Dawson - Distinctive design: a practical guide to a useful, beautiful web

Distinctive Design

A Practical Guide to a Useful, Beautiful Web

Alexander Dawson

Distinctive Design

This edition first published 2011

2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

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978-1-119-99298-1

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Set in 10 point Benton Sans by Melanee Habig, Jennifer Mayberry, and Andrea Hornberger

Printed in the U.S. by CJK

About the Author

Alexander Dawson (@AlexDawsonUK) is an award winning, self-taught, freelance web professional, writer, published author, and recreational software developer from Brighton (UK). With more than 10 years of industry experience he spends his days running his consultancy firm HiTechy ( www.hitechy.com ), writing professionally about web design and giving his free time to assist others in the field.

In recent years, Alexander has become an established web writer providing articles for some of the industrys most respected sites including Smashing Magazine, Six Revisions and SitePoint (where he regularly assists others through their popular forums). In addition, as a member of the Guild of Accessible Web Designers he actively promotes and advocates the benefits of a good user-experience and web standards. When Alexander isnt coding or writing about design and development, he enjoys a game of tennis (or chess) and watching movies.

Credits

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

VP Consumer and Technology Publishing Director

Michelle Leete

Associate Director- Book Content Management

Martin Tribe

Associate Publisher

Chris Webb

Publishing Assistant

Ellie Scott

Development Editor

Beth Taylor

Technical Editor

Michael Tuck

Copy Editors

Debbye Butler

Melba Hopper

Editorial Manager

Jodi Jensen

Senior Project Editor

Sara Shlaer

Editorial Assistant

Leslie Saxman

Senior Marketing Manager

Louise Breinholt

Marketing Executive

Kate Parrett

Senior Project Coordinator

Kristie Rees

Graphics and Production Specialists

Melanee Habig

Andrea Hornberger

Jennifer Mayberry

Quality Control Technicians

Melissa Cossell

Susan Hobbs

Indexer

Ty Koontz

Dedication

For the long suffering professionals who work tirelessly to make the web a better place, and those individuals who continue to strive for a more accessible, standards compliant Internet.

Acknowledgments

There are a number of wonderful individuals who have helped and inspired me throughout the journey of writing this book. My thanks firstly have to go out to the entire team at Wiley who have shown me continued support and helpful advice over many a Skype or e-mail conversation. Just a few of these people include Chris Webb (whos recognition of an article and enthusiasm lead to this title), Ellie Scott (whose patience with my questions seemed never ending ), Beth Taylor (my long suffering editor who has helped transform my brains contents into what youre reading), and Michael Tuck (my friend and technical editor who ensured that what I wrote made sense).

I must also give recognition and some well deserved appreciation to the amazing people who have given me opportunities to write for their wonderful sites. Without their support and friendship, this title certainly may have never been written. Thanks must go out to Jacob Gube ( Six Revisions ), Vitaly Friedman ( Smashing Magazine ), Aidan Huang ( OneXtra Pixel ), Amanda Hackwith ( FreelanceSwitch ), Kristina Bjoran ( UX Booth ), Walter Apai ( Web Designer Depot ) and both Jonathan Anderson and Tiffany A. Hampton ( UX Magazine ). If you dont read these awesome resources, you should do!

Next, Ill give thanks to my friends over on SitePoints forums, Learnable, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, IRC, and real life, whove kept me going with interesting, lively discussions throughout the entire writing process. This Includes: Andrew Cooper, Christian Ankerstjerne, Troy Mott, and Ursula Comeau. Finally, my thanks go out to you, the reader who has chosen to support my hard work (and hopefully gain some useful content in the process). Without you, the book certainly wouldnt have been worth it, and if my musings and Web design knowledge can help a single person become a better professional, it will have been worth the effort made.