There is a vast choice of web design and development sites out there and they are certainly not all created equal. While some sites post cutting edge ideas and helpful tutorials, others can be vague and badly explained, or worse still, full of mistakes. I have had a few questions about good design and development resources lately, so in this post I want to share with you what I think are the very best online design & development resources.
Web Design & Development Resources
- A List Apart – One of the most respected and long running sites for learning about web design and development in general. Whether you’re just starting out or an expert with years of experience; you’re likely to learn something new, or even see a familiar topic in a new light. Some of the best and brightest in the industry contribute articles & many important new trends and best practices are born here.
- Think Vitamin – A large collection of high quality articles and resources on many aspects of design and devleopment. Everything from HTML & CSS to Javascript, Ruby On Rails, business practices and beyond are covered in depth. There is also a paid membership section where you can subscribe to learning materials. Part of Carsonified.
- Inspect Element – Full of useful tutorials and articles for designers and developers and the great thing about it is that it’s geared for every level of ability. Whether you’re just getting your head around the larger concepts or you want to add to your skillset, I expect you will find something useful here.
- Design Shack – A regularly updated blog full of design and development ideas, many of which are truly innovative. Plus there is also a regularly updated web design gallery to browse through for inspiration.
- Drawar – It began as the now ubiquitous format of a design blog & website gallery but through a highly active community has evolved into a thriving forum for designers and developers to share tips & ideas.
- Dribbble – A site for designers to show off what they’re working on by posting 400px X 300px screengrabs of their work. It is invite only which means memberships are hard to come by but it keeps the quality very high. Even without a membership it’s interesting to browse and see what people are coming up with and feedback discussions that ensue. The community involvement in Dribbble along with the consistent quality is what sets it apart from many similar sites. It has become hugely popular since being launched to the public in May 2010.
WordPress Development Resources
- Darren Hoyt – An experienced web designer & developer and has created some incredibly versatile WordPress products such as the Mimbo Pro theme and the Timthumb image script. Along with such products, his blog is a good read for musings on usability & design practices.
- WP Questions – A unique site, also developed by Darren Hoyt, where you can submit your WordPress related problem to the experts for a small fee that you decide and they’ll solve it for you! Part of the Codewise network.
- Justin Tadlock – A long time WordPress user well known for his expertise on plugins, themes and frameworks. His site is full of useful tips and ideas about the more advanced uses of WordPress, as well as interesting commentary on the community.
- Devpress – A new community site created by Justin Tadlock and several others, including developers responsible for the WordPress core. They post excellent themes, plugins and tutorials and best of all, they’re all free and open source.
And there you have it. For now…
This is by no means a definitive list, merely some sites that I know to offer useful content of a quality higher than most, that I will be adding to from time to time. Which sites and blogs do you find useful? Let me know in the comments below.
- Jen
