Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Designing on a Moving Surface
In this chapter, the focus is on expressing current challenges faced by visual designers and the contemporary solutions they can rely on to:
* Better understand the designer's role within the Web team
* Find inspiration outside of contemporary software and technology approaches
* Reinvigorate passion for design by understanding that the Web medium is different than print

Chapter Two: Visualizing Code
Here, the designer won't learn to write code, rather experience through existing visual designs how code can be represented. This is done using 3d emulations of code structures, and using markup guides to create structural models.
* Visualizing general structures in contemporary Web design
* Working with navigation design
* Creating common interface elements
* Designing visual tables
* Artful forms

Chapter Three: Design Workflow
Building on the more elemental techniques described in Chapter Two, the designer will learn how to create visual maps of a site using markup guides, building wireframes, creating sprites and maximizing the workflow process with a balance of both traditional and progressive techniques. Readers will learn:
* How to create markup guides
* Why and how to build effective wireframes
* Creating and using sprites to increase workflow productivity

Chapter Four: Progressive Enhancement
Now that the designer is thinking about Web design in a visual manner, he or she is ready to progress beyond the conventional needs of an agency or company. This chapter provides inspiration for going beyond the limitations of contemporary Web browsers and the desktop, and encourages designers to constantly seek new ways of expressing design without the constraints of technology.

Appendix I: Recommended resources for continued success
While many books have a resource guide, most of them list resources by technical topic. This appendix will include hand-picked, annotated resources of specific interest to the visual designer.