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Jeffrey Zeldman
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Designing With Web Standards 3rd Edition

by Jeffrey Zeldman (Author), Ethan Marcotte (Author)
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Discusses how to use Web standards to create sophisticated Web sites efficiently, covering topics such as quality assurance, functionality, and accessibility guidelines.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0321616952
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0321616951
  3. Edition
    3rd
  4. Publisher
    New Riders Pub
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 2009
  6. Part of series
    Voices That Matter
  7. Language
    English
  8. Dimensions
    7 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  9. Print length
    411 pages
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Dubbed King of Web Standards by Business Week, Jeffrey Zeldman (zeldman.com) was one of the web’s first designers and bloggers. He publishes A List Apart “for people who make websites;” runs Happy Cog™, a leading web design studio; and co-founded An Event Apart, The Deck, and The Web Standards Project.

Versatile user experience designer/developer Ethan Marcotte served as a steering committee member of The Web Standards Project, and has worked with clients including New York Magazine, Harvard University, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Books to which he has contributed include Handcrafted CSS, Web Standards Creativity, and Professional CSS. Ethan writes and does technical editing at A List Apart, and is a popular educator and conference speaker. He would like to be an unstoppable robot ninja when he grows up (unstoppablerobotninja.com).

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ New Riders Pub; 3rd edition (January 1, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 411 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0321616952
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0321616951
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.7 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:

About the author

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Jeffrey Zeldman

Jeffrey Zeldman

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Jeffrey Zeldman is among the best-known web designers in the world. In 1998, he co-founded The Web Standards Project, a grassroots coalition of web designers and developers that helped end the Browser Wars and promote interoperable, accessible UX by persuading Microsoft and Netscape to support the same technology in their browsers. Jeffrey founded and publishes A List Apart (since 1998), the design magazine “for people who make websites;” co-founded An Event Apart front-end design conference (2005–2019); and has published over 50 titles — including “Responsive Web Design,” “Just Enough Research,” “Design For Real Life,” and “Design is a Job” — through A Book Apart, a small press he co-founded in 2010. His book, “Designing With Web Standards,” now in its 3rd Edition, has been translated into 15 languages and is considered a classic in the field. Jeffrey was a founding faculty member of the MFA Interaction Design program at School of Visual Arts, and is the founder emeritus and former creative director of Happy Cog, a digital design studio in NYC, where he lives with his daughter and two cats.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
51 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book very informative and clear, with simple language that outlines best practices from the perspective of coding. They also appreciate the book's non-step-by-step tutorial and best practices.

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9 customers mention "Content"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book very informative.

"...But if you're interested in an informative, research/fact-based book, with a personal writing style, that will transform the way you think about the..." Read more

"...I'll admit I lost interest about 3/4 way through. Early sections are a very interesting read if you're looking for a history lesson on the evolution..." Read more

"...Well, he's published his third edition, and it is as insightful as the first...." Read more

"...best practices from the perspective of coding, but it delivers lots of insight and includes chapters on dealing with clients and more...." Read more

8 customers mention "Writing style"7 positive1 negative

Customers find the writing style clear, simple, and readable by programmers. They also say the included code is succinct and useful.

"...core preaching about the value of modern standards, the included code is succinct and useful...." Read more

"...interested in an informative, research/fact-based book, with a personal writing style, that will transform the way you think about the web, help you..." Read more

"...The book uses simple language, is not code-heavy, and is readable by programmers and non-programmers." Read more

"...This book not only outlines best practices from the perspective of coding, but it delivers lots of insight and includes chapters on dealing with..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Gary E. Albers
5.0 out of 5 stars Still a classic!
Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2011
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There have undoubtably been enough useful reviews of this book already written to enable anyone interested to form an accurate assessment of its contents. Some reviewers have rated it poorly because it was not the comprehensive CSS instruction book they expected. Perhaps they were misled, in part, by some of the five-star reviews that were a bit over-zealous in their praise of it as a book about CSS. With that in mind, I'm hoping another short review will help clear up some of these misunderstandings.

First, the book is NOT a comprehensive treatment of (X)HTML or CSS. It is, however, perhaps the best book around about WHY web standards are important and how they can be utilized to produce semantic markup properly separated from presentational styling, improve code weight, increase accessibility, and deal with cross-browser incompatibilities. Toward this end, Zeldman uses enough good code examples to get his message across. Although it is true that a large portion of the book is dedicated to hard-core preaching about the value of modern standards, the included code is succinct and useful. In particular, his dissection of an actual well-designed website in the last chapter is a gold mine of valuable information.

Zeldman has been at the forefront of the effort to evangelize web standards for many years. He and others (e.g., Cederholm, Marcotte, Moll, Budd, etc.) deserve much of the credit for informing designers about the advantages of standards-based design techniques and getting browser manufacturers to shift from their history of internecine warfare toward endorsing common standards. That has not been an easy task. I suggest that we should all cut Zeldman a little slack if he seems at times to be a bit too passionate. It has always required passion to kick money-lenders out of the temples!

Finally, although this is not a primary text on HTML and CSS (of which there are many), it would undoubtably be of value for any aspiring website designer to have on the shelf next to the main text. I suggest this is especially true considering the recent "victory" of HTML5 over the (X)HTML path. In attempting to respond to the constraints of the real world, HTML5 allows much "sloppy" markup to survive. The need for better discipline in the world of website design will be with us for some time to come. Hopefully Zeldman's book will continue to steer designers in the right direction.
9 people found this helpful
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Dave W.
5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative; not a step-by-step tutorial
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2009
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I would highly recommend this book to anyone in the web design field. A little basic HTML & CSS knowledge would be helpful, but you can do without. I've been designing websites for 4 years, trying to keep up with standards, and there is still much I learned from this book. It has changed the way I code.

He provides very solid arguments why to design with standards; he outlines the benefits; he explains his reasoning to both designers & managers/CEOs. He doesn't tell you there is one way all sites should be designed. Rather, he explains the specifications they should meet, and why you should meet them. He provides several options/techniques on working with browser compatibility.

If you're looking for a tutorial book that blows your mind with crazy-awesome techniques, look elsewhere. But if you're interested in an informative, research/fact-based book, with a personal writing style, that will transform the way you think about the web, help you create accessible, compatible sites for your clients, then you need to read this. And I sincerely hope you are interested.
2 people found this helpful
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Richard Fink
5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading
Reviewed in the United States on November 25, 2009
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As used by Jeffrey Zeldman and co-author Ethan Marcotte in the third edition of Designing With Web Standards, the term "web standards" is a catchphrase that refers to writing web pages using, as a basis, a group of free and open technical specifications. The core specs being HTML, CSS, and Java­Script. Think of them as the three legs of a tripod upon which all else rests.
In no way futuristic, this has already happened. HTML, CSS, and Java­Script are at the heart of publishing in the 21st century. DWWS3 is largely about authoring with these and other related specs in smart and efficient ways that could, more simply and accurately, be labeled best practice. The first edition of DWWS in 2003 was in large part a work of advocacy. But six Internet years have passed and today it's main­stream. As I've labeled it on my blog, Readable Web - [...], the third edition is, simply, Required Reading.
8 people found this helpful
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Brian Edwards
4.0 out of 5 stars Good but
Reviewed in the United States on November 30, 2009
Overall good but I question the intended audience of this book. It seems to be directed at people who already know a lot about web design but then goes on to explain the basics. It glosses over a lot of the important issues and seems to ramble on and on about the trivial. The book doesn't really get started until part II. Part 1 could be 1/3 the current size if it didn't repeat itself every few paragraphs. I do like the philosophical/theory type of talk that Zeldman delves into but it just needs to be tightened up. Maybe in the 4th edition?

Anyway, part II is where the book really shines. He explains a lot directly and indirectly by which I mean he selects examples that give you specific code but that also give insight into comprehensive design decisions even when doesn't directly address them. Chapter 17 is a perfect example of this. It makes you really ponder your design decisions.

All criticism aside, I ordered the companion book "Developing with web standards" because I like Zeldman's third edition so much.
4 people found this helpful
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dbbldz
3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting history lesson, but pretty outdated
Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2019
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Many of the examples are outdated. I'll admit I lost interest about 3/4 way through. Early sections are a very interesting read if you're looking for a history lesson on the evolution of the html spec and use of semantic html, but if you're just starting out and looking to learn some current best practices this book isn't skippable.
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Top reviews from other countries

bart
5.0 out of 5 stars very good book!
Reviewed in Germany on July 9, 2012
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Very good book on web development and standards and how not to implement web sites. I learned a lot out of this book.
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Eden
5.0 out of 5 stars A must have
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 11, 2010
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This is absolutely a must have if you are a web developer. No matter if you are designer or programmer or both, you really need to learn the basics about standards and this book really explains and makes it easy to understand and learn.
2 people found this helpful
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sekti92
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2018
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good book to know about web standards
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daihuws
3.0 out of 5 stars Good, entertaining read, but mostly outlines general principles that you're probably aware of.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 24, 2013
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This is a very influential book in the history of web development, and is something of a classic of the fledgeling genre; Zeldman writes in an enthusiastic, engaging style which makes it a pleasure to read, something that cannot be said of the majority of computer books.

That said, I'm not sure that it is the must-read text that it once was, for two main reasons: (a) we are now lucky enough to live in an era where the current versions of all the major browsers are highly standards compliant, and as such doing anything other than coding websites according to the common standards sounds like a hopelessly quaint idea, and (b) if you take an active interest in web development - if you read blogs, listen to podcasts and follow leading developers on Twitter - you'll probably have assimilated many of the ideas presented here through osmosis.

I've very much enjoyed reading it, but it's mostly served to reinforce beliefs about the right way of building websites that I already had. Probably the person who will gain most from reading this is someone who is coming to web development for the first time, or someone who used to have a GeoCities site in the nineties and wants to bring their skills up to date.
2 people found this helpful
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