Robin Williams Web Design Workshop

Several years ago I met with the main designer at company that created the web pages for several pharmaceutical distributors in Canada. At the time, I was well versed in creating web pages using several of the professional programs including Dreamweaver, as well as writing code. The designer, however, said that they did all of their designing in Photoshop and then used a slicing technique in ImageReady before editing the site in Dreamweaver. I hate to admit it, but I had never heard of creating web pages that way, so I went home and began looking through all of my web designing books to see if I could find a description of the technique. Yes, I found it in this book.I don't want to give the impression that this book is all about Photoshop, it clearly isn't. But, at least for me, the Photoshop information has been extremely useful! Though I do not design the majority of my sites using Photoshop, there are some that I could not have created as easily with out it. I have not used other applications that supposedly are similar to Photoshop/ImageReady, so I can't say if they can or can not do the things that Photoshop/ImageReady can.Nevertheless, since the time I opened this book and took a real look, I have used this book more than any other web books on my shelf. Sometimes it is to simply look at the pictures to spark a new idea, sometimes it is to review a specific designing technique.Honestly I do not think Robin can write a bad book.

I bought this web design book 2 weeks ago based on the reviews ... . It was actually a disappointment. Upon completion of the book I had seen a lot of nice web designs by Robin Williams' design firm but I still didn't know how to even begin my own design except that I needed to shell out [money] for Dreamweaver or GoLive. The attitude of the authors appeared to be "good web design takes years to learn so why don't you just hire us to do it for you" instead of actually teaching the reader. If you're a beginner like me, try "Learning Web Design" by Jennifer Niederst instead. I learned more in the first 25 pages of it than in the whole Williams book.

I really enjoyed this book very much. In my opinion, it provides a great overview to things that you should be incorporating into your web design. It does not, however, give you everything you need to start pumping out great looking web sites. You will still need to learn how to use Dreamweaver, Photoshop and other tools for this book to be very useful. I think the web design books by Linda Weinman provide a much more in-depth learning experience. Still, a good book...

Excellent

The Non-Designer's Web Book is a better choice. For starters, this book is a bit Mac and PhotoShop-centric, so some of the specifics may not be helpful. (Why people still shell out hundreds for PhotoShop when Jasc's Paint Shop Pro does the same thing for 1/6 the price, I'll never understand.)The design examples are good but a bit limited in creativity, variety, and possibilities. She covers all the basics about proximity, contrast, and alignment, for example, but you can get that in her other books. The designs here are fairly static and rely mainly on tables for layout. There's a little slicing-and-dicing, but no mortized sites or style-sheet driven sites like you see in 3rd-generation web design. Instead, this is something of a repeat of 2nd-generation design that came along a bit too late to be "new."Instead, I'd recommend her "Non-Designer's Web Book" and her "Design Workshop." The latter covers all the concepts of THIS book in a single chapter! And then includes chapters on business cards, letterhead, brochures, and other projects, so you get all this and more in a similar book by the same author.

One big flaw in the book, and one that alot of web design books make, is the recommendation of Matt's Script Archives for CGI scripts. DON'T use Matt's scripts, and beware of any CGI scripts you find on the web. If you do want the functionality (or would like to replace the MSA scripts you have), look for the NMS scripts (google for "matt" and "nms"). Matt's scripts are not maintained, and many security and other problems have been fixed in the NMS scripts (e.g. use the old formmail script, and anyone can use your server to send spam).

I borrowed this book from the library to see if it was worth purchasing. It has some great design tips and ideas but nothing that can't be found in other books in greater detail. The glossy color pages make it fun to browse through, but there isn't enough detailed information on the various design topics.I skimmed through the book within two or three days and don't see it as an item I will bother to purchase for my personal Web design library.

Lightning fast shipping, book as described. VERY happy.

Given how fast technology progresses,this book was published 2002. I bought it hoping to provide a creative graphic designer with technical knowledge of website design.

i have two of robin williams' other books in design as i wanted to build my skills from the ground up and this was a good addition. i have made several changes to our websites and am reaping the benefits now. she makes you think about the little things in design which helps a lot.