The new subtitle of this book as of the 4th edition is “Foundations of User Experience Design”. Prior to this version, The Web Style Guide was subtitled “Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites,” and more geared to technological than user principles. As someone who worked for major companies on website teams for quite a while before coming to the iSchool, I can see this version as a work in transition.
While later chapters (6 and onward) focus more explicitly on site design, and Chapter 2 on site research and user personas, the other chapters offer user experience in the grander context of being part of a team. For example, Chapter 3 focuses heavily on project management, and the concepts of understanding stakeholders and development lifecycles.
As to the chapters that focus on user experience and design, I feel they do a strong job of explaining concepts on a basic level. Persona creation (creating hypothetical users for testing) is in Chapter 2. Later chapters deep dive into concepts such as interface design, graphic design, typography, and the style to use for content to make it the most understandable for the people you wish to reach. The chapters on images and video approach optimization as well as file formats.
So, although I find the subtitle to be misleading since the book does not focus exclusively on User Experience, I would say that the overall content of this book is crucial to understand if you have not previously worked in a software or web environment. The fact it is also free to access at any time to be a refresher on any concepts you do not recall is also a definite plus.
References
Lynch, J., and Horton, S. (Accessed February 5, 2024). Web Style Guide. http://www.webstyleguide.com