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A series from this column, Menus
with Beauty and Brains, spawned my book, Web
Menus with Beauty and Brains, published by Hungry
Minds.
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In earlier columns, I have mentioned that the series, Menus
with Beauty and Brains, born right here, has grown to a book. Now
you can take a peek at the Table of Contents, and read a sample chapter
from the book. I'm especially proud to be featuring this article at
the same time that Amazon.com will be featuring Web Menus with Beauty
and Brains in a special promotion for graphic design customers.
The focus on Web menus for the columns, and then the book, is a direct
result of requests from my readers. Many of you have written to me over
my time at WebReference, asking for easy-to-follow directions to create
effective menus. I originally sat down to write one article to answer
all the questions. One article grew to two, and then to three. By the
time the third article was done, I had only touched on the basics for
creating effective menus.
Web Menus with Beauty and Brains is designed to be a primer for creating
effective site menus. I pulled apart and documented the entire process
I use, from initial client contact, through to a fully functional site.
This book starts well before most instructions on menus, with identifying
site goals and purpose, products and visitor groups. This stage of the
process is closer to marketing than Web design training, but it is the
foundation for every successful site. Worksheets are included to help
you define what you require for your site.
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Menus of all types are covered in Web Menus with Beauty
and Brains, including menus for wireless devices.
Browser display differences are highlighted through
the book.
Customized forms for page consistency and ... well,
fun.
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You then move to creating a site map and producing the comprehensive
proofs (comps) for your site. Should you do text or graphic menus? There
are sections devoted to each, and a full discussion, with examples,
of the strengths and weaknesses for each choice. Typography, CSS and
SSI are featured for text, and there is a section devoted to designing
menus to be used by wireless devices.
Graphically speaking, get ready for some basic design principles. I
picked my way through many classic design topics, choosing the most
relevant issues for creating balanced and beautiful Web pages. Topics
include balance and contrast as well as the power of color, with the
overall focus on directing your visitors to the information they seek.
Optimizing images and accessibility are featured, as is liquid design.
Tiny type even makes an appearance in the graphic section.
Finally, we get to the action stage, where you will find rollovers,
image maps, Flash and DHTML. The book features discussions on implementation
and testing, as well as browser oddities. I have devoted a full chapter
to pulling everything together, and another to automating your construction
process. Finally, even common sense Wendy plays occasionally, and there
is some fun stuff.
I wrote this book as a practical guide to creating menus, not as a
discussion about usability or theory on the Web. There are many excellent
books with that focus on the market. Instead, this book is the one that
provides the "meat and potatoes" map to build a successful
navigation system for any site.
It was a tough book to write. In the initial planning stages, I mentioned
to my editor that I was surprised this book had never been written.
Halfway through the book, I claimed that I knew exactly why the book
had not been written: all the other authors are smarter than me. I said
that only partly in jest. Every chapter or two I was switching to an
entirely different focus. That's a lot of direction change for one brain.
However, that is exactly why navigation can be tough. Although a completed
menu may look very simple, the number of topics that must be considered
to create that menu can be overwhelming. Now that the work of the book
is done, and the challenge is past, I am very pleased with the end result.
I judge my own writing by how much that topic would have helped me when
I was starting to learn about Web design. This one would have shot me
ahead immeasurably.
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