Customers drive marketing, not the other way around. No longer do customers accept products as designed. They expect and demand products to be molded to their needs. Just like you can’t turn a cat into a dog; marketers can’t turn a customer into a buyer by convincing them that they need product or service “as … Read more
3rd edition update: The third edition took a bigger leap from the second than the second took from the first. Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd ed., comes with a greater focus on Web standards and cascading style sheets (CSS). In fact, the book opens with a chapter on Web standards, whereas it was merely … Read more
No matter what business a company is in, it can make its site useful for its visitors and turn them into eventual buyers. Cashing In with Content shows how to do that with 20 case studies of types businesses — ecommerce, business-to-business, nonprofits, healthcare, education and politics. Every case study includes an interview with an … Read more
When we design Web sites, we often overlook the simplest things because we’re too wrapped up in the design. After working on Web sites for a while, some of us have slowly moved away from what we know is usable to adding or removing elements that may enhance the ‘look’ — and also break a … Read more
But you have to register first … I found a great article and forwarded it to a colleague who might benefit from it. The colleague emailed me and said he couldn’t access it because he didn’t have a login ID. He didn’t want to mess with registration, even though it was free. My list of … Read more
This book is for CSS haters, people frustrated with CSS, and those making the transition to CSS-based design. I fall under the frustrated crowd. My site has been using CSS for a few years now and yet, I still waste a full day trying to get something to look right. Other resources are better served … Read more
Knock, knock. Who’s there? Stop already… you’re writing a review, not adding another joke into the database. Sorry ’bout that. The book put me in a joke state of mind since it uses a jokes database as the content to Build Your Own Database Driven Website Using PHP and MySQL. This book is for those … Read more
If you’re not familiar with O’Reilly’s cookbook series (image of layout), they’re books with a basic formula: Problem, Solution, and Discussion sections for every ‘recipe.’ Each recipe is a script, program, command, or piece of code for implementing within a large part of a whole. Simple example, you’re creating a Web site and you need … Read more
Jennifer Niederst follows her recently released Learning Web Design, a book for those just starting Web design, with an updated Web Design in a Nutshell that takes novice to intermediate designers to the next level and is also useful as a desktop quick reference. Many buy such books and end up never opening them or … Read more
Draw your customers in with a handful of powerful copy. No, no, you don’t have to go to college to make it happen nor do you have to buy a doorstopper-sized book, which gets dusty before you muster the strength to crack it open. Are you like me? A kid in a candy store when … Read more