Free Online Books

For reasons I can't quite fathom, some folks put up their books on the web where you can read them for free instead of buying them at the bookstore. Whatever makes you happy.

Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines

This is a 161Mb download from the US Department of Health and Human Services that is worth every byte. I wish I knew about this document before I spent three months working up my own checklist about "good design."

Click to downloadView and Print Entire Guidelines Book (2006 ed.)(292 pages, 161 MB)

Here are the individual chapters:

Click to downloadChapter 1 – Design Process and Evaluation (8 pages, 1.8 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 2 – Optimizing the User Experience (13 pages, 8.9 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 3 – Accessibility (7 pages, 2.4 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 4 – Hardware and Software (5 pages, 2.8 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 5 – The Homepage(10 pages, 11.8 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 6 – Page Layout (14 pages, 20.4 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 7 – Navigation (13 pages, 12.8 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 8 – Scrolling and Paging (5 pages, 4.4 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 9 – Headings, Titles, and Labels (9 pages, 7.7 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 10 – Links (15 pages, 16.7 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 11 – Text Appearance(11 pages, 11 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 12 – Lists (9 pages, 6.4 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 13 – Screen–Based Controls (Widgets) (22 pages, 14.7 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 14 – Graphics, Images, and Multimedia (16 pages, 16.5 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 15 – Writing Web Content (11 pages, 10.8 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 16 – Content Organization(10 pages, 9.8 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 17 – Search (9 pages, 8.9 MB)
Click to downloadChapter 18 – Usability Testing (10 pages, 1,020 KB)

Building Accessible Websites

I'm never one to argue when other people want to give it away. I guess that since this book is online nobody else will have an incentive to write a book on the topic.

The Yale Web Style Guide

I guess some people still Free Chapter from "Son of Web Pages That Suck" (PDF from Sybex via ftp 3.25Mb), but why? It's online and free. Sheesh. It's an excellent book and covers most of what you need to know.

Nonprofit Websites: Cutting Through the EMaze

Todd Baker is one of the well-known names in the fundraising business and he has a free book you can download (preferable) or read online called "Nonprofit Websites: Cutting Through the EMaze."

While its focus is the non-profit industry, there are certainly valuable tips for any commercial web site — you just have to ignore the touchy-feely stuff and figure out what information you can apply to your site.

The "book" is a 1.3Mb PDF file, so I suggest you download it (in IE, right-click) rather than read it

pdf file nonprofit websites: Cutting Through the EMaze (1.3Mb PDF)

If you know of any other "good" books (not something like "Java Made Simple") that are online, free, and deal with web design, let me know.