Category: Books

Reviews and recommendations of books on design and development.

Smashing Magazine CSS3 eBook

My article Adventures in the Third Dimension, published by Smashing Magazine earlier this year, is now available in one of the collected Smashing eBooks; buy Mastering CSS3 for $4.99, or get the whole Coding Bundle of five eBooks for $21.90.


Review: Smashing Book #3: Redesign the Web

There are a lot of books on web development, and even more writing available for free online. You have to have something special to stand out in this market, and the latest to try is Smashing Book #3: Redesign The Web. Smashing Magazine used to be known for their ‘Top 50 Whatever’ lists, but in the last few years, as clones and competitors sprung up around them, they’ve carved out their own space online with quality practical writing, so I was keen to see what was in their latest book of original content.

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Those who forget the past…

There are many who believe that the internet will make us stupid, so it may come as a relief to know that some 2,400 years ago Socrates believed* that the same would happen because of the new art of writing:

This invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom.

And misunderstanding the capabilities of computers is not a recent invention either; in the mid-19th Century the mathematician Charles Babbage, theoretical inventor of the first mechanical computer, complained:

On two occasions I have been asked,—“Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?” I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

I found both of these quotes in James Gleick’s The Information, which despite my being only four chapters in, and the fact that it’s only March, is a candidate for book of the year.

* According to Plato.


Introducing The Book of CSS3

After more than a year of work, I’m absolutely proud and delighted to introduce my first book: The Book of CSS3. As well as the prosaic title, the subtitle – A Developer’s Guide to the Future of Web Design – should give you some idea of what to expect from it: it’s a book written by a developer, for developers; in other words, by me, for you.

The Book of CSS3The book doesn’t aim to teach CSS from scratch; it presumes that you’re a working developer with a good knowledge of web technologies, especially CSS, and you want to take your knowledge to the next level. It aims to translate the sometimes complex specification into something that’s easier to understand, and has plenty of code examples and illustrations to aid in achieving that aim.

It’s not a book of step-by-step techniques, it’s for keeping at hand to use as a resource; and as such, I believe it’s the first book of it’s kind on this topic. There are plenty of books available which teach you about the exciting visual elements of CSS3 like animations, border radius, and so on, and while my book certainly covers those areas it also goes deeper into looking at new layout methods and what we can expect to see in the future.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog you should find plenty in the book that you’ll enjoy; many of the more popular posts I’ve written, such as Using Media Queries in the Real World or CSS gradient syntax: comparison of Mozilla and WebKit, have been adapted for the book in one way or another.

If you’d like to read a sample the publisher has made available a PDF of Chapter 6: Text Effects and Typographic Styles.

You can buy The Book of CSS3 direct from the publisher, No Starch Press, as either a print copy with free eBook (PDF, ePub or Mobi), or eBook alone. You can also order the print book from many online retailers including Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

There’s a companion website with examples and resources from the book, which I aim to keep updated so that it becomes a constant online reference guide; with browser implementation of CSS3 changing so quickly it’s inevitable that some references in the print book will become outdated in the long term, so the website should go some way to combating that.

I’m anxiously awaiting the first reviews, although initial feedback has been promising. I hope it’s popular not only because I put a lot of time and effort into it – the sense of achievement I have from writing it has been worth all of that effort on it’s own – but also because I believe it’s a book that will be of great use to many people. (I know, I would say that!)


My Name In Print

I hope you’ll forgive a little self-promotion, as I’d just like to play a few quick notes on my own trumpet. The latest issue of Net magazine is now on sale, and features a tutorial article, Create A Dynamic Content Panel, written by me.

In the article I explain how to build a dynamic Contact area, as we did on our recent redesign of Preloaded.com, using the Web Storage API and the BBC’s Glow Javascript library.

I’m not sure what the rights situation is with this article, but I hope that at some point in the future I’ll be able to post it here on my blog. But in the meantime, you can buy a copy of Net magazine in the UK at all good newsagents, as the saying goes (I don’t know if it will be in overseas editions also).

Printed TutorialPrinted TutorialPrinted Tutorial

On the subject of print, I’m also currently writing a book about CSS3 which should be published later this year. I’ll have more information on that nearer the time.


Understanding Comics and User Experience

I work as an Information Architect / Developer, and I’m a big fan of comics. For my IA work I refer frequently to the work of Jesse James Garrett, especially his Elements of User Experience book, and as a fan of comics I recently read (again) Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics.

I’m not saying that to boast of my geek credentials, but to introduce something I never imagined I’d find: a connection between the two.

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Aside

I’ve updated my Speaking page to include more conferences, more videos, and a little on my speaking requirements and preferences. I’m planning to cut down on the number of talks I give in 2014 (twelve is too many), but am always open to interesting offers and opportunities, so please get in touch if you’re organising an event.

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