I received the book Before & After Page Design to review. On first flip through I was impressed with the layout. Very colorful and professional. Now to really review.

So many redesign books say “this is before” and “this is after.” But this one has starts with how to design it and then shows a before and after to demonstrate. I like the callouts on why each part of the layout was done and why it works so that it can be duplicated on my own. The designs also say when that layout should be used. For example, the digest-size newsletter says it’s “great for short runs and small budgets” though the author says an example of this layout is Reader’s Digest. I don’t think of that magazine has having a short run or small budget. But yes, it is smaller.

Some of the vocabulary is unknown to this new designer. For example, on a newsletter each area is explained but what is a kicker? What is a deckhead? He even says that the kicker box touches the edge, but doesn’t say what it is. From the context of the layout, I guess it’s the name of the magazine, but the kicker has a byline. So maybe not.

There is a lot of great information on the different types of layout, but I’ll jump forward to photo layouts since that’s one of the things I am working on now. The before and after are dramatically different. And instead of just showing you the after, he shows how the layout came to be step-by-step. The progress photos are a great complement to the simplistic illustrations which I think are called wireframes. There are also tips a non-designer might not notice like overlaps add depth and a reminder to check for trapped space.

I like all the random tips scattered throughout the book that aren’t necessarily design, but a good designer probably would want to know. For example, in the advertising section the author has a tip on taking a color photo. The brief instructions are illustrated with backdrop placement, angle of lights, and camera position.

The book is great as a read or reference book. I can see myself referring to it for upcoming print projects. I will apply some of the design ideas to my web projects, though there isn’t a web layout demonstrated. I wish there were.

I’m a developer. I program. I make the html that makes the pretty pages. I figured that this book would help me come up with some designs (for those oftentimes rare moments that I’m given a design project). I’d impress the boss and get more design projects. It didn’t quite work out that way.

This book made me feel like I was in design class. A basic page and its “template” was defined, and then there were more examples that if you squint and shook your head, then you could see it fits that template. I don’t think it’s so black and white. If so, then they aren’t that fresh, are they?

If someone is stuck for design ideas, I’m not sure this book would necessarily help since it’s giving more templates. We’re trying to move away from looking like everyone else, right? But some ideas for colors did come from this book, so that’s good.

I enjoyed the idea of boiling down a lot of web designs into a few basic themes, templates, etc. but think that doing so might make it that much harder to break out of the box and be fresh. Or, if you’re like me, once you know the rules, you can break them more easily.

I also liked the little bit of a history lesson that came with this design class. It’s quite amazing what some people did with their websites back in the day, and quite amazing how not so far they have come.

Perhaps this book would be better for the true designer and not so much for the developer wanting to be a designer.

[edit 11/16/2004] Ok, this is interesting. After a few design classes, I like the book more. Still wish it broke it down stupid-style more like Before and After.

Jakob Nielsen is well known for his reports on usability and I really enjoyed his book “Homepage Usability.” I figured that this would be a more in-depth exploration of how to design with the user in mind. Most of the points were on the ball, and very common sense, but nice to see it in writing from someone else. The examples in “Designing Web Usability,” though ancient, fit well with the points.

I kept getting lost, in a way, because I kept getting distracted by the prehistoric examples and data. For example, what do I design for? 640? 770? What is in use today? 1997 was a long time ago in web years. I suppose it’s difficult to have a book with such current data in it, but I’m thinking it’s definitely time for a new version of this book.

There is also a tendency for redundancy. I suppose this is inevitable since whether you’re a search results page or an intranet site, you’re still dealing with the same topics of design.

I do like that even though this book is ancient, it touches on accessibility issues. So many places are only now thinking of that. I also like that testing is mentioned, though again, it is peppered with out-of-date technology which makes all the information seem invalid.

I think this book would be much stronger with new examples, updates here and there to technology and re-released. I think that that was one of the strengths of his other book, “Homepage Usability,” was the freshness of the examples and problems designers are facing. If, and when, there is a new and more concise version of this book, I will buy it.