Help me get gifts for my parents.
December 9, 2010 3:00 PM   Subscribe

Gift Filter: Mom wants to be better at the visual part of HTML design (books, software, dvd etc) and Dad is really into investing, Help!

My mom needs assistance with creating more visually pleasing websites. She's done a good amount of web design but wants to get better and I want to help her so if anyone has any gift ideas for this please let me know!

My dad is into a few different things like painting, computers etc. but I know for a fact that he's just really, really into investing and Mad Kramer and the stock market right now. I think he finds it extremely interesting as that he's been learning about it for awhile now and I want to get him something that will help feed his hobby. I tried to find a stock market ambient orb but as far as I can tell they re all sold out. Any ideas would be extremely helpful. He has an Ipad so I thought about a WSJ subscription possibly but that's not something you can open at Christmas!
posted by modoriculous to Shopping (7 answers total)
 
The Non-designer's Design Book

The Non-Designer's Web Book

I haven't read the second book, but it sounds like it's a web design version of the first book, and I hate the first book because practically every sentence in it is something that it took me months to learn (and $$$), crystallized into a precise yet simple explanation. It's like you travelled to the equator on a quest to obtain a banana, after a grueling journey you return home triumphant! And then discover a thing in your neighbourhood called "supermarkets". :-)
posted by -harlequin- at 3:16 PM on December 9, 2010


This was recently reviewed in the NY Times. Might be worth checking out for your dad. Good luck!
posted by Gusaroo at 3:47 PM on December 9, 2010


Agree with -harlequin-'s recommendations and would add:

1. Sexy Web Design by Elliot Jay Stocks

2. The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird (Second edition)

3. The Web Designers Ideas Book Volume 1 and/or Volume 2 (just published)
I would normally ignore a book that contained essentially screenshots of well designed websites but these are really well categorised and it's quite a different experience to sit with a book and notepad rather than scroll through page after page online where you're tempted to check the code and get otherwise distracted.

The first 2 recommendations are SitePoint books, they're having the annual Christmas sale and both books are likely to be heavily discounted some time between now and December 24th, either the digital or print versions, sometimes both.
posted by ceri richard at 4:07 PM on December 9, 2010


Does your mom use CSS? ( it's like html, but for making things look good.)
I just taught myself CSS from a book called CSS: The Missing Manual. It was pretty great. Easy to understand, everything broken down into approachable chunks, tutorials at the end of every chapter that go over the techniques. For a non-programmer with visual design experience it was great.
If your mom doesn't know CSS, I'd definitely get her this.
posted by Adridne at 4:44 PM on December 9, 2010


For Mom: Don't Make Me Think

For Dad: CNBC Live is free, but on target with Cramer. Maybe an Apple Store gift card?
posted by artlung at 7:10 PM on December 9, 2010


Yeah, CSS is the way to go. Send her to CSSZenGarden.
Seconding the Non Designer's Design Book. But also, how about some Tufte books?
posted by media_itoku at 8:23 PM on December 9, 2010


For Dad I would get How To be a stock market genius - by Joel Greenblatt. It is a fun read.
posted by laukf at 4:56 PM on December 10, 2010


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