Roger Black (1)

This book is the antithesis of the web usability movement.

Roger Black is a print designer through-and-through, recommending the use of graphically rendered text to get pixel-perfect layouts, and explaining with a straight face how in the future web sites will be more like cable TV channels. This book is very text-light, but what text there is seems devoted to Roger Black and his ego, rather than, well, web sites that work.

It's a very pretty book (if you like that mid-90s aesthetic), but that's exactly the point - it's a book, not a website, and so much of its layout wouldn't translate to the web. Interesting as an example of how everyone and his dog jumped at "dotcom", and how one expert just didn't "get it".

(And apparently still doesn't; Black's current company's website: http://www.daniloblackusa.com/)

I bought this one out of the remaindered bin in '98 or '99, and I still feel indignant that I forked over money for it.… (meer)