As a web developer with a keen interest in CSS design, my interest was piqued when I came across The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag (two well-known names in the web design world), in Waterstones recently.

It’s based on the story of the CSS Zen Garden. For those not familiar with the Zen Garden web site, it is a simple but powerful idea: take some well-structured HTML, and invite people to come up with a visually-rich design, implemented solely through CSS. The HTML is completely fixed, but the designer is free to use any graphical and CSS techniques to style it, so long as it remains accessible and compatible with a wide range of browsers.

The book has been a refreshing change from my usual (technically orientated) bed-time reading. I wasn’t prepared for the fact that the book is aimed at graphic designers, working for the web. Consequently, the book isn’t very technical, and concentrates more on design theory and philosophy, using only a few simple coding examples.

Like the Bulletproof Web Design book I mentioned previously, I find this sort of book very useful. Rather than explain the syntax of CSS, it provides a range of real-world designs, and then explains the thinking behind the design and the methods used to achieve them. I suppose you might call it ‘task-based learning’, or ‘learning by example’.

I can’t say that I’ve learned any ‘new tricks’ from the book, but what it has done is open my eyes wider to the subtle use of visual cues, colour and typography in web design. And it has made me appreciate the Zen Garden more, as a source of design inspiration.