Last year, I read and reviewed Smashing Magazine’s first book, The Smashing Book. I was so impressed with their first effort that I didn’t hesitate to pre-order the follow-up (The Smashing Book #2) when the announcement was made. To clear up any confusion, the latest book is not simply an updated version of the first. Rather, it is an entirely new book consisting of original material on different subject matter.
From their web site:
“Both books cover best practices in Web design and Web development, and they have similarities, but on a broad scale they cover different areas of design. Book 1 presents coding and layout techniques, color theory und UI design, while Book 2 covers psychology, designing for mobile devices, graphic design, wireframing and book production.”
The book is broken down into the following chapters:
- The Principles of Great Graphic Design
- Visible vs. Invisible Design
- Designing Mobile User Experiences
- Sketching, Wireframing and Prototyping
- Red Flags in Web Development
- The Future of Web Typography
- Game Design Techniques Applied to UX Design
- When They Click: Psychology of Web Design
- Design Patterns on E-Commerce Websites (A Study)
- How to Make a Book (Like This One)
It is 40 pages longer than its predecessor, includes custom illustrations by Yiying Lu (ala Twitter “Fail Whale” fame), and is bound in a hardcover. If you purchase the book, you can also download an additional 140 pages of content that didn’t get included (free). As they have done previously, Smashing Magazine was generous enough to post an entire chapter online for free to give you an idea of what you’ll get when you purchase the book.
I highly recommend this book to anyone involved or interested in web design and development regardless of experience level. While not all of the book may seem relevant and/or of interest to you, it covers a diverse range of important topics and it complements the first book very well. No word (that I know of) on Smashing Book #3 , but when there is you can be sure I’ll be pre-ordering that one as well.
