I wrote another book. It’s called Standout Designs for the Web

I’ve written another book! Standout Designs for the Web explores why so many websites look alike and how designers can create something more distinctive. Here’s what inspired it, what’s inside, and when you can get your hands on it.

It’s been a few years since I last published a book about web design, but I haven’t stopped thinking about what I’d like to write next. Over the years, I’ve collected ideas, made notes, and occasionally convinced myself I should get started on another one. Earlier this year, I finally decided it was time.

Even though Sue threatened to hunt down and kill anyone who asked me to write another book, I’m delighted to announce that my new book, Standout Designs for the Web, will be published on November 20th.

Why I wrote this book

I’ve been designing websites for over thirty years, and despite everything that’s changed, I still get excited about the possibilities of designing for the web. In some ways, it’s never been easier to make a polished, professional website. More tools, frameworks, and ready-made components are available than I could have imagined when I started.

But something’s been bothering me for a long time. Too many websites look alike.

They follow familiar patterns, use similar layouts, and often have so little personality that changing the logo, colours, and photographs would be enough to make a website for one company look like it belongs to another.

Of course, using familiar patterns isn’t inherently wrong. They can make websites easier to use, and there’s no reason to reinvent something that already works well. But I think designers have become too comfortable relying on them, sometimes at the expense of making something distinctive. I don’t believe every website needs to be unusual or experimental. But I do believe every company has something that makes it different, and its design should reflect that. That’s what Standout Designs for the Web is about.

Making websites memorable

I started writing the book by thinking about websites I remembered from the early days of the web. Some were wonderfully excessive, filled with bright colours, peculiar navigation, and illustrations that seemed to have little regard for conventional good taste. Others were memorable because they belonged so unmistakably to the companies behind them.

I’m not suggesting websites should return to the days of splash screens and table-based layouts. Modern web design has plenty of things that are unquestionably better. But I do think something has been lost as websites have become more polished and predictable.

The book explores what makes designs memorable, how a company’s story can inspire its visual language, and how colour, typography, imagery, and layout can work together to create something distinctive.

I also look at the patterns designers have come to rely on, particularly the twelve-column grid, and explain why I think they’re useful tools rather than templates that should dictate how every website looks.

But I didn’t want this to be another book that talks about design principles without showing how to put them into practice.

Wheelman returns. This time, it’s not just about articles.

If you’ve read my previous book, Art Direction for the Web, you might remember Wheelman, my fictional company that caters to professional getaway drivers. Wheelman was an excuse to explore art direction without the constraints of a real client.

Some feedback I received about that book was that its examples felt too editorial. Although they showed how art direction could make articles and other editorial content more engaging, they didn’t always show how to apply the same thinking to other kinds of websites. It was fair criticism, and something I kept in mind when planning this book.

I wanted to show that distinctive design isn’t reserved for editorial content. It can be just as valuable when you’re designing an online shop, a product page, or even something as ordinary as a form.

Throughout Standout Designs for the Web, I use Wheelman to demonstrate how the same company’s personality can influence very different kinds of content.

The company offers an online shop selling equipment for aspiring getaway drivers, magazine content, infographics, and even a charity that collects donations for retired getaway drivers.

These examples might be ridiculous, but the design problems behind them aren’t. Every website needs to communicate clearly, establish priorities, and help people accomplish what they came to do.

The challenge is doing that without losing the personality that makes a company recognisable. I wanted to show that you don’t have to choose between a useful website and a memorable one.

A different kind of Hardboiled book

I’ve written several books about web design, including Art Direction for the Web and Hardboiled Web Design. They’ve all explored subjects I care about, but this time I wanted to do something a little different.

Standout Designs for the Web is the first in a new series I’m calling Hardboiled Web Design Shots. Each Shot will focus on a specific aspect of web design, explore the thinking behind it, and show how to apply those ideas in practice.

Rather than writing another enormous book, I wanted something more focused. Something you could read without giving up an entire weekend, but which would leave you with ideas you could put to work on your next project.

This first Shot is around 180 pages long and covers everything from finding the stories that make companies different to developing visual languages and creating expressive layouts.

It has a foreword by the incredible Cameron Moll and it’s written primarily for experienced web designers and front-end developers. You won’t find tutorials explaining how to write HTML or CSS, because that’s not what this book is about. Instead, I want to explain why I make certain design decisions, show you the alternatives I consider, and hopefully encourage you to question a few of your own.

Writing it was only half the fun

One of the biggest differences between this book and my previous ones is that I’ve designed and typeset the whole thing myself. I’ve always been closely involved in how my books look, but this time I wanted complete control over the pages. After finishing the manuscript, I spent several weeks in InDesign choosing typefaces, arranging illustrations, and refining layouts.

I’ve discovered that designing an entire book yourself is a wonderful way to lose hours adjusting something nobody else will ever notice. The result is something I’m really pleased with. It’s packed with illustrations, and I’ve tried to make reading it as enjoyable as the ideas it contains.

I hope you’ll enjoy looking through it as much as reading it.

Pre-orders open November 12th

Standout Designs for the Web will be published on November 20th, 2026, as a DRM-free PDF and EPUB. It’ll cost £14.99, and pre-orders will open on November 12th.

To celebrate the launch, everyone who pre-orders before midnight on November 19th will also receive a free copy of my 35-page Hardboiled Client Interview Guide.

This companion guide explains how I prepare for client conversations, the questions I ask, and how I spot unexpected details that can inspire distinctive designs. It complements one of the central ideas in Standout Designs for the Web: that making something memorable starts with understanding what makes the company you’re designing for different.

If you’d like a preview, I’ve also put together a free 28-page sample so you can see what’s inside before deciding whether to buy it.

Still excited about web design

After more than thirty years of designing websites, I sometimes wonder if I’ll ever get tired of it. So far, I haven’t.

The technologies have changed, the tools have improved, and people’s expectations of websites are very different from when I started. But what’s always interested me most hasn’t changed. I still enjoy discovering what makes a company different and figuring out how to express it through design.

I wrote Standout Designs for the Web because I think the web has room for much more personality, imagination, and individuality. I hope it encourages you to look beyond familiar patterns, question decisions you’ve become accustomed to, and try something different. And, most of all, I hope you enjoy reading it.