But that has all changed. It appeared to me that after all, forms are about user experience, and user experience is something I’m quite passionate about. But what really made me get into forms where a combination of events. I finally got hold of Web Form Design by Luke Wroblewski. And I cannot believe I haven’t read it earlier. It’s been out since 2007 for something’s sake!

But it’s clearly a popular book, because I’ve been trying to get it of Amazon before, where it’s been sold out. Then I forgot about it. Then I remembered again as I stumbled across a link to the publishers own website (rosenfeldmedia.com). Enter creditcard details. While I was there I picked up a copy of Donna Spencer’s Card Sorting as well, also recommended. But for now I’ll stick to the forms.

I thought Web Form Design was going to be all about how to get your head around writing semantic HTML and valid CSS for forms without ending up in an asylum in the process. I was wrong. It is much better. There isn’t a single line of code in the book. At least not that I can remember. It puts all it’s emphasis on making forms user-friendly. This is clever, as it makes it almost timeless, something you can’t say about most HTML/CSS trends. And it really makes you think further about what Every. Single. Element does.

Why is there? What does it do? Could it be better? Do I even need it?

And the flow of going through a form. Now I’m aware of how to get a user into a form, through the form, submit the form, and what to do after the form is submitted. This is something most designers never think about. I know I didn’t. And I gotta say, it feels good to make these decisions based on research and facts, rather then a vague feeling. Sure, it takes me a bit longer to make a form now, but damn! – it turns out heaps better.

I usually get the graphic designs handed over from designers who know little or nothing about CSS, HTML, or JavaScript. I’m not sure how many times I’ve had to point out that a link usually has slightly more than one state. So imagine the forms. Now, luckily the people I work with welcome feedback and are happy to learn. But this time I’ve made a clear demand:

Read this book before you ever design another form!

Which means that my book is out on loan at the moment. I have to remember to get it back before I leave Sydney. It is definitely part of my library.

And as it happens, after finishing the book I was cleaning up my email, where among others a few hundred emails from the WSG mailing list needed deleting. And as it turned out, there was a meeting, in Sydney, where Jessica Enders (formulate.com.au) did a presentation on forms. Count me in! At the same time Sitepoint launched another book, Fancy Form Design, which I’m currently reading. In short I’d say it makes a good appendix to Web Form Design. I have learned a lot from all this. And interestingly, nothing of this is new. No HTML5, no AJAX, no social media guerilla branding campaign (sic). Just plain old markup and solid dose of human behavior. I am really happy I’ve been able to improve so much in such a short time.

So now I don’t hate making forms anymore. Instead I hate how horrible some of the forms I’m forced to fill out are. And occasionally I get to love how well it can be done.

Designing for the Web is a web design book that will still be valid next year, which is a novelty in the genre. This is because it is not about code examples, glossy buttons or Javascript GUI-animations.

It takes a look back at the roots of graphic design and shows us why we shouldn’t throw all that knowledge away, even though “the web is not print”. Mark Boulton has a background from art- and design school, which he uses to explain the academics of typography, layout, colour theory and grids. For each theory he shows when and how this applies to the web, and even when to be crazy and break the rules to make it even better. Just make sure you learn the rules before you break them.

I really like this read since I’m already comfortable with the ins and outs of the typical front-end coding and web standards, but I have literately no education on the graphic design/art side of web design. I’ve leafed through a lot of books on the subject, even started reading a few, but none have had any connection to web design.

I recommend this book to anyone who touches any part of the design process. That includes you too, code-monkeys!

The funny thing is that there’s nothing new about CSS tables. I don’t know why I haven’t encountered them before, because they work fine in most browsers. Probably because the idea of tables and layout leaves a taste of sick in the back of most peoples mouth? This book proves me wrong, it explains with good examples how the CSS tables properties work, how they compare to the old ways of positioning and floating, and why it’s the next big thing.

The reason why the authors reckon it’ll be huge is the forthcoming release of IE8, which will be the first IE to support CSS tables. Obviously it’ll take some time before IE6 and 7 are gone, but that’s no reason not to play with our new developer toys!

The book finishes off by looking into the future (CSS3), showing examples of what CSS will look like when we get to use the Template Layout Module (formerly Advanced Layout Module), Grid Positioning Module and the Multi-column Layout module. The way of writing CSS using these differs radically from the usual floats and positioning, and using CSS tables seems like a good in between step to me. So if you’re serious about your CSS and want to avoid skill rot this book is an easy first step onwards.