If you are the owner of a web site, and seriously interested in making it achieve tangible results for your business, I can almost guarantee that you will find at least one idea to implement from each of the 10 Chapters in this book. Even if you have entrusted your site design to a graphic designer, “Save the Pixel” will give you the ability to get the best possible value from your expenditure on your site design.

I have long espoused the need to make your web presence achieve real and valid marketing or business development targets. The New Year, or maybe the global downturn, has prompted a spate of site reviews.

After about 2 weeks of planning and implementing design changes on several sites I realised that I had embarked on these reviews with only a general objective of “updating” and “modernising” the sites. Whilst I felt that I was probably achieving this generic target, I wanted to do a bit better than feeling good about what I had achieved.

This is where “Save the Pixel” by Ben Hunt comes in. Having an hour to kill at my hairdresser this afternoon, I invested that time in reading this eBook. After the third “aha”, I knew that this was a resource which needed to be shared.

What I really liked about Ben’s approach to the subject of design is his liberal use of “before and after” case studies. These examples are always directly relevant to the aspect of design or layout covered by the chapter. The examples generally make it easy to both understand the point being made, and form a view on its relevance to your site.

Now I’m not saying that I agree with every point made by Ben, but even where I have an alternative view, this book made me stop and reassess my own views.

Here is the Preface to the book…

The Art of Simple Web Design

The essence of the “Save the Pixel” philosophy; web design disciplines, including “Enough and no more”, Occam’s Razor, “Design the Content — not the box”, and “Think-then-do”.

1. Why are we here?

Knowing your own purpose; tips to get simple, realistic, specific goals; applying “Think-then-do” to goals.

2. Make a site for its visitors

Your visitors are your friends! Clarify who’s going to use your web site, what they want, and what signs will check the little boxes in their heads; Affirming positives.

3. Spread the smell of success

How to retain visitors’ trust and achieve the site’s goals by moving visitors smoothly towards their own goals; Win-win solutions.

4. The simple shall inherit the world wide web

How simplicity is good for everyone — and good business sense; the power of conventions; when to break conventions; be smart, not clever.

5. Getability and the brand

How to make every page on your web site instantly understandable; How to develop a brand for the web.

6. Layout

The first goal of layout is great getability; understanding and assigning screen real estate; columns; cascade; ownership & containment; focal point.

7. Navigation

Navigation helps people know where they are, where they can go, and gives them the means to get there easily; what mechanisms to use; what options to show; labelling navigation options; ordering your options.

8. Noticeability

How to manage the visitor’s attention to help them stay on the site and find what they want; how to use size, contrast, boldness, colour, space, illusion of 3D, and movement to manage the eye and draw attention to the most relevant elements; how noticeability changes down the page; ignorability.

9. Give me space

The vital importance of space in noticeability; how to get the right balance; the golden rule of spacing; space should be relative to size; why space is better than pixels.

10. Design your content

Great web page design keeps the focus on meaningful content, not on the background that’s common to every page; tips for writing better text and using imagery effectively.

You can buy a copy of Save the Pixel – I’m sure you won’t be disappointed.

Tags: case study, design disciplines, ebook, site design