Review: The Smashing Book #2

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[IMAGE: https://blog.omgmog.net/images/2011-02/cover-crop.jpg]

The Smashing Book #2 is a book about web design and development from the folks
over at smashingmagazine.com (http://www.smashingmagazine.com). As the name
implies, it’s their second Smashing Book.

When the first Smashing Book was released in 2009, I jumped to the chance of
buying a copy. I’ve always been a fan of Smashing Magazine, and figured Smashing
Magazine in print form couldn’t be a bad thing
(and it would be a nice book for reading on my bus commute to/from work each day).

The first book talked a lot about coding best practice, usability and
optimisation but was riddled with issues, from layout/editing issues
(the justified text was unbearable, and it had numerous mistakes), to issues
with the binding and over-all quality. On their end of the release I believe
Smashing Magazine also had production delays too.

[IMAGE: https://blog.omgmog.net/images/2011-02/oldandnew.jpg]

The second book is cut from a different cloth in terms of production quality,
and article subjects, this time talking more about the philosophies of graphical
design, user experience, user behaviour and typography (amongst other topics).

The issues of the first book are now gone, with a lot more time gone into
editing/layout, and now contained in hard backing, the book feels like it’s a
lot higher quality.

At the start of each section there are illustrations by Yiying Lu
(http://yiyinglu.com/) (the creator of the Twitter “fail whale” illustration),
which provide a good graphical representation of the subject of each section.

[IMAGE: https://blog.omgmog.net/images/2011-02/sectionartwork.jpg]

This book is less code-heavy than the first, but features a lot of good quality
reading material. Page layouts seem a lot nicer and the articles contain
colourful screenshots and representations of what is being discussed, which do a
good job of breaking the pages up - though from time to time you will find
yourself facing a wall of text, which makes it not ideal for commute-reading in
chunks.

[IMAGE: https://blog.omgmog.net/images/2011-02/articles.jpg]

Overall I would say this is a much better book than the first Smashing Book.
It’s a steal at the same price as the first, and a great resource for any web
designer to have on their desk or book shelf.

I look forward to the next Smashing Book when/if it’s released and I hope that
Smashing Magazine consider re-releasing their first Smashing Book as a hardback
second edition.

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Published February 16, 2011

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Max Glenister is an interface designer and senior full-stack developer from
Oxfordshire. He writes mostly about front-end development and technology.

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