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Review categories > Website Design Books > Creating Dynamic Websites
By: Charley Morris Review for 'Creating Dynamic Websites'
Rating: 3 of out 6
Written By: Scott Fisher
Page Count: 350
Cover Type: Softcover
Published By: Addison Wesley
Date Published: 01/1997
List Price: $24.95
Author's Site: http://www.webdevelopersjourna...
Creating Dynamic
Web Sites is an overview of several types of multimedia,
with the Web in mind. It covers graphics, animation, 3D,
audio and video. Some may find the title misleading, as
most folks use the term "dynamic Web site" to describe
a site that generates pages on the fly from a database,
as opposed to a "flat" site of static HTML pages. This
book has nothing to do with that kind of stuff - it's
just about multimedia.
Chapters include:
- Interacting with Graphics - design principles,
photography, scanning, image maps, converting images.
- Three Dimensions
- Digital Video for the Web
- Interacting with Animation - discusses Java,
Shockwave, animated GIFs, Director.
- Interacting with Story - Explains the elements
that make up a story.
- Web Sound
- Interacting with Human Beings - discusses user
interface design.
- Test Cases - includes a brief section on CGI.
Creating Dynamic Web Sites is heavy on theory
and short on nuts and bolts. The section on graphics
covers a lot of ground, including photo composition and
design, setting up shots and lighting, scanning, use of
editing software and more. There's good information
here, but there's not a lot that's specific to the
Internet.
The rest of the book is similar - plenty of
left-brain general design principles, but not much in
the way of code or hands-on tutorial material. The cover
boasts of "Java applets, Shockwave movies and CGI
scripts," but there ain't enough code in this book to
add 2 and 2. HTML examples are thin on the ground, much
less CGI scripts or Java. There's no CD, either. A links
section at the back lists a dozen or so resources,
including real finds like microsoft.com and
altavista.com.
Not that this is a bad book. Plenty of Web designers
could stand to think a little more about aesthetic
principles and less about tapping in code. If you're
looking for a good solid overview of the different types
of multimedia and how they fit into the Internet world,
Creating Dynamic Web Sites might be a good choice. If
you're looking for meat and potatoes Web design stuff,
though, I'd look elsewhere.
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