informative one.

For a big book (872 pages), written for serious Web designers by a university professor, WDTCR is remarkably readable. I am certainly no more than a Web site authoring novice, but I found a lot of stuff that caught my interest in Powell's book, which is written in a conversational style rather than dry textbookese.

However the book really is aimed at professional Web site designers who want to learn how to create attractive and functional Web pages while avoiding the pitfalls that are all too frequently evident as one surfs the net.

This is a book about Web site design with no fancy color pictures (although there are plenty of grayscale and line art illustrations and graphs). Instead it focuses on providing useful information and instruction on things like easy and efficient site navigation, speedy page loading, and comprehensive browser support. It is not a primer -- the author assumes that the reader is already fluent the basics of HTML authoring and CSS, and has at least a passing familiarity with JavaScript. Powell, an instructor at the UCSD Computer Science Department, leaves what he calls "the nitty gritty technical issues of building Web pages" to other books, such as his own "HTML: The Complete Reference". He aims rather to help readers avoid the missteps that his firm has learned in the process of building or redesigning nearly 150 Web sites over the past few years.

WDTCR is about the philosophy of Website design as well as the nuts and bolts While the basics of Web site design are not terribly difficult to grasp, Howell notes that experience has taught them that truly excellent Web sites are hard to execute. As he puts it: a very fine balance has to be struck between designer wants and user needs, between form and function, and between uniqueness and consistency .... Web design is a mixture of art and science, inspiration and execution, and, ultimately, of frustration and elation.

"Web Design: The Complete Reference" is intended to help maximize the latter and minimize the former.

While as noted, the book has no color photographs or screen shots, he relies heavily on a complementary Web site found at: http://www.webdesignref.com, which contains all the examples mentioned in the book as well as demos related to topics discussed.

These include comprehensive information about how to plan, build, and maintain dynamic Web sites that balance form and function, including thorough explanation and discussion of effective site architecture, layout, and navigational features, as well as how to add graphics, links, interface widgets, and multimedia. Powell also supplies complete details on enabling search and e-commerce capabilities, handling privacy and security issues with respect to dynamic site design, and programming Web applications. The companion Web site is filled with live examples you can apply to your own site, along with links to other useful sites and downloadable tools.

Throughout the book there is quite a bit of sample code included to give the reader a clear example of what the author is talking about, and that can be copied if desired.

Powell notes that a crisis exists in Web development today similar to the "software crisis" of the late 1960's. He notes that a few years ago most Web sites were little more than digital brochures, and were indeed often termed "brochureware." However, he observes that nowadays, with the introduction of e-commerce and dynamic pages, Websites are becoming much larger and more complex.

The author maintains that Websites often fail in execution due to inadequate conception and planning, and observes that the "dirty laundry" of many failed Web projects litters Internet like so many cyber ghost towns. The first post-introduction chapter covers the site planning process at considerable length and detail.

A theme that is continuously emphasized and reemphasized throughout the book is site usability, which Powell defines as "the extent to which a site can be used by a specified group of users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specified context of use." Usability should always be related to a specific task he says, citing Jakob Nielson's five-point standard of usability:
• Learnability
• Rememberability
• Efficiency of use
• Reliability in use
• User satisfaction

WDTCR is peppered with interpolated rules and suggestions in boldface which are conveniently repeated in list form in Appendix A -- the first of four appendices of which I will have more to say later.

In terms of page load times Powell advises that the Web site designer should be mindful of a particular Web page's specific task. He notes that pages that are reasonably considered single-visit sites like movie promotion sites or designer portfolios can get away successfully with much longer download times, than will Websites oriented to repeat visits, like portals or e-commerce sites, which must pay much greater attention to novices and the impatient. The amount of time a user will wait for a page to download is proportional to the perceived payoff, Says Powell, suggesting that 10 seconds is about the limit for keeping a user's attention.

Another point he emphasizes is one that professional Website designers should tack up in day-glo lettering above their workstations is, Rule: you are NOT the user. It is all too easy to get carried away with the esoterica of the possible in advanced Web site design, forgetting that most users don't have broadband connections and are unlikely to get excited about contents if they are constantly annoyed by how slowly it loads.

Powell advises keeping the site as a whole, as well as individual pages, as simple as possible. "Simplicity makes it easy for users to understand a site," he says. "Try to pare a site or page down to its bare essentials.... on page level remove clutter from backgrounds and try to reduce visual noise.... Do not assume users read instructions.... and focus on speed. Users dread slow loading sites. Make sure pages are fast-loading by practicing the idea of minimal design.

On the other hand, Powell is not a complete minimalist, and does not advise total elimination of graphic content by any means. He notes that while many users complain about banner ads, few bother to consider that without the ads financial support the Website might not be economically viable. He also maintains that while advanced technology is a common enemy of good usability, the truth is that while advanced technology may lock out some users, what is provided may be worth it, so while usability must always be considered, it should not be allowed to completely stifle innovation.

Powell discusses distinct priorities for specific types of Web sites, such as
Commercial sites
Informational sites
Entertainment sites
Navigational sites
Community sites
Artistic sites
Personal sites

These categories are defined by their intended audience, and audience considerations must greatly affect the design considerations of a site.

There is a section in Chapter 5 on the use of frames, which are always a controversial subject. While the benefits of frames can be great, Powell notes, there are also pitfalls to be avoided. The potentially serious problem with frames, he says, is that not all browser support them, and some search engines refuse to index sites with frames, which could limit a site's audience reach.

If frames are used, he advises, the Website designer should make sure that at least some content is presented using a "no frames" tag within a frameset document so that users without frame support, as well as search engines, will be able to see this content, while typical users will see the framed site..

This frames issue is one I encounter everyday, since I often used the fast little text only browser WannaBe when I'm surfing for information. Fairly frequently, one finds pages bearing the supercilious legend: "Time to get a frames capable browser," which is not very helpful. In most cases the only alternative is to switch to a full-featured browser for that site, but occasionally more thoughtful Website designers will provide links to the site's text contents.

Powell includes an entire chapter on Search and Design, including detail on optimizing for search engines, as well as local search structures. Chapter 9 deals with Page Types And Layouts with particular reference to dealing with page sizes and resolutions.

Also in the Page Types And Layouts Chapter is a discussion of home page design. Powell believes that a homepage should look different from other pages in the site, but still to set theme and tone for the site and the basic elements such as calligraphic style and font style that will be used on the sub pages. Like a magazine cover, the home page must be "consistently different" -- recognizable but obviously changing and "fresh." He suggests that changing the basic home page design should not occur very frequently, although subtler incremental changes may be incorporated at any time.

In Chapter 10, Powell, bless him, notes that: "Whatever anyone says about the future of Multimedia online, most Web pages are dominated by textual information," and the successful implementation of text on Web pages is a lot more complex topic than some might imagine.

Chapter 11 focuses on the largely aesthetic issues associated with colors, images, and backgrounds. These are necessarily expansive and wide-ranging topics and the author combines things like a cool tip for improving Web page performance by selectively placing images for the next page at the bottom of a previous page, scaled to a 1x1 pixels size in the code, rendering them invisible on the page where they preload, but causing them to pop quickly out of the user's browser cache on the next page in their normal size; along with a discussion of copyright issues and much, much more.

Chapter 12 deals with building user interactive graphical user interface features.

Chapter 13 discusses Web technologies and their effect on Web design, and Powell suggests as an exercise for designers to try turning off their JavaScript, changing their font size, using a nonstandard browser and doing some surfing. "Watch as a large company cites and some of the most award-winning designer-oriented sites fall apart, catastrophically in some situations, " he says.

In Chapter 13 you will also find a section dealing with sound on the Internet, and a discussion of Web server hardware and software. Server operating systems compared include UNIX, Windows NT, Linux, Windows 95/98, and even the Macintosh, whose virtues as server software cited by Powell include "easy to run and administer, low equipment costs, and inexpensive software." However, he notes that Macintosh is not a multi user environment, that selection of Web software is limited compared to Windows or UNIX, and that the Mac is often not as robust as NT or UNIX for serving.

The chapter also includes an interesting section on browsers. Did you know for instance, that there have been more than 200 variations of Netscape including beta releases, and that there have been 16 major versions of the Netscape 4.x generation alone. Even CyberDog gets mentioned, as a browser that most Website designers don't even think about, but Powell notes that a site that publishes Macintosh software might actually show a fair number of users with CyberDog. Netscape and Internet Explorer dominate the browser section but Powell does mention Opera, AOL, and Web TV, but ignores Mac-only iCab. There's also interesting chart showing the various web authoring technologies supported by the respective Internet Explorer and Netscape versions..

Speaking of authoring technologies, in Chapter 15, which focuses on the future of Web design, Paul notes that "like it or not, HTML will still be around in the next few years, if not for the foreseeable future.... It will probably be lurking around underneath sites in some form or another for a long time to come.... Changing over to another format would be a massive undertaking that would take years."

"However, in its current form, says Paul, HTML is not adequate to serve the growing needs of the Web." He predicts that CSS will eventually be commonly used, relieving HTML of its presentation duties.

Powell also predicts that while broadband access will increase multimedia usage on Websites, download times will continue to be an issue, and he suggests that most of the newly acquired bandwidth should be used to deliver improved content rather than to provide sophisticated animation effects or interface elements.

Another prediction, is that browsers will become a commodity item, with people paying as little attention to the browser type as they do to what brand of television set they have today.

The final section of the book, as noted above, contains four appendices, the first one, as previously noted, being a summary of the hundreds of rules, predictions, and suggestions scattered throughout the main text. Appendix B is a detailed and thoroughgoing site evaluation procedure protocol. Appendix C is a reference tutorial on HTML and CSS coding that pertains to fonts display, and Appendix D is a color reference, listing all the color names supported by the major browsers. There is also a comprehensive index.

In summary, I would rate this book Web Design: The Complete Reference as a must have for serious Web site designers. It is also a fine resource for anyone interested in getting beyond the basics of Web site design.

I have barely been able to scratch the surface of the book's content in this review. If you would like to sample some of the actual content verbatim before making a purchase commitment, Chapter 1 may be found at this Web address:
http://www.webdesignref.com/chapters/chapter1.htm

Web Design : The Complete Reference
by Thomas Powell is available from Amazon.com at:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0072122978/qid=958697062/sr=1-5/102-5163474-7046454

Price: $39.99
Paperback - 872 pages (May 12, 2000)
Osborne McGraw-Hill; ISBN: 0072122978

Appendix

WEB DESIGN: THE COMPLETE REFERENCE

Table of Contents

1. What Is Web Design? (Complete chapter online)
2. The Web Design Process
3. Designing for Users
4. Site Types and Architectures
5. Navigation Theory and Practice
6. Linking: Text Buttons, Icons and Graphics
7. Search and Design
8. Site Maps, Indexes, and Other Navigational and Use Aids
9. Page Types and Layouts
10. Text
11. Colors, Images and Backgrounds
12. Building Interactivity Using GUI Features
13. Web Technologies and Their Effect on Web Design
14. Site Delivery and Management
15. The Future of Web Design

Appendices
A. Core Site Design Principles
B. Sample Site-Evaluation Procedure
C. Fonts
D. Color Reference

Charles W. Moore

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Tuesday, 16-Mar-2010 04:28:18 EDT