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Book Reviews

From the archives

Designing brand identity: book review

By Johan on March 18th, 2007.

Designing brand identity written by branding expert Alina Wheeler is already up to a second edition (2006). The book is updated with new practices and case studies. The book’s subtitle immediately clarifies any misconceptions about the main title - A complete guide to creating, building and maintaining strong brands. …

Review of ‘Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications’

By Andrew Faulkner on February 28th, 2007.

Disclosure: This is a paid review. Saying that, all our reviews are honest. It wouldn’t be fair otherwise.
Introduction - What is it?
The book Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications (Patrick Lenz) aims to take the beginner Ruby on Rails developer on a practical journey through the Ruby …

Pixel art: a forgotten art or not so …

By Johan on January 25th, 2007.

I present you the book Character design for mobile devices written by NFGMan, and published by Rotovision. This is a great and unique resource about game character design.

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the bookcover of character design for mobile devices

Book Info

Character design for mobile devices

Written by NFGMan, published by …

WordPress Complete

By Johan on January 24th, 2007.

As the title of the book might reveal — this Word Press handbook authored by Hasin Hayder tries to go beyond the scope of using WordPress as merely a blogging tool. More about that later on.

book cover  of WordPress Complete

Book Info

WordPress Complete

WordPress 2 - a visual quickstart guide

By Johan on January 24th, 2007.

Maria Langer and Miraz Jordan are the authors of WordPress 2 - a visual quickstart guide. The subtitle says Learn WordPress the Quick and Easy Way! This book is more of a compendium which explains the basics of managing your WordPress blog.

Don’t make me think - A common sense approach to Web Usability

By Johan on December 25th, 2006.

Steve Krug is a usability expert. Basically he is hired to evaluate websites and see what possible can be improved on usability issues. Web designers normally do not have a budget for usability reports. Therefore we need to do that part in the design process ourselves. Luckily, Mr. Krug just …

Access by design - A guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers

By Johan on December 20th, 2006.

The role of the webdesigner is partially situated around user-centred design. As a designer we need to provide functionality that makes a good user experience.

Sarah Horton, author of the book Access By Design - A guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers (2005) perhaps deliberately mixes up accessibility and usability …

Designing Interactions

By Johan on December 15th, 2006.

In the book (a turf) Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge, the inventor-designer of the first laptop, and founder of IDEO, a design company one sees a complete overview of all key figures of interaction design from past to present.

42 designers who shaped our interactions with technology

From Counterculture to cyberculture: Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism

By Johan on December 14th, 2006.

How we evolved to the Internet as we know it today — we all know bits and parts of it. Some think that Tim Berners-Lee from WWW started the Internet, others say ARPANET, the military communication network during the Cold War made the Internet happen. In fact, there is a …

Talent Is Not Enough: Business Secrets For Designers

By Johan on November 10th, 2006.

For all of you: Shel Perkins wrote a comprehensive guide to teach you best business practices for your design business. Shel Perkins has a unique take on the design business being a designer, management consultant and instructor.

Talent is not enough by Shel Perkins - bookcover

Book …

Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional

By Johan on November 6th, 2006.

This CSS book entitled Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional is written by Simon Collison, a seasoned web designer, best known for his articles on his own blog collylogic.com.

We all have to start somewhere, haven’t we? And learn the tricks along the way. Learning …