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Books


 

 

Writing for the web

Letting Go of the Words book cover

Redish, J. (Ginny) (2012)
Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works - 2nd edition
The definitive book on writing for the web. If you only buy one book, make it this one.

Usability

Krug, S. (2000) Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Very successful, short and accurate. Highly recommended.

Jarrett, C., and Gaffney, G. (2008) Forms that work: Designing web forms for usability
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann ISBN: 978-1558607101
I co-authored this book on forms. It has a chapter on writing instructions for forms, and lots of ideas for how to improve the forms on your web site.

Document design

Felker, D. B., Pickering, F., Charrow, V. R., Holland, M., & Redish, J. C. (1981). Guidelines for document designers. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research
This key work brought together all the best research at the time. Each guideline is supported by an example and a discussion of the research that prompted it. Almost impossible to get hold of.

 

Schriver, K. A. (1997). Dynamics in document design. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 0-471-30636-3
A fascinating book that ranges through the history of document design, through the importance of good design, the role of typography and space, the interplay of words and pictures and testing. Full of practical insights, excellent research and comprehensively referenced.

 

Hartley, J. (1994). Designing instructional text. London: Kogan Page. ISBN: 0-7494-1037-X
Beautifully designed short book containing practical advice based on high-quality research. Now out of print, but you can usually find a second-hand copy.

 

Punctuation

Truss, L. (2003) Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation Publisher: Profile Books ISBN: 1861976127
An entertaining book of anecdotes about punctuation. Half the fun is finding the points where you disagree with her.

Style guides

Strunk, W.I and White, E.B., (1999) The Elements of Style Publisher: Longman ISBN: 020530902X
An elegantly short book that describes 'style' in terms of key principles. Now in its fourth edition.