Review on the book "Web Design in a Nutshell"
Web Design in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference, 3rd Edition written by Jennifer Niederst Robbins, published by O'Reilly Media, Inc., in Feb 2006.
This book was published in early 2006, so some contents were only up to date as of late 2005 which readers should keep in mind. Other than that, the author has explained the basics of the many fields of web design very well, especially those chapters on HTML/XHTML, CSS and web graphics. This serves well starting web designers and developers who might be intimidated by formidable tomes such as the various Definitive Guides published by O'Reilly. In addition, the author also provides many useful pointers to web sites and articles that give readers additional information. Readers are encouraged to check the A List Apart web site which is referenced numerous times throughout the book.
Although this book is written as a quick desktop reference, it is not hard to read it from beginning to the end which is the way we suggest. This will give you assurance that you won't miss any major topics in web design and allow you to come back quickly for reference when you already have a passing knowledge about what is covered in this book. If you feel a bit overwhelmed or bored reading this way, you can intermix reading this with books on other topics to give your brain the necessary rest so you can stay interested. :)
If the author is to write the fourth edition of this book which we hope for, we have a few humble suggestions for improvement. :)
First the author can probably cut the discussions which are of historical use only. For example, at the time of writing, hacks around Internet Explorer 5 probably are no longer relevant. The author can dismiss them in the new book. Like some other technical books, the author may consider putting the old chapters on these hacks available from the book's supporting site so readers may be more inclined towards buying the new edition.
Second, the author can cut those appendixes whose content can be easily found on the Web, e.g., references on HTML elements and attributes, CSS properties and etc. This reduces the size of the book to make it more manageable for users. It also frees some space so the author can cover some other topics in more details.
The third is about coverage of cutting-edge technologies for which we don't have clear answers yet because it is a difficult balancing act. On the one hand, they make the book more up to date with the latest development in the field of web design. On the other hand, they may be experimental and can fall out of fad quickly. History is full of stories about seemingly promising technologies ending up in obscurity. Since for a reference book which ideally should have a shelf life of around five to ten years, it may be better to err at the side of being conservative to cover less on technologies that are still under rapid development and instead to spend more time on technologies that are relatively stable and mature.