Although Dreamweaver, GoLive, Photoshop, and other applications are mentioned (Flash even gets its own chapter), the book covers the gamut of Web design and technology issues rather than focusing on an individual application.

Each chapter is divided into sections, often no more than a couple of pages long. The chapter on Backgrounds, the area of a Web page that seems to attract the worst design crimes, shows you how to avoid "the heartbreak of bad background design" in no less than eight sections.

In many books this subject would be lucky to get eight paragraphs, Robin Williams Web Design Workshop uses a clear two-column layout and plenty of real-life example screenshots to get the message across. Some pages consist only of captioned screenshots providing a great source of visual ideas.

There's a good balance between purely design-related issues and the technical stuff. Subjects like search engines, embedded fonts, DHTML and forms are given a thorough overview highlighting the main issues, and links to sources of more in-depth information are often to be found at the end of the chapter.

If see yourself more as a designer than a programmer, but want a working knowledge of current Web technologies from a book that you can read away from your computer, this is it. --Ken McMahon

The book covers all the DESIGN aspects of creating web sites and gives plenty of insight into HOW to build them. If you are a techie-head and want to know all the coding tricks, then forget it - this ISNT the book for you. If you have any kind of flair for design or even just an appreciation of what makes a GOOD web site AND you can handle technological explanations (not heavy code!!), then this IS the book for you.

Its glossy, its easy to read and packed with examples. If you want to know what makes a GOOD web site then you MUST buy this book.

PS. Another good choice is "Web Design, Tools and Techniques" by Peter Kentie. It however is a bit more 'application' oriented and less 'design-y'


Excellent! Buy it!   August 2, 2002
 25 out of 25 found this review helpful

Robin's book must rank as one of the best I have ever read on web site design. It is beautifully presented and written with humour. I have been designing web sites for the last four years, entirely self taught and thought I was doing pretty well until I read this book! I have learnt more from reading this book cover to cover in the last 48 hours (I couldn't put it down), than through my previous laborious and amateurish efforts!

One of the best sections for me personally, were the Chapters on dealing with clients and using freelance services to assist with some of the more techie stuff. I have been attempting to do all this myself, mistakenly assuming that as an aspiring web site designer, I should be able to write all the various programming languages!

My one and only critisism is the last chapter, which is a virtual chapter and put on the web. The purpose of this is to enable the reader to actually view all the animated effects, flash, etc. Only having a 56K modem with no immediate hope of broadband for a while yet, I would have preferred this to have been included on CD with the book. However, this is a minor gripe and I fully appreciate the reasoning behind the author's decision.

Overall the book, has given me the confidence and know how to design and produce web sites with more professionalism, both aesthetically and from a business perpective. I have now purchased a second copy to give to my daughter who is just beginning a Dreamweaver course......


Brilliant book, lots of helpful hints and tips...   December 27, 2001
 22 out of 23 found this review helpful

I'd never heard of Robin Williams before being given this book as a gift. I now want to read ALL her books! It's very down to earth and though there is quite a bit of technical stuff in there, it never talks down to you. There are lots of illustrations and is written with a sense of humour. I would recommend this book as a good place to start for anyone wishing to know more about web design! The book is good value and there is also an accompanying website with LOTS more information... Excellent stuff.