I’ve just finished reading the best technical book I’ve held on my hands this year: “The Zen of CSS design“. Using the famous “CSS Zen Garden” website, it speaks about design, CSS, and standards on Internet. It’s not a CSS reference book (but it cleverly shows the common css pitfalls), and it’s not a design book (but it comments a lot of design tips and stuff to consider). So, being nothing at all, is plenty of wisdom, making a correct use of the “Zen” meaning in its tittle 😉
Every chapter illustrates a concept, like design, layout, typography, etc. It shows some real examples from the website, in the way to help you to understand the different uses of every subtle element. For example, in the design chapter it comments things about:
– colours (use and psychological meanings), contrasts, unity
– shapes, lines and curves, patterns (and textures)
– space, margins, shades
– how to help the eye leading
A lot of interesting stuff to save in your hard disk brain!!
If you feel a bit sank among web design, developing, programming, and such things, it could be like a roadmap for you. Of course it’s not perfect, and for example I disagree the quality of one of the last chapters. But there are lots of interesting comments, and the final chapter (recovering all the solutions for the common CSS pitfalls) is a really nice jewel. The best book bought by my company (thanks to my suggestion to my manager).