Santiago asked me to recommend some books on HTML/CSS so here is a list of how-to-learn-web-design-by-reading-books.

If you don’t know anything about HTML and CSS you should really start with this Head First book. It’s not a technical manual and it’s not full of code, infact this book uses some of the worst clip art I’ve ever seen, but that’s the point. Head First makes you remember key information by presenting it differently, by the end you’ll have learned how to write proper web pages and learned a lot about how the web works.

Once you’ve got the basics covered there’s two areas you need to concentrate on: 1) learning more of the technical bits and 2) how to actually design stuff for the web.

To get all the Technical knowledge you need, start with Web Standard Solutions and Beginning CSS Web Development: From Novice to Professional they’ll give you a sound understanding of Web Standards.

So now you’ll be able to create really ugly but well marked up sites, and that’s where a lot of people stop learning. Which is a shame and why a lot of the web looks so generic.

So I’d advise you start reading as much as you can about layouts, colour, user interface design, grids and type.

Got any other recommendations or books that helped you learn?