If you’re the sort of person who follows developments in standards compliant design, chances are you’ll be familiar with the work of Dan Cederholm of SimpleBits.com. Even if you’re not familiar with the name, you may recognize his work on the standards compliant redesigns of FastCompany and Inc.com, and his recent article for A List Apart. Over the past few months I’ve had the pleasure of working with Dan myself – I’ve been the Technical Reviewer for Dan’s new book.
Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook is a real solutions-orientated guide to using standards-based techniques in your daily work. Dan doesn’t just suggest what you should be doing when developing a site, but rather goes on to explain how to do it in real, honest and practical terms. The format of the book takes its linage from the SimpleQuiz features Dan runs on his site. That’s to say that each chapter starts of by posing a problem or design issue, discusses different options and then goes on to recommend a set of practical solutions to fit different circumstances.
As the technical reviewer, I shouldn’t be learning anything new from reading and editing Dan’s chapters. I should know the technical aspects of every topic discussed inside-out. But what I have learned from Web Standards Solutions is the real-world implications of all that boring technical knowledge. Dan has got me thinking in new ways about how to use the technology I already know about. And if I didn’t know, all the basics are in there too. And that’s what makes this a fantastic book.
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