The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher

A wonderful book. Every designer should own a copy. This book is a golden treasury of design ideas, anecdotes, interesting facts and fantastic images. This is a book to reach for when you're short on inspiration. A few minutes (or hours - it's difficult to put down) later, you will feel refreshed and ready for any design challenge.

The book is best described by its author: "This book attempts to open windows to glimpse views rather than dissect the pictures on the wall. To look at things from unlikely angles. References to sources are occasionally provided to keep you going. The book has no thesis, is neither a whodunnit nor a how-to-do-it, has no beginning, middle or end. It's a journey without a destination."

Buy it and cherish it, The Art of Looking Sideways is available from Amazon.co.uk and is an absolute bargain at just £17.46

Lingua Universalis: Global Wordless Understanding by Paravicini, Plass, Klanten (Editor)

Lingua Universalis is a collection of recent work by the German graphic design house Mutabor. Their work is exemplary and German to the core. The book contains hundreds of pictograms, all of which are instantly understandable. It is breathtaking how much complex information they are able to convey by the simplest of graphics. Their illustrative artwork isn't bad either. Although not produced specifically for web designers, the content of this book provides an object lesson in the use of graphic illustration as an aid to communication and navigation. This is a beautiful book and an essential reference for all designers.

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is available from Amazon.co.uk at £19.99

Weaving the Web: Origins and Future of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee

The first thing to say about this book is that it is essential reading for every student on the Website Architecture programme. The second thing to say is that it is not the most readable of books. The content, however, more than justifies the effort.

Essentially, the book gives a first-hand account of the development of the web. The first half (or so) focusses on the work done while Tim Berners-Lee was at CERN and developments shortly after that, including the setting up of the W3C. This is essentially an interesting history lesson and it constantly amazed me how recent were the events he describes. The latter part of the book covers Berners-Lee's thoughts on the current state of the web (this book was published in 2000 and is already showing its age) and his hopes for the future. A lot of this latter part is very interesting and looks at the impact of the web on society and politics; it also postulates what he refers to as the "semantic web". If he is right, the future of the web could be amazing.

Weaving the Web is available from Amazon.co.uk at £6.39

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville

If you need to know about Information Architecture, this book has just about everything. The book assumes no prior knowledge of this area and begins with a definition of Information Architecture. Actually, there are 4 of them, take your pick. The second definition seems to be the most widely applicable; "The structural design of an information space to facilitate task completion and intuitive access to content".

Although the book gives you the hard detail, it is also very readable. It's written in a very easy style and the authors are always careful to point out that theirs isn't the only view on this subject. The book is, in fact, a comprehensive and well balanced primer and reference to this relatively new area of study. This second edition of the book is almost completely rewritten and there is very little flab on any of its 460 pages.

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web is available from Amazon.co.uk at £19.95

Max Hits: Building Successful Websites by Mike Slocombe

Mike Slocombe's book is unusual in that it attempts to do two different things and on the whole it succeeds. At first glance, this is a “showcase” book, full of colour illustrations of stylish (and not so stylish) web sites but as we all know, looks can be deceptive. The book actually gives the reader a concise but accurate overview of the whole web design process. Chapter headings include, “Planning and Building a Site”, “Designing the Site”, “File Structure and Navigation”, “Creating Web Graphics” and “Marketing and Promoting your Site”. The content is great with lots of good examples but it should not be considered a “how-to” book. There is a one-page HTML tutorial but the intent is only to give the reader an overview of the nature of HTML rather than teach its use. As such, this book is a bit of a luxury but at each stage, it offers the reader an excellent selection of on-line resources. The chapter on site promotion is also worthy of note. If you decide not to buy the book, don't miss the excellent companion site which provides a wealth of information and links on web design.

Max Hits is available from Amazon.co.uk at £13.99

Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

Although not specifically web related, Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte is an excellent book that gives the reader a guided tour of the many ways that information can be presented and the various parameters and influences that can change the way that information is received by the viewer. The sections on “layering and separation” and “colour and information” cover the key issues involved in the communication of complex ideas and statistics. The section entitled “Escaping Flatland” is an excellent introduction to the representation of three dimensional data in two dimensions. This is important because although the web has the potential to be used as a 3D medium, commonly it is not. This is a book to be inspired by rather than a reference to be kept under your pillow but it should definitely be read.

Envisioning Information is available from Amazon.co.uk at £30.00

Dreamweaver MX 2004 Bible by Joseph Lowery

While this book is perhaps not designed for the absolute beginner, it does cover a lot of basic topics. It is very well written, clear and logical. Many topics are covered in great detail. It is not a tutorial book as such but provides a superb reference. It's a book you can dip into when you need specific advice or information. The book is in seven parts and only the first part is concerned with an introduction to the software. Other parts include, Dynamic HTML, Dynamic Data and Website Management and of course, all the basic page layout stuff is also covered. This book is probably the best single volume reference for those working with Dreamweaver MX.

Dreamweaver MX 2004 Bible is available as a digital download at Amazon.co.uk for £32.70

The Web Design Wow! Book: Showcasing the Best of On-screen Communication by Jack Davis and Susan Merritt

This is another “showcase” book with a little more to it than most. The first part of the book is concerned with the process of design and the production process. Chapter 3, for example offers Five Design Reminders” and considers the importance of Clarity, Consistency, Contrast, keeping the site Uncluttered and the use of Narrative.

The second part of the book looks at how web sites in various sectors have achieved their design aims (or not). Chapters covering Entertainment, Education and Training, Publishing and Sales are included. Each site is considered in detail and topics covered include, page layout, navigation and software. The book is very well illustrated in full colour. The illustrations are used intelligently to enhance the text and have informative captions.

The Web Design Wow! Book is available from Amazon.co.uk at £22.24