By the time you finish David Siegel's book Creating Killer Web Sites, you may suffer the stark realization that your own Web endeavors have been merely first generation. First-generation sites, in Siegel's words, have "linear displays, a top-to-bottom, left-to-right sequence of text and images, interspersed with carriage returns and other datastream separators, like bullets and horizontal rules." Second-gen sites are not much better, as they "are basically first-generation sites with icons replacing words" and "use a top-down, homepage model to present a hierarchy of information." Not very exciting.But a third-gen site designer "carefully specifies the position and relationships of all elements on the page, retaining fine control of the layout.... They strive to make a site feel familiar and easy to navigate, with clear typography and high production values."While Killer Sites does a reasonable job in covering a wide variety of Web-related issues - from future formats to PDF to how to keep 'em coming back for more - its primary focus is the art of Web design. From contemplating the color cube to touting typography (Siegel trained as a typographer), Siegel delivers an artful, art-full treatise on how to create visually superior Web sites.The book does a great job describing two tricks for gaining the graphic control necessary to create third-gen sites: the single-pixel GIF trick (used to horizontally and vertically space elements on a page) and the clever use of tables. For these tips alone, the book is worth buying; those of us who've been tossing up first-gen sites will get a clue as to what it takes to do a lot better.Creating Killer Web Sites may not be the ultimate Web design manual - in part because the Web is changing so quickly, in part because the book has a tendency to skip steps - but for now this book is truly to die for.
Creating Killer Web Sites: The Art of Third-Generation Site Design, by David Siegel. Hayden Books: (800) 428 5331, +1 (317) 581 3575, on the Web at www.killersites.com/.
STREET CRED
Atari DazeDawkinian Evolution
Outta Site
