E-books are great way to learn more about web design. E-books can truly provide you a fountain of knowledge of information and there’s a lot to be learnt.
There are now e-books available on almost every aspect of design, from planning your business and managing your time, to designing web applications. This post highlights 10 of the best free e-books for designers, with selections available as PDFs or in HTML.
And most importantly, many of them are free.
01. Getting Real
The smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application. Getting Real explains how to go about building a web application and covering everything from the basics to the more advanced. Written by leading agency 37Signals
02. The elements of typographic style applied to the web
The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web: A practical guide to web typography.
03. Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design
Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design provides:
- The basics of including accessibility in design projects
- Shortcuts for involving people with disabilities in your project
- Tips for comfortable interaction with people with disabilities
- Details on accessibility in each phase of the user-centered design process (UCD)
- Examples of including accessibility in user group profiles, personas, and scenarios
- Guidance on evaluating for accessibility through heuristic evaluation, design walkthroughs, and screening techniques
- Thorough coverage of planning, preparing for, conducting, analyzing, and reporting effective usability tests with participants with disabilities
- Questions to include in your recruiting screener
- Checklist for usability testing with participants with disabilities.
04. Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS
SMACSS (pronounced “smacks”) is more style guide than rigid framework. There is no library within here for you to download or install. SMACSS is a way to examine your design process and as a way to fit those rigid frameworks into a flexible thought process. It is an attempt to document a consistent approach to site development when using CSS. And really, who isn’t building a site with CSS these days?!
Get to know Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS:
Get the Book
Purchase the book in print or e-book format — or both! The e-book comes in PDF, ePub and mobi formats for easy installation on almost any e-reader. The e-book purchase also includes access to screencasts on smacss.com.
Free Online Book
SMACSS started out as a free online book and that continues to be true. You can always read the original chapters. For access to premium content, you will need to buy the e-book.
05. Learning Web Design
Everything you need to know to create professional web sites is right here. Learning Web Design starts from the beginning - defining how the Web and web pages work - and builds from there. By the end of the book, you'll have the skills to create multi-column CSS layouts with optimized graphic files, and you'll know how to get your pages up on the Web.
This thoroughly revised edition teaches you how to build web sites according to modern design practices and professional standards.
06. HTML5 Quick Learning Guide
There are lots of great resources for getting comprehensive information on HTML5, so instead of creating another one of those, I decided instead to create a short “quick learning guide”. This guide introduces you to just the main elements of HTML5 that you’ll probably want to use right away. This guide is for those who want to get the basics figured out first, and worry about the finer details later on.
07. How To Be Creative
Advertising executive and creative Hugh MacLeod provides 26 ‘tried-and-true tips’ to help guide your creative self through the business world. Famous for drawing cartoons on the back of business cards, each of his tips is brilliantly presented by a cartoon drawing with advice ranging from ‘ignore everybody’, ‘put the hours in’ and ‘keep your day job’.
8. Taking Your Talent To The Web
RATED FIVE STARS at Amazon.com since the day it was published, Taking Your Talent to the Web (PDF) is now a free downloadable book from zeldman.com:
- Download the front cover! (TIFF image, 1.8 MB)
- Download the book! (PDF, book galley, 9.5 MB)
9. Designing For The Web
A Practical Guide To Designing For The Web aims to teach core web development techniques based on the principles of graphic design. Written by recognized designer and author Mark Boulton, it is a stand-out amongst web design books with the right balance between practical and inspirational.
It features five sections: Getting Started, Research, Typography, Color and Layout. The focus is on learning graphic design theory, which you can then easily apply to your own designs.
10. Design Your Imagination
"Design Your Imagination" is a one stop ebook resource for web design novices. Primarily written for website design wannabes, this book will also benefit experienced web designers. The book has been written by some of WebGuru Infosystems most seasoned professionals and is divided into 28 comprehensive chapters. Each chapter is on a specific topic with a number of examples for better understanding. The language is lucid, to-the-point and easy to understand.
11. Time Management For Creative People
Delivering time management training and coaching for hundreds of creative people has taught me a lot about what it takes to get original work done in the midst of the demands and distractions of the 21st century workplace.
12. The Woork Handbook
The Woork Handbook is a free eBook about CSS, HTML, Ajax, web programming, Mootools, Scriptaculous and other topics about web design... directly from Woork!
13.Web Style Guide
An in-depth resource that offers information and instruction related to several areas of web development, including interface design, information architecture and usability.
The book explains established design principles and illustrates how they apply to projects whose primary concerns are information design and efficient search and navigation.
Beginner and advanced designers will find this to be one of the most practical guides available.
Janeth Kent
Licenciada en Bellas Artes y programadora por pasión. Cuando tengo un rato retoco fotos, edito vídeos y diseño cosas. El resto del tiempo escribo en MA-NO WEB DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT.
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