UX for Beginners: 100 Short Lessons to Get You Started


Joel Marsh - 2015
    With this book, new UX designers will learn the practical skills they need to get started in the field, skills that can be immediately applied to real-world UX projects. "UX for Beginners" is broken into one hundred short, illustrated lessons, a user-friendly approach that makes learning fun and gives you the foundation you need to succeed as a UX designer. This book is based on the popular UX Crash Course blog at The Hipper Element, which has more than 400,000 readers."

Digging Into WordPress


Jeff Starr - 2009
    From your first steps of learning about WordPress all the way through maintaining a site throughout the years, this book is packed with truly practical information.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information


Edward R. Tufte - 1983
    Theory and practice in the design of data graphics, 250 illustrations of the best (and a few of the worst) statistical graphics, with detailed analysis of how to display data for precise, effective, quick analysis. Design of the high-resolution displays, small multiples. Editing and improving graphics. The data-ink ratio. Time-series, relational graphics, data maps, multivariate designs. Detection of graphical deception: design variation vs. data variation. Sources of deception. Aesthetics and data graphical displays. This is the second edition of The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Recently published, this new edition provides excellent color reproductions of the many graphics of William Playfair, adds color to other images, and includes all the changes and corrections accumulated during 17 printings of the first edition.

Making Websites Win: Apply the Customer-Centric Methodology That Has Doubled the Sales of Many Leading Websites


Karl Blanks - 2017
    Almost all of them. Many never make a profit. Like chocolate teapots, they look nice but flop as soon as you pour hot customers into them. Others are successful at first, and then get crushed by competitors.This book is about how to buck the trend—to make websites that customers love and that are outrageously profitable. The unique methodology is based on the authors’ award-winning work growing many of the world’s biggest web companies—plus hundreds of smaller, market-leading companies in over eighty different industries. In this book, you’ll get What successful web businesses do differently (and others get wrong) How to easily identify your website’s biggest opportunities A treasure trove of proven solutions for growing businesses Discover how to grow your profits—by making winning websites that people love. Right now, the Kindle version is priced at a special rate. Just scroll up, click buy, and we'll see you on the inside!

Remote Research: Real Users, Real Time, Real Research


Nate Bolt - 2010
    In Remote Research, Nate Bolt and Tony Tulathimutte teach you how to design and conduct remote research studies, top to bottom, with little more than a phone and a laptop. TESTIMONIALS "Nate and Tony have done it! They've described beautifully one of the user experience profession's best-kept secrets-conducting remote usability tests. This book is a must-have for anyone thinking about remote testing, since it tackles everything you need from soup to nuts. I can't wait to get a copy for my own bookshelf. Oh, it also will melt your face remotely." ?Jared Spool CEO and Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering "Remote Research is filled with sage advice, entertaining case studies, methods, and clear procedures that will benefit both new and experienced user researchers. Remote Research is an absorbing book that should be on the reading list of every user researcher. Kudos to Bolt and Tulathimutte for an engaging and informative guide to better remote research." ?Chauncey Wilson Senior Manager, AEC User Research, Autodesk, Inc. "The techniques in this book will make every designer's and user researcher's life much easier. Nate and Tony use the attitude and power of Web 2.0 technologies to create a new way of thinking about user experience research. They share their expertise clearly, concisely, and with a great sense of humor, giving practitioners step-by-step details to conduct remote research of virtually any complexity." ?Mike Kuniavsky author, Observing the User Experience "No longer must you only test your interfaces with people who come to your office or some expensive lab. So stop doing boring research! Stop having a boring life! Read this book!" ?Mark Trammell User Researcher, Twitter

Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results


Bryan Eisenberg - 2005
    Are you planning for top performance? Are you accurately evaluating that performance? Are you setting the best benchmarks for measuring success? How well are you communicating your value proposition? Are you structured for change? Can you achieve the momentum you need to get the results you want? If you have the desire and commitment to create phenomenal online results, then this book is your call to action.Within these pages, New York Times best-selling authors Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg walk you through the five phases that comprise web site development, from the critical planning phase, through developing structure, momentum, and communication, to articulating value. Along the way, they offer advice and practical applications culled from their years of experience "in the trenches."

Sinatra: Up and Running


Alan Harris - 2011
    With this concise book, you will quickly gain working knowledge of Sinatra and its minimalist approach to building both standalone and modular web applications. Sinatra serves as a lightweight wrapper around Rack middleware, with syntax that maps closely to functions exposed by HTTP verbs, which makes it ideal for web services and APIs. If you have experience building applications with Ruby, you’ll quickly learn language fundamentals and see under-the-hood techniques, with the help of several practical examples. Then you’ll get hands-on experience with Sinatra by building your own blog engine. Learn Sinatra’s core concepts, and get started by building a simple application Create views, manage sessions, and work with Sinatra route definitions Become familiar with the language’s internals, and take a closer look at Rack Use different subclass methods for building flexible and robust architectures Put Sinatra to work: build a blog that takes advantage of service hooks provided by the GitHub API

Gamification by Design


Gabe Zichermann - 2011
    This book provides the design strategy and tactics you need to integrate game mechanics into any kind of consumer-facing website or mobile app. Learn how to use core game concepts, design patterns, and meaningful code samples to a create fun and captivating social environment.Whether you're an executive, developer, producer, or product specialist, Gamification by Design will show you how game mechanics can help you build customer loyalty.Discover the motivational framework game designers use to segment and engage consumersUnderstand core game mechanics such as points, badges, levels, challenges, and leaderboardsEngage your consumers with reward structures, positive reinforcement, and feedback loopsCombine game mechanics with social interaction for activities such as collecting, gifting, heroism, and statusDive into case studies on Nike and Yahoo!, and analyze interactions at Google, Facebook, and ZyngaGet the architecture and code to gamify a basic consumer site, and learn how to use mainstream gamification APIs from Badgeville"Turning applications into games is a huge trend. This book does a great job of identifying the core lasting principals you need to inspire your users to visit again and again." —Adam Loving Freelance Social Game Developer and founder of Twibes Twitter Groups

Training Guide: Programming in HTML5 with JavaScript and CSS3


Glenn Johnson - 2013
    Build hands-on expertise through a series of lessons, exercises, and suggested practices—and help maximize your performance on the job.Provides in-depth, hands-on training you take at your own pace Focuses on job-role-specific expertise for using HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3 to begin building modern web and Windows 8 apps Features pragmatic lessons, exercises, and practices Creates a foundation of skills which, along with on-the-job experience, can be measured by Microsoft Certification exams such as 70-480 Coverage includes: creating HTML5 documents; implementing styles with CSS3; JavaScript in depth; using Microsoft developer tools; AJAX; multimedia support; drawing with Canvas and SVG; drag and drop functionality; location-aware apps; web storage; offline apps; writing your first simple Windows 8 apps; and other key topics

The Shape of Design


Frank Chimero - 2012
    My name's Frank Chimero. I've spent the better part of the last two years writing and speaking on design and thinking about the topics that orbit the practice: storytelling, concept, craft, and improvisation. I want to take all of the ideas I've had and connected these past few months and capture them in a book format.I've been teaching for the past 5 years, and I've always been a bit frustrated that there isn't a nice, concise book that overviews the mental state of a successful designer while they go through their creative process. For instance, many say that graphic design is visual communication. A cornerstone of communication is storytelling, and yet you'd be hard-pressed to find any discussion of how to tell stories with design in any design book. This should be remedied.There are new challenges in the world that need to be discussed, and I think design is a prime lens to consider these topics. As our world moves faster and as things become less stable, it becomes more important for individuals to embrace ambiguity, understand paradox, and realize that two things can conflict and still somehow both be true. We must realize that logic doesn't always work, and that sometimes nonsense is the best answer. These are the topics I intend to address in the book.The Shape of Design isn't going to be a text book. The project will be focused on Why instead of How. We have enough How; it's time for a thoughtful analysis of our practice and its characteristics so we can better practice our craft. After reading the book, I want you to look at what you do in a whole new light. Design is more than working for clients.But really, this book aims to look at the mindset and worldview that designing develops in order to answer one big, important question: How can we make things that help all of us live better?"

PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy


David Powers - 2006
    How easy is easy? It's not like an instant cake mix: just add water and stir. Dynamic web design is--well-- dynamic. Every website is different, so it's impossible to grab a script, paste it into a web page, and expect it to work. Building dynamic sites involves diving into the code and adju- ing it to your own requirements. If that thought makes you break out in a cold sweat, just relax for a moment. PHP is not difficult, and I've written this book very much with the n- programmer in mind. I've done so because I don't come from a computing background myself. In fact, I went to school in the days before pocket calculators were invented, never mind personal computers. As a result, I don't assume that you drank in knowledge of arrays, loops, and conditional statements with your mother's milk. Everything is explained in plain, straightforward l- guage, and I've highlighted points where things may go wrong, with advice on how to solve the problem. At the same time, if you're working with computers and websites, you're bound to have a certain level of technical knowledge and skill. So I don't talk down to you either.

Two Scoops of Django: Best Practices for Django 1.8


Daniel Roy Greenfeld - 2015
    This book is chock-full of material that will help you with your Django projects.We’ll introduce you to various tips, tricks, patterns, code snippets, and techniques that we’ve picked up over the years.

Programming JavaScript Applications: Robust Web Architecture With Node, HTML5, and Modern JS Libraries


Eric Elliott - 2012
    By applying the design patterns outlined in this book, you’ll learn how to write flexible and resilient code that’s easier—not harder—to work with as your code base grows.JavaScript has become one of the most widely used—and essential—programming languages for the Web, on both the client-side and server-side. In the real world, JavaScript applications are fragile, and when you change them things often break. Author Eric Elliott shows you how to add features without creating bugs or negatively impacting the rest of your code during the course of building a large JavaScript application.Examine the anatomy of a modern JavaScript applicationLearn best practices for code organization, modularity, and reuseApply Model-View-Controller architectures to client-side web developmentDelve into client-side (browser) and server-side (Node) approachesUse Node to design and program RESTful APIsLearn the processes teams use to build, test, deploy, and scale large JavaScript applicationsExpand your application’s reach through platform targets and internationalization

Content Strategy at Work: Real-world Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project


Margot Bloomstein - 2012
    But what’s in it for you? And if you’re not a content strategist, why should you care?Because even if content strategy isn’t your job, content’s probably your problem-and probably more than you think. You or your business has a message you want to deliver, right? You can deliver that message through various channels and content types, from Tweets to testimonials and photo galleries galore, and your audience has just as many ways of engaging with it. So many ways, so much content… so where’s the problem? That is the problem. And you can measure it in time, creativity, money, lost opportunity, and the sobs you hear equally from creative directors, project managers, and search engine marketing specialists.The solution is content strategy, and this book offers real-world examples and approaches you can adopt, no matter your role on the team. Put content strategy to work for you by gathering this book into your little hands and gobbling up never-before seen case studies from teams at Johns Hopkins Medicine, MINI, Icebreaker, and more. Content Strategy at Work is a book for designers, information architects, copywriters, project managers, and anyone who works with visual or verbal content. It discusses how you can communicate and forge a plan that will enable you, your company, or your client get that message across and foster better user experiences.

The Art and Science of CSS: Create Inspirational, Standards-Based Web Designs


Cameron Adams - 2007
    The Art & Science of CSS brings together a talented collection of designers who will show you how to take the building blocks of your web site's design (such as headings, navigation, forms, and more) and bring them to life with fully standards-compliant CSS.This full color book helps you to design web sites that not only work well across all browsers, are easy to maintain, and are highly accessible, but are also visually stunning.Create truly attention-grabbing headings.Discover multiple ways to present images effectively.Use background images to give your site zest.Build usable and attractive navigation.Design forms that are stylish and functional.Learn how to break away from the square box gclich.Create funky tables.And lots moreFrom the PublisherJonathan Snook, Steve Smith, Jina Bolton, Cameron Adams, and David Johnson, five of the biggest names in CSS design have joined forces to bring you The Art & Science Of CSS.Beautifully presented in full color, this book will teach you how to apply innovative CSS-based techniques to create visually stunning headings, forms, menus, navigation, backgrounds, and much more...Using The Art & Science Of CSS, you'll see just how easy it is to unleash your creative talents and design inspirational web sites with CSS.All designs in this book are visually appealing and inspiring. The CSS code used to create each of the components is included and guaranteed to be simple, efficient and cross-browser compatible.Among its many treasures, this book will show you how to: Format calendars, menus and table of contents using CSSCreate horizontal, vertical and tab-based navigation systems using CSSCreate rounded corners using CSSDesign stylish Website headingsPut together funky & artistic Website backgroundsUse CSS to render blockquotes, dates and lists in a visually appealing mannerAll designs in this book are visually appealing and inspiring. The code CSS code used to create each of the components is provided and is guaranteed to be simple, efficient and cross-browser compatible.Who Should Read This Book?This book is ideal for anyone who wants to gain the practical skills involved in using CSS to make attractive web sites, especially if you're not the type who likes to learn by memorizing a formal specification and then trying to work out which browsers implemented it completely (does anyone enjoy reading specifications?). The only knowledge you'll need to have is some familiarity with HTML. This book will give designers the skills they need to implement their ideas, and provides developers with creative inspiration through practical examples.