10 Books Every Web Designer Has to Read

You should never stop learning if you want to be an expert in your field. This is true if you are a web designer as much as it is if you are a pilot or a theoretical physicist. The 10 books I collected in this post have been deemed as a fund of knowledge by most web designers I know, newbies and professionals.

Responsive Web Design

by Ethan Marcotte

A must read on responsive design. An easy to read book aimed for those who already know how to create websites, thus it has lots and lots of valuable information.

Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS3

by Ben Frain

A very good book to get you started on responsive design. The focus here is on the most useful elements of HTML5 and CSS3. If you know little to nothing about those two this book is absolute must-read for you. A great way to learn more about basics of responsive web design as well as both HTML5 and CSS3, all at the same time.

Responsive Design with WordPress

by Joe Casabona

If you want to create responsive themes and plugins for WordPress but don't know where to start from - you need to read this one. It's easy to read and the content is solid.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

by Jason Beaird

This is a great starting point for those who would like to go over the web design fundamentals. It's to the point and very much straightforward, covers every step of creating a good design, starting with choosing colors and typography.

Don't Make Me Think (Revisited 2014)

by Steve Krug

If you haven't read it yet, you've probably at least heard about it. This is considered a usability bible by many a designer. you'll get to know about content layout, how users read pages and what navigation options are effective. You'll learn how to look at your designs the way your users will. A very helpful skill.

The Elements of Typographic Style: Version 4.0

by Robert Bringhurst

This is a great style guide for everyone involved in any form of graphic design. A must read really, considering the immense importance of font selection in the todays world of flat designs.

Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS

by Dan Cederholm

What are the key components of any successful web design? Those are flexibility, readability, and user control. From this book you'll learn how to create these with XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets.

More to read:

• Design Snippets to Wow Your Website Visitors
• 13 Essential CSS Tutorials For Your Web Dev Toolkit
• Essential CSS Snippets
• Advanced Web Tech To Enhance Your Visitor's User Experience

CSS3: The Missing Manual

by David Sawyer McFarland

A very detailed book on everything you need to know to be an expert in CSS. It is a refer-to book for many designers I know.

Head First Web Design

by Ethan Watrall and Jeff Siarto

This is a great book to read if you want to know how to create beautiful pages that communicate your message in the most effective way and don't miss on accessibility and usability.

HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites

by Jon Duckett

A very popular book among novice web designers and people who just want to make their personal blogs more up-to-date. The technical stuff here is described in very easy to understand manner. You can read it from cover to cover or just hop to the subject you are interested at a time, which makes it a great refer-to material.

So, have you read any of these books? Can you recommend some more? Do share in the comments below.