An alphabetical list of all the best resources, galleries, tools and other sites relating to web design. It was quite a challenge to choose representatives for some of the letters. Who do you think should have made the list? Post your suggestions in the comments.
A is for
For people who make websites. A List Apart Magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.
The articles on A List Apart are a must read for any web designer whether they be beginner or expert. A number of skilled writers contribute articles on all things web design and the web culture, with useful tutorials being published regularly.
B is for
A podcast for those who design, develop or run websites. Hosted by Paul Boag, the Boagworld podcast is a fantastic weekly resource for web designers and developers, commenting on the latest issues affecting the web world. I had the pleasure of asking Paul about using Twitter a few days ago.
C is for
A variety of CSS tips are available at CSS-Tricks, where Chris Coyier shares his wisdom with a mountain of CSS and other web development posts to make our lives so much easier. I also got to chat to Chris about his views on Twitter.
D is for
Down at the Design Shack you can find a whole host of tutorials, website galleries, jobs and design chat, a great resource for any budding designers.
E is for
Designer, writer, speaker and sometimes musician, Elliot Jay Stocks, has a range of inspirational work in his portfolio. Well worth checking out to see where you should to be aiming.
F is for
I can honestly say there is not a more useful Firefox addon for web designers than Firebug. This little tool allows you to edit CSS, Javascript and HTML in your browser in real time. Such a time saver rather than continuously uploading your changes and hitting refresh again and again.
G is for
You can’t possibly expect to keep your site on tip top form if you just design your sites, upload them and leave it like that. You need to be monitoring your stats constantly, seeing where your visitors are coming from, why you get spikes of traffic and watching your clickthrough rates. Google Analytics is one of the best applications out there for monitoring your sites and is so easy to start using.
H is for
While I am not a strict enforcer of having a 100% correctly valid HTML site and I loath those little ticky buttons saying valid HTML, it’s still incredibly important to understand why your site is not valid if it fails this test. There’s an interesting debate going on over at Lee Munroe’s blog about the topic of validation.
I is for
“I Love Typography was born from a desire to bring the subject of Typography to the masses” and it works! Typography is a subject I am really interested in, but I will be the first to admit I don’t spend enough time when choosing a font. This site is a great resource to find out more about Typography, which should be a top priority for web designers.
J is for
If you are into your Javascript then you have most likely at least played with jQuery.
jQuery is a fast and concise JavaScript Library that simplifies HTML document traversing, event handling, animating, and Ajax interactions for rapid web development. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript.
K is for
An amazing colour theme generator, where you can choose from thousands of colour schemes created by the Kuler community or use an image to generate an entirely original one. Colour harmony is a major part of designing any website and needs to be thought about carefully. Honestly there are so many advantages to this application you just need to check it out!
L is for
If you are looking for some identity inspiration then head on over to Logo Pond where thousands of beautiful logos are on display. Remember copyright laws of course! There’s a difference between getting inspired and blatant theft.
M is for
Want to know where the greatest web minds are cooking up the next exciting web projects? Then head over to the Mozilla Labs.
A virtual lab where people come together to create, experiment, and play with new Web innovations and technologies.
N is for
There’s thousands of web design and development tutorial sites out there but few do it as well as NetTuts.
NETTUTS is a site aimed at web developers and designers offering tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how you design and build websites. We cover HTML, CSS, Javascript, CMS’s, PHP and Ruby on Rails.
O is for
It’s very easy to get comfortable using one browser and stick with that for life. I’m as guilty of that as anybody but it’s really important to check your site out in all other browsers available. Opera offers a whole heap of hidden goodies including mouse gestures and is a major player in the mobile browser industry.
P is for
Sister site of NetTuts and is just as useful. PSDTuts is a fantastic resource for beginners to experts in Photoshop with great tutorials being published regularly.
Q is for
While there wasn’t much competition in the Q department, Quirksmode is a clear winner with its list of CSS and Javascript tips and tricks, defeating many browser incompatibility issues.
R is for
Like Gardeners Question Time, but for geeks.
Run by John Oxton and Jon Hicks, The Rissington Podcast is a really funny podcast for, eh, geeks of course! A must for all web designers or spies trying to worm their way seamlessly into the web geek community. To be honest, I’m listening to it right now as I write this. :)
S is for
What isn’t there on Smashing Magazine? It’s got design articles, tutorials, freebies, everything! Has to be in your bookmarks if you’re looking for the latest web design goodies. I got to chat to SM in my series of Twitter interviews also.
T is for
Think Vitamin is an online magazine for web designers, where you can view a variety of articles and video interviews to help you on your merry way to becoming an inspired professional in the web industry.
U is for
A CSS gallery which offers a cash prize for the most uniquely CSS designed site every month. Seven finalists are selected to be featured on the homepage and the winner gets $25 and a month‘s worth of bragging rights.
V is for
A fantastc blog from a talented graphic and web designer, where Veerle takes us through a variety of XHTML/CSS and graphic design tips among other things. Definitely the only representative for the letter V!
W is for
If you are designing a blog and aren’t using Wordpress, you must have a good reason. Unless it’s for a huge company who can afford their own CMS, you should be considering using this open source godsend. There is an unending list of plugins to make your blog all shiny and lovely and it’s so easy to create your own theme in no time.
X is for
Come on, you need to be using XHTML people. :)
Y is for
The Yahoo! Developer Network offers Web Services and APIs that make it easy for developers to build applications and mashups. Definitely worth checking out if you are experimenting with web apps in any way.
Z is for
Last but not least, CSS Zen Garden should be one of your top resources for CSS inspiration. If you want to see the full power of Cascading Style Sheets then head on down to the Zen Garden to see the same HTML creatively styled in thousands of different ways.
Of course it would not be fair to limit this list to letters and leave out the numbers, so here is the representative for all the number sites.
24 Ways
What better way to celebrate the Festive season than with a daily blog on some web goodness?
24 ways is the advent calendar for web geeks. Each day throughout December we publish a daily dose of web design and development goodness to bring you all a little Christmas cheer.
Fin
Well that’s it for the A to Z of Web Design! What resources do you think should have made the list and become the representative of a certain letter?