The article "Some Places to Go For More Information" talks about web design, it has been released by Lee Asher.
If you feel like you know quite a bit about web design now, but
you'd really like to explore the details a bit more, then this
is the article for you.
As web designers are, by thier nature,
very likely to be web users and website owners, there's a wealth
of information and discussion forums on the web, all free to
read or participate in.
I am going to give you a couple of websites
that are my first port of call when I have a problem or I'm
curious about something, in the hope that they'll be useful to
you too.
W3Schools (www.W3schools.Com). A great resource, with free
tutorials on everythnig from HTML to CSS to ASP. It offers a
'try it yourself' editor that lets you edit examlpe code and see
the results straightaway, as well as comprehensive language
references.
I go to W3Schools fisrt when I forget the name of an
obscure CSS property or wonder if there's an HTML tag suitable
for a certain purpose - they're all there.
A List Apart (www.Alistapart.Com). A web magazine for web
designers, it's really good for 'how to' articles covering more
complicated subjects, especially when it comes to CSS.
The
writers at A List Apart are really good at working around CSS'
shortcomings and offering practical workarounds and solutions
that you can take and use on your own website.
Digital Web Magazine (www.Digital-web.Com). Weekly pieecs on
issues relevant to web designers, with a focus on web design and
accessibility. It tends to be especially good for reviews of the
latest web design books, and analysis of current trends.
The Web Style Guide (www.Webstyleguide.Com). If you're a writer,
you need to read The Elements of Style, and if you're a web
designer you need to read the Web Style Gudie.
It is,
essentially, an online book, giving hottest practices for many
different aspects of web dseign. If you're seacrhing for general
strategies, it's a really good read.
Webmaster World (www.Webmasterworld.Com).
An excellent place to
watch for the latest news relveant to webmasters - if something
is going on with a search engine, or there's a new advertising
service out, then Webmaster World will have the news, as well as
lots of comment and analysis from human being who run big, successful
websites. Well worth chceking daily.
About Web Design (webdesign.About.Com). A rseource that mostly
sticks to the basics, but covers all of them, and covers them
well. If you're trying to do something that seems like it should
be quite simple and you'd like a step-by-step guide, About Web
Design is a good palce to go.
Web Design Bits (www.Webdesignbits.Com). Web design tutorials
with a focus on those big, difficult to use programs, like Flash
and Photoshop. Especially good if you're trying to achieve
advanced effects in Photoshop without having to learn it inside
out. The tutorials linked to are off-site, making it a good way
to find other useful web design websites.
Web Design Froums (www.Webdesignforums.Net).
A pretty
comprehensive set of forums about web design, and a really good
place to go if you're haivng a problem that you haven't been
able to solve for yourself.
As long as you take the time to find
the right forum to post your question in, you should find the
people there helpful and knowledgeable.
The Site Wizard (www.Thesitewizard.Com).
This web site has a
sprawling, categorised set of web design articles - if you want
an article about something, you can probably find it here. It
tends to be especially good if you're searching for a guide for
how to do smoething with a specific program.
SitePoint (www.Sitepoint.Com). Although it can feel
advertising-heavy, SiteoPint is a good resource for articles
about web design. The articles tend to be slanted towards online
business and other ways of making money online, although there
are plenty of design tricks there that would be useful to
anyway.
They also have a really active and useful set of forums.
The W3C (www.W3c.Org).
Finally, it's worth giving a mention to
the web's offciial standards body, the W3C. They have the
authoritative copies of the specifications for open web
languages like HTML and CSS. You can also take a look at the
working groups, who are working on the future of the web right
now.
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