The first thing you’ll notice about Natalie MacLees’ jQuery for Designers […], is her gentle yet confident voice. She assumes very little experience with coding, but is never condescending or “cute” like some beginning tech books. Each chapter of JFD takes the reader/student through a collection of jQuery scripts that accomplish various tasks that one uses in the “real world”. From tarting up links, through slideshows and tabs to an excellent chapter on forms, she writes as if she’s sitting next to the reader offering patient guidance as you discover the power of jQuery.

What I also like is that, if the viewer of your pages doesn’t have the latest web browser software, the author has set up the code so that it “degrades gracefully”, meaning those people with older browser software will still see a basic site layout of your information and robots will still index your pages for search engine optimization.

This book has successfully taken the confusion and mystery out of what jQuery is all about and helped me to finally get a handle on javascript/jQuery.

I just finished reading your book, jQuery for Designers, and have to tell you how thankful I am to have found this book. I have ready many jQuery, JavaScript books and been left still not understanding what I was supposed to know when I was done. With your book I was able to follow along and actually understand what each step was doing. Thank you so much for writing such a great book!

The book’s promises are correct. The book covers everything the cover and introduction said it will tell you…After reading this book I learned a lot to put jQuery into practice on every day sites and jobs. This book is not written for those who want to develop their own jQuery plugins but instead its written for web designers who would like to know how to implement every day features on their site.

For designers who aren’t familiar with JavaScript, never mind jQuery, the book provides an excellent, gentle introduction to what JavaScript is, how it interacts with CSS and HTML, and what you can do with it….As a guide to jQuery for designers, jQuery for Designers Beginner’s Guide is a great introduction, with plenty of recipes for common tasks a web designer might need jQuery to do to enhance a website.

The author walks you through what you have to do to via a numbered step by step list. It’s pretty easy to follow and do right along with her. I learned a lot just by doing this….It was a good introduction to jQuery and will help web designers in their day-to-day activities. If you’re a designer and absolute beginner when it comes to jQuery, this book can help you.

…jQuery for Designers is a friendly, plainspoken tutorial on how to use some simple jQuery plugins – in short, little code-laden gadgets programmed by someone else and available for free – in a web page, and how to customize them to your liking. A great book for freelance web designers who are asked to take care of the programming as well as the graphics, even if you hate coding as much as I do. Keep this book by your side and you’ll be able to design slide shows, photo galleries, dropdown menus, navigation tags, you name it. All very easy to follow and non-scary. A worthwhile investment!

jQuery is very powerful and popular, but it can be a bit overwhelming to try to get started on your own. This book can help you get your feet wet. It’s a nice, friendly book to explain how to get started using jQuery. It is filled with lots of easy, useful examples. You’ll learn how simple it can be to add powerful functionality to your websites. And the really nice thing about this book is the author’s passion for accessibility. You know you will be learning how to use jQuery properly.

Another merit of the book is the extensive use of HTML5. Though you can’t really tell this by looking at the front or back covers. If you have also been curious about what HTML5 can do for your website, the book can function as a de facto collection of examples.

…If you’re a total beginner or somebody who’e been using jQuery plug ins but have trouble making them work and you have no clue how they work you will enjoy this book. The author thoughtfully crafted a book that’s easy for a designer to understand the subject, starting with the basics of Javascript and from then on she covers plug ins that you’ll probably use at some point, such as lightbox, slideshow, form-enhancer. The writing style is clear and friendly and I found the examples easy to follow.

If you’re a hardcore coder this is probably NOT the book for you (unless you’re like me and seeking a frame of reference). However, if you’re a DESIGNER, like it says, I think the book is perfect. It has just enough code to get you moving forward and some good how-to’s on shortcuts using plugins to get the effect you want…It’s a very practical book and sets out to help designers actually use jQuery as opposed to getting beyond what they need to get the job done in most cases.

Even for persons with little experience with web development the examples are easy to follow. Everything is explained in detail and all the code and plugins that are used in the book are available to the reader.

I found Natalie’s book very easy to follow and digest. I have had some prior experience with jQuery but I can see why this book would be very accessible for any non-programmer. The examples were clear and just detailed enough to be effective but not too extended. The step-by-step nature of the writing breaks the material up into bite-sized chunks and makes it easy to grasp. If you are looking for a book to learn jQuery by, you would not go wrong by choosing this book. It is complete, concise and conversational in tone. I recommend it without reservation.

This book is great for jQuery beginners, esp. if the only thing you know is html/css and are looking for some “recipes” for jQuery to plugin to your site. Overall the book is organized well, with “lab” type hands-on exercises that will help the reader understand the concepts. It is a book that is definitely geared towards designers, and not developers who might like to see more information on the Domain Object Model and the underpinnings of jQuery.

Great book for folks who are starting on jQUERY. The book is geared for designers but that shouldn’t discourage hard-core developers. Basic concepts are explained very clearly in a easy to understand language. Highly recommended!

“jQuery for Designers: Beginner’s Guide” is…just what the doctor ordered. I have been wanting to get a better understanding of jQuery and was a bit intimidated by its power. I was somewhat familiar with JavaScript after taking a class but I felt I had only scratched the surface with regard to it’s implementation.

As an absolutely beginner with no knowledge in JavaScript, I find this book highly valuable. I was able to follow step by step in an easy format. This 332 pages book was very detailed, thorough and had lots of examples. I highly recommend this book for beginners and/or those who is looking to freshen their skills. This book is definitely a keeper.

Natalie MacLees does a brilliant job of getting the momentum going and teaching you the essentials and best practices to make your way into this critical part of the web today. She doesn’t waste her time with diatribes, and instead focuses on teaching the fundamentals and critical time-saving methodologies — like employing plug-ins in your projects.

Natalie should be congratulated for making a potentially impenetrable and dry subject accessible to a novice like me. The author’s passion for the subject is clear, and despite their expertise the content is digestible without going either too slow or fast. Coders are often much better at making things work “under the hood” than making sites visually sparkle. This book provides an important bridge between code and cosmetics.

Natalie has done a good job without showing how smart she is. She is focused in explaining how JQuery works. I think it is the best book for beginners.

This book was just what I needed. I have some experience with html and css but have been totally baffled by javascript. The author explains javascript and how to use it in very simple, easy-to-understand language…The author walks you through each step and includes all the code, so she makes it easy to actually produce some great-looking effects–scroll bars, tabbed folders, FAQ pages.