Beginner Usability: A Novice's Guide to Zombie Proofing Your Website
About this ebook
What You'll Beat Zombies With
This book covers that gap between code and design, the things zombies hope you won’t learn, usability. It’s how a user interacts with your site and whether they can find the information they came looking for or complete the task they set out to do. Most usability books focus on the front end, how a user interacts with your site, but there’s also usability on the back end where you update and maintain the site. Better maintenance and better usability both lead to less crying and fewer zombies so it’s a win and a delayed apocalypse for everyone!
How You'll Learn to Smack Zombies Around
You won't just passively take in the view, like a zombie shuffling across the mainland. You’ll have plenty of combat practice with analogies, examples, and code tutorials you can build, break and fix again. Working with your hands and your head you’ll craft code that pleases the eye and knocks a zombie into last Tuesday.
All the code and directions are provided as both codepen tutorials and downloadable html files, so you can fight the apocalypse how and where you like. You can work with them on the codepen site or on your own device.
And later you'll bring those skills together in a final project that cements those skills into zombie smashing muscle memory.
Why Zombies?
Are zombies just a gimmick? Why would this be any better than a straight laced book that sticks to the facts?
Straight laced books are often straight boring. And if you have insomnia problems go buy that book. The author, John, has read the boring books and knows that staying awake and engaged are also important for learning. But this book uses zombie references and analogies not just to make you smile, but to help the material stick. If a tough technical concept is related in silly terms you understand, like a zombie trying to buy gum at a super market, it’s much more likely to stay in that brain those zombies are intent on eating.
Come on, hit the buy button, build up those walls and fill in the cracks, make your website as usable as possible for both you and your users and give those zombies what for!
About the author
Getting braaains should be fun. So many technical books are drop dead boring, but books from John Rhea and the Undead Institute balance excellent learning with good clean fun.
Plus John is a working web developer who has used these technologies first hand, building sites for bosses, clients, and his own side projects. But he's also a born educator and teaches web development at the college level. He’s spoken at many national conferences and been published in professional web development publications such as Smashing Magazine.
His books aim to open up web development to a wide audience making it easy for career switchers to get into web development, help bloggers and content specialists to spice up their work for the web, and give the seasoned professional a few chuckles as she picks up a new skill or tool for her tool belt.
If you enjoy his odd sense of humor you might also enjoy his Eight Word Stories (8wordstories.com) or his Pineapple Comics (pineapplecomics.com). He lives with his wife, five or more children, six cats, five dogs, and a bearded dragon near Charlottesville, Virginia. If on any given day he remembers to wear pants it's been an extravagant success.
