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My Most Useful Web Design Tools/Resources

Posted in: design, resources, tools at about 10am

Inspiration

I’ve posted on this a few times, so I won’t put very many items here.

DailyType. I’m totally obsessed with type! This site has daily type specimens that make be glad to be alive. I’ve talked enough about this in the past, but I really love it.

Hoefler & Frere-Jones “News, Notes, & Observations” Blog. Jonathan Hoefler writes a wonderful blog on the H&FJ website. Definitely one of my favorites. Aside from being one of the best type designers that I’m aware of, Mr. Hoefler seems to be extremely knowledgeable about all things design-related. His writing is witty, smart, and very interesting. Reading this blog reminds me of the typographer that I desire to be.

Various CSS Galleries. They’re all the same idea, some are better than others. I usually look at: cssremix.com, cssimport.com, bestwebgallery.com, and designmeltdown.com. Design Melt Down is nice because it’s extensive categorization of the designs–really helpful if you’re looking for specific inspiration.

Blogs

A key component, I believe, of being a good web designer is learning to keep up with the field. The reality is that technologies, conventions, and, even, standards change so rapidly in this field, that without spending time keeping up with those changes, you’ll inevitably get behind. In efforts to keep up with everything, I have found a few weblogs particularly helpful. (Admittedly, these aren’t, maybe, the most respected or prominent, but to me they have been the most helpful.)

Smashing Magazine. About 90% of their content is about 100% awesome. They have great tutorials, great articles for inspiration, great lists of resources… In a sense, they do a good job of collecting work from all over the web and bringing it together in a way that’s really helpful for web designers.

WebAppers. This might be one of my favorite blogs. When I sign into my feedreader service and look down to see there is a new post from WebAppers, I usually get a little excited. For me, I have found few sites that find and showcase as many helpful tools for designers as webappers does. If you haven’t seen this site, you really ought to check it out and spend some time browsing their archives.

Boagworld. Technically, this is a podcast. Boagworld is the world’s longest running, web design-focused podcast. Paul Boag, hailing from the U.K, hosts a weekly podcast that presents news about the web design industry, interviews with leaders in the field, and various features discussing and/or highlighting current issues for web designers. For me, being an American, I find the British humor in the show, too, to be quite entertaining.

CSS Drive News. CSS Drive is a CSS gallery site, but accompanying it is a news stream. They frequenly have helpful news tidbits. I like it.

Alright, friends, that’s what I have for you today. I hope you enjoy these resources and that you find them as helpful as I have. Feel free to add any of your own in the comments. Peace.

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