Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

yes it is.

Cool! :)

Sounds very interesting!

I’m there!
Let’s rock and roll…

Nice idea, definitely going to purchase it!

I am definitely buying it!

So if the readers suggest the content, pick a cover design, choose the layout, and promote it too… what do you do ?

[Comment by SM]: Well, we are writing the content and we take care of the publishing costs and of the layout costs. Please read the post one more time!

really good idea ! come on !

Can’t wait for it to come out!

Cool! I can not wait for it to come out!

SM Rulez!

I can’t wait to read the book. I am only going to suggest the content part because that will be the main reason people will want it.

1. Suggest The Book Content
I am going to start out with aesthetics to design, an intro on what people should look for and realizing that overdoing it may kill their design. Next speak about markup languages so css2 with css3 on the horizon. Do not forget to mention multiple browser testing. Speak about social marketing and it’s impact on design.

I will probably add more to this later but I think that’s a good start for a few chapters.

Thanks

You guys should write about simplicity vs. eye-candy

simplicity for example would be this blog, and eye-candy would be anything in Area01 group in DeviantArt (GUIs)

Could it be free … ?? :D

Accessibility, Semantics, Design and Usability studies…

WE ARE GONNA DO THIS

I’d like to see some raw numbers in the book on usability tests, present recent research findings, etc. Too many folks preach best practices (do this, not that) and never back it up with data or even state the underlying principles.

Considering web and print media are primarily mutually exclusive it will be interesting to follow this project. I look forward to becoming a part of — and contributing to — this project.

Lets see what I can do, but still GOOD LUCK CHUCK ! =)

List out the preferred tools for different types of websites and what’s good about each one.

CMS – what are the different ones. What’s most popular.
Frameworks – Use what and where.
XHTML – Do’s and Don’t
Browsers – Hacks and known bugs. What browser supports what. (will IE8 support css3?)
Code examples – standardized code that most sites use
CSS examples – best practices. New popular tools
Website Security – Doesn’t and don’t.
Mobile/iphone world – best practices on building for this market

sorry, guess I just typed up my dream reference book. lol. Wish you guys the best of luck. Are you going to sell a PDF or eBook version?

this will be a huge sales when it release…

Here’s a suggestion:

You will obviously feature links in your book. MAke sure all those links point to your site. Usually, samples need to be updated, so you can always change the content of the pages the links point to, even add new comments, or allow people to discuss chapters online. Make your book kinda social.

Just a thought.

real cool!

Good idea…

But why do we need a printed book ?, when we have this grate internet and so
many web sites to read/learn about these…

Whats the point?

Oh! Btw, The right end of this commenting text area is overlapped by the shadow at the right side. So I can not see about 10 characters I type to the right side. I’m on firefox!

Let’s hope this post will have 6000 comments also. :) Nothing free, but lets help out. See you on the forum

cool cool cool
lets go!

hi SM,
This is awesome, Some of my thoughts are:
1. Usability
2. Making and Success of SM
3. Prof. How to… and
4.Ultimate Designs

All the best… :)

Hmm, I’ll buy it for sure! :-)

You want us to suggest topic, design etc, and smashingmagazine.com get the revenue?
Come on, that’s is f****.

[Comment by SM]: You are wrong and you have probably misunderstood what we’ve written, please read the post carefully! We are asking readers what they want to have in the book. We haven’t written that our readers should write the book for us; and we are going to pay our contributors. Please read the post one more time! Please notice that all authors of SM are getting paid and please also notice that producing a book costs a lot of money.

I love the Smashing Magazine website. Visit it pretty much ever day, and think that all of the articles are incredibly helpful, and in general, of a very high standard.

However, I can’t help but think that a book is slightly unnecessary. The world of web design and development moves on so quickly, that by the time a book is printed and published, its inevitably out of date. Also, a book covering all of the important aspects of design/development would be about 10,000 pages long!

You guys have the perfect mouthpiece here on this website to reach your audience. So for me this seems to be all about the money you’re gonna make out of it.

This is a great idea and would love to take part in the process. I will be happy to add my thoughts to the fourm and submit concepts.

One Question i would like to ask Smashing, for those who do help submiting design work/content/layout ideas etc to this book, will they be credited in the publication?

thanks

We have so many books available in market on any topic is concern,
So, I suggest to come up with your own experience in the market to reach this level.
How you start SM, who helped you in creating SM, Where and when it starts, etc.

THE SUCCESS STORY OF SM would be a better idea for sure.

Don;t divert your users to print media, hold them tightly on web.

Keep rocking!!!

Raj-INDIA

Christmas present is set! Good idea. Can’t wait.
Why not giving the book free to those who have contributed and all the others pay?

I dont understand why everybody is complaining ……. I bet you that this website has helped all of yous one way or another in your careers ……. So lets repay them by giving them some good ideas ……. Maybe it is wrong that they are selling everyone else’s ideas but to be honest they are putting the money into the book we are just making idea’s for them and helping them along ………. They are making this book for people to use as a resource and for help …… So I think you’s all should get off there back and present your idea’s …….. Well done to all the one’s who dont act like children and are actually giving smashing magazine ideas :)

this will be awesome, SM is already awesome… and a book from SM… this is a must haveve

@fledder

yeah actually i notice what i have said is wrong ….. am still learining am only a kid ………. am sorry for anything i may have caused

@Ben,

I think you just proven your own childishness, but anyway, I’ll bite:

Where have you seen me claim that I am smart and run the show? I’m a visitor passing by the site and run nothing. All I did is share my opinion, backed by arguments. I have seen nobody coming with counter arguments yet, other than your own silly remarks: You’re “living your life to the full”??? “You are just jealous because you cant do what they do”???

“You are one of the very little amount of people who think it is wrong wot Sm are doing”

Correct. So what? Am I supposed to laugh and dance like everybody when I don’t agree? I do not care how many agree with me, my opinion is my opinion. If there is a large majority who has a different opinion, that is fine by me, but I do not change my opinion. It’s called integrity and character, you may learn it when you get older.

“dont even come on and tell people because they dont wanna hear it ”

So you are now running the show, huh? Do not speak for others. As far as I know, this is a public forum. You certainly do not determine what others want to hear. And those who do not want to hear me, SM can moderate me away or visitors can skip my posting.

“you just go round putting good people down”

No I don’t. I think asking from people to work for free and then profit from it is “putting good people down”. I do not criticize how useful the content here is, in fact I love it.

Anyways, anyone who wants to contribute, will contribute. No issues with that. Just not a fan of the approach.

@ dan

i meant to say shouldnt make it eveyone elses opinion ….. sorry

I don’t think there’s anything morally wrong with what Smashing Magazine is doing here from its desire to make money, though I personally find it unethical… for me… since the workers aren’t receiving compensation. Alas, this isn’t the downfall of society we’re talking about here.

What I do think though is that this approach is very old-fashioned. Imagine if Ford had a press conference to talk about some new car they were going to be selling soon. So everybody who is interested gathers around. And when it gets uncovered it’s a Model T. And the crowd goes wild… uh… what? Hardly.

This is regressive and a fantastic waste of time, human power, paper, ink, etc., and the vast majority of these will end up in landfills. SM, allow me to suggest that you rethink this endeavor and put your efforts elsewhere. So far you’ve done a great job on this site, so I imagine you would also do a good job with either new features on SmashingMagazine.com or another site.

awesome – this ought to be good. :)

How about a visual history of web design trends since the inception of the web? With a part at the end for up and coming designs

so…
this book must be free or for a very low price ( 1€ )

[Comment by SM]: Please notice that producing a book costs a lot of money.

Good luck with it all. I think it needs lots of beautiful imagery to substitute for the fact that it will probably date quickly as you can’t easily update a book.

Good luck fellas.

Awesome ,
i’ll try to help and will buy as soon as it’s ready

its going to be great stuff!!

QUOTE – “Articles for the book can also be written by members of the Web design community. So, if you want to propose an article for the book, please suggest your idea in the Book topics forum.”

What is so ambiguous about that? And as a professional designer I take extreme issue with your “Cover Design” Forum too. It reminds me of when you had the “community” design your new logo.

You help us designers with your articles, (but advertise within them (fair enough!)) but this is very very close to taking food out of our mouths, and any professional who contributes is supporting spec work and should be ashamed. Everything you mention above is your job, or your job at least to tender out to a professional for a professional price, it’s a simple as that.

[Comment by SM] We understand your concerns, but unfortunately you completely misunderstand the concept of our book, because what you are writing is simply not true. We just want to discuss with our readers what content they would like to have in the book and how they want it to be presented. Once it’s done, we’ll write the book by ourselves – our team is a team of freelancers like you, dear Tom, who are properly get paid for the great work they do. And other writers from web design community will get paid too, of course!

And if you want us to stop the project and it will be stopped, you’ll achieve what you (hopefully) don’t want to achieve – our writers will not get the job and they won’t be able to become book authors and earn some money.

If our book post isn’t clear enough, please let us know how we should improve
the article. We respect our authors and they are, of course, getting paid
- in fact, better than in any other blog or magazine.

Sensacional, muito bom mesmo ! Só aqui mesmo.

Hello friends SmashingMagazine

i hope that have many users in Brazil and the book give translation into English.

Success!

I would like to see SM return to posting genuine content, instead of comment driven posts for give-aways, and nonsense about a book that will be stale news by the time it is even published. Get back to what got you here fellas, you’re pushing the envelope so hard to make extra cash, that I think you forgot what got your audience here in the first place. Good content, a descent read, and a nice viewing experience. Period.

Your last two posts are garbage. And forced you to respond to comments all day instead of drumming up new and exciting material.

That is amazing. Real book made of paper? I will buy it, for sure.

I’m sat here simply laughing my head off at the vast amount of so called ‘professionals’,
disagreeing and questioning this book!

Do you have the IQ of a 5 year old? Because all i can gather from what you are saying is that your lacking in the ability to read! The good people at SMASHING MAGAZINE write and put together the book themselves, the reason they are asking such questions is that they want it to fill the best off its potential with regards to its readers…. US!

How are they supposed to know what we want without asking?!

Think about what you say before posting, it really does make you look silly.

Here are my feelings about this issue, in more detail:

http://www.sachagreif.com/dont-listen-to-your-readers/

A message to the guys at Smashing Magazine: you asked me what I would like to read about in the book: I want ot read about something that YOU care about. I wouldn’t read your blog if I didn’t think you guys know a whole lot more about web design than me. So why ask ME for suggestions ?
You have very loyal readers who trust you to come up with something great ! Use this to your advantage, don’t try to write a book just to please everybody.

Hey guys it’s the 2nd comment here from me…

I have no problem providing good content to the visitors, whether it’s others content or your content.
And there is nothing wrong with your post, its crystal clear what you are going to do.
And yes! There is nothing wrong with writing a book. And also nothing wrong with asking for others ideas.

It’s just that why should I buy this book, when I have the access to lot of resources online for free which also be up to date.

By the time you are getting others ideas, then plan it and write and then edit finally you print and deliver it to me, web development world will be moved forward in big steps.

“Please notice that producing a book costs a lot of money.”
- Not only money guys it costs a lot of time too.

So will that cost of the time worth the money you are going to spend?

Why not start a web site with your own content (tutorial + articles) if you really want to provide good content. I’m sure people will write for you for some money if you pay them.

P.S. the comment form is still broken. Is this the site which talks about usability and accessibility? ;)

I’m really excited about this. If you guys can cover Wordpress Theme building like you did in your incredible Wordpress Developer Toolbox post that would be GREAT! Having that handy off-line would be nice.

ok.. onestly, such a book can be cool only if published every 6 months with all what’s new on the design/web/etc area. in other case, i see it as a nice moneymaking machine from the still loyal members… be smart guys, i’ve seen MANY bigger companys/communitys than smashing get killed by their “smart” ideas which the visitors “didn’t get it”. just my 5c… oh, and fix the comment box yes. =) check the CSS tutorials on the right side of your site. Also, for the “smart” guys here which u can clearly see SM instructed them to post something,.. well fy all wankers. i have a bad feeling this book idea will bring u LESS visitors, and hopefully not a single dissapointed asian ddos kid which would claim he’s’ work is in the book, etc.. anyway, keep the site and drop the book idea, books are for smart people, collecting good article is what you guys are good at. do KEEP what is making u look GOOD. peace

hii there guys my names callum and i absouletly LURVE this site every time i click on and see the loading sign i just get the urge to slip my massive dong inside the hard-drive and pound hard until i’ve exploded all over smashing magazine.com hehe

Brilliant! Can’t wait!

Stu.

drop the idea of the book. you guys are doing well on the web.

I think this is a good idea.

I think it should be arranged in the process of creating a website, however, with more in-depth areas, such as; background on Colour usage, typography, layout, usability, html, css, javascript (plus integrating jquery, mootools etc) and so on. Then chapters on marketing, SEO, using social media etc.
Maybe even sections on starting a web business, becoming a freelancer etc.

Wow, I just read the comments here and all I can say is online people are getting stupider every single day. They want YOUR suggestions of what content YOU want to have in the book. They aren’t telling you to write it.

Sacha (#108): “I wouldn’t read your blog if I didn’t think you guys know a whole lot more about web design than me. So why ask ME for suggestions ?”

Dude, you’re acting just like most of my clients. You want them to GUESS what you’re interested in? How do you want them to address important issues we face by guessing? I read your little blog whine. How can you compare the iPhone with a book?

@SM Guys: Implement a voting system for comments and stop reading them. Garbage will filter itself below the threshold eventually.

Hey, why not upload it to lulu.com and make it easier to publish

i Can’t wait now!

I am gonna buy this for sure :)