Review of ‘Professional SharePoint 2010 Branding and User Interface Design’

When Randy Drisgill (@drisgill) offered me a free copy of the new book entitled Professional SharePoint 2010 Branding and User Interface Design he wrote with John Ross, Jacob J. Sanford, Paul Stubbs, and Larry Riemann, I knew I’d like it. (There’s the disclaimer: I got a free book out of this.) I know Randy and John well enough to know that they are wicked smaht (as we say in Bahston) about branding SharePoint and they are also wicked funny. Those are two good skills to bring to a book on a potentially dry technical topic, at least to me.

What I didn’t expect is how much of the book I’d actually read. It seemed like a slam dunk: a quick skim, a few pithy comments, and I’d have a nice new shiny book on my shelf. As I started flipping through it, I found myself stopping at more and more places and reading whole sections. This book has so much good information in it that anyone, regardless of their skill level, is likely to do the same thing.

Not only will the book help someone who wants to do good branding on top of SharePoint 2010, it will also help them understand a lot about SharePoint itself is built to support good branding techniques. And that goes for someone who’s just coming to SharePoint for the first time as well as a smarty-pants like me. There’s truly something for everyone.

I’m not usually a “learn by reading” type of person (I prefer to “learn by doing”, hitting my head against it until I get it), but this book is well suited to someone who will want to read it from cover to cover. The prose is loose enough to hold your interest, the examples are clear and hold together throughout the book (a rare thing, IMO), and the technical level is just right no matter your skill level. It won’t be obtuse to the beginner, nor does it pander to the expert.

If you have anything to do with branding SharePoint, this book is a must have for your bookshelf. I know that I’m going to be referring to it going forward, and so will you when you grab it for yourself. Bravo, guys.