Introduction to modern, human-centred web design Grundkurs gutes Webdesign (second edition)
"Grundkurs gutes Webdesign" (3rd edition) is an introductory book on web design – packed with information about design, User Experience, Accessibility and much more. It is only available in German language.
The "Grundkurs gutes Webdesign" has been a reliable companion for getting started with human-centered design of modern websites for many years. However, web design is never standing still, and a lot has changed since the second edition (2017). Therefore, with the help of Jürgen Wolf, I updated the book extensively in recent months. A big "Thank you" goes out to Jürgen for his advice, help, and expertise, to Rheinwerk for their extensive support, and to all the readers who have helped us with their feedback.
Table of contents
1. The right equipment: Introduction to web design, working in web design and the most important technologies
2. Foundations of good web design: Introductions to usability, user experience, accessibility, responsive web design, ethics as well as sustainability in web design, websites as living design systems
3. Conception & Design: Basics of strategic website conception and human-centered design, content strategy, presentation of numerous design and prototyping methods
4. Layout & Composition: Design laws, forms, design rules from research, basics of design in CSS, grid, flexbox and grid layout, layouts in responsive web design
5. Typography on the web: Anatomy of a font, categories of fonts, web safe fonts, web fonts, variable fonts, choosing the right font, texts in HTML and CSS, important font families, detail typography
6 Navigations & interactions: Usability and accessibility in interactive elements, design of links, buttons and navigations (also in responsive web design), forms, animations
7. Color on the web: Color theory, contrasts, associations and meanings of colors and color combinations, creating a color scheme (including dark mode), colors and gradients in CSS, usability and accessibility in color selection
8. Graphics, images & multimedia: design tips for choosing images and illustrations, image sources, image formats and optimizations for the web, images in HTML and CSS (of course including Responsive Images), icons, favicons, video & audio
9. Testing & Optimizing: Testing functionality and design, accessibility, usability and user experience, plus sections on performance optimization and testing the sustainability of a website
The book also includes access to bonus content in PDF format (including extensive introductions to HTML and CSS), numerous code examples, and recommendations for many other sources of information.
New in the third edition
The digital world is changing at an enormous pace - web design is no exception. The entire book has therefore been extensively revised: updated throughout and brought up to the latest technical and design standards, streamlined in some places, expanded in others. New additions include content on ethics and sustainability in web design, UX writing, dark mode, CSS custom properties (variables) and many recent CSS techniques.
Reading sample and impressions
At Rheinwerk there is a reading sample as PDF. Here are also some impressions from inside the book:
