Hello Web Design: Design Fundamentals and Shortcuts for Non-Designers

by Tracy Osborn, Jeremy Keith (Foreword)

Aimed at engineers, programmers, marketers, and other non-designers, Hello Web Design will teach you design principles and handy shortcuts so you can feel confident designing your homepage, side-project, future startup, your next presentation, and more.

Most design books assume you want to be a professional designer and start with deep dives into theory and history. Hello Web Design drops the theory in favor of shortcuts and tools you can use today to improve your design skills and get you on the road to learning more.

Part one of Hello Web Design walks you through the building blocks of design (the grid, colors, white space, and more) in compact, easy to read chapters with down-to-earth terms. Part two walks you though the design process, giving you an actionable plan to start doing design work yourself.

No nonsense, no fluff. Learn just enough design to feel comfortable doing your own design work today.

Listed as one of Shopify's must-read design books of 2017!
Hello Web Design, funded on Kickstarter, is a fantastic introduction to design fundamentals and shortcuts for non-designers. It teaches you the basics — design principles like typography and white space, as well as the process including prototyping and getting feedback — in easy-to-understand language, with plenty of real-world examples.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Technology, Web, Programming

168 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 7, 2017

Reviews

[Bhavy Khatri · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very short book, shortcut are good for noobs, but this can be pretty much summarized in a 2 blog post rather than writing a book. Several questions are unanswered like why we do things the way we do, rather than following some 10 commandments. I know the author has mentioned various time each of the complex topics like color theory is a full semester course but still it felt unfulfilled at the end reading the book. Trying to cover so many complex topic like UX is really challenging but still it looked like a book in draft version. Hope to see better editions in future.

[Renan Ivo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have some amount of experience with web development, but design always been something exoteric to me. It is good to know the basics and spot it in the websites I use (and develop) in a daily basis.

[Tareef Mando · Rating 5 out of 5]

اشتريت الكتاب بعد قراءتي لسلسلة تدوينات نشرتها المؤلفة.
سهل القراءة والفهم، يستعرض مبادئ عامة في التصميم، واختصارات لكيفية تطبيقها أو حتى الخروج عليها أحيانا.
مقارنة مع حجمه فهو مفيد للغاية، سيساعدك على تصميم واجهات أقل قبحًا :D

[Rayyan Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

boring

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow... as I start to prep my own web site for my consulting business... determined to do it largely on my own, Ms. Osborn's 2021 book is the best reference book and guide that I have discovered so far. It's very much a book to keep on the shelf, right near your computer layout. As the title, and the subtitle suggest, it's written for people who did not come up through the coding and application mines, to bring their web site(s) to the surface. She clearly explains the essentials of type, of color, and most of all layout. In a lean 125+ pages, there is more practical info here, than in two other 400+ books/doorstops I read about WordPress, web design, Photoshop, etc. Ms. Osborn, to her credit, follows her own design rules, and the book is nicely laid out, well organized and illustrated with designs. I will check out her other relevant books, many of them published by No Starch Press. (Rating: 4.4-4.8/5.0 stars.)

[Damien Peden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very simple yet detailed introduction

I purchased this book after hearing about it on a podcast and I've already recommended it to a couple of friends. I was able to read it in less than a day which was great as I can often start books and not finish them. I've been a designer and developer for over 10 years, yet I loved a lot of the smaller nuggets I was able to pull out of this. It's hard to find quality and up to date information on this kind of thing. Great read.

[Julius · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fabulous little book for a design noob like me.

A little bit dated (e.g. no mention of figma, but some of sketch & balsamic, no mention of tailwind, but a lot of bootstrap), but despite not being up to date it captures the core aspects of what's important, does not go deep into the details, but provides references and pointers on where to seek them.

Would be 5 stars if it was republished more recently.

[Cory Fitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book that covers a lot of topics in a very short book. Main downsides are that even though it came out in 2021 it can feel a bit dated since it mentions CSS frameworks like Bootstrap but doesn't mention Tailwind and also no mention of Figma. Also, the image of the widget on page 8 is clearly meant to be the one shown on page 15 (at least in my edition - hopefully that gets corrected in future editions).

[Daw-Ran Liou · Rating 4 out of 5]

THE 80/20 rules for web design!

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Concise and nice intro for non-designers!

[Tom Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet

A fantastic guide to learning the basics of web design with many helpful tips and tricks. I've never bookmarked so many pages!

[Bagus Santoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great introduction to web design practically to a programmer who "doesn't like" to design.

[Lachlan Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fantastic intro to some of the key concepts in web design. From here I feel better equipped to make design decisions and create nicer looking and more functional websites.

[Claire Wrobel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read with great resources and advice

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

An okay book on some good web design practices.

I got a few ideas from reading this book, and would recommend investigating if you are a frontend developer.

3.8/5

[Roman Protsiuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good starting point.

[Tadas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed it , with some good practical examples, I’d say it’s pretty good for beginners getting into web design.

[Ahmed Sayed · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have previous experience in graphic design, I am familiar with these principles. This book is too long for its content. You can read it when you feel boring.