Resources for Learning Web Design

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jumpingspider

New Member
For those of you that want to learn Web design and would like a recommendation of on-line and off-line resources, what to do, and what not to do, this thread is for you.

Inspiration and Industry News
Get yourself informed about the web design industry. It's an extremely dynamic arena, so this is a never ending practice.

Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine is focused on design and web-development. We deliver useful information, latest trends and techniques, useful ideas, innovative approaches and tools.

A List Apart
A List Apart Magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

CSS Zen Garden
A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design.

CSS Gallery Sites
Do a google search for 'css gallery'. Find about 10, frequently updated gallery sites that suit your tastes, bookmark them, and visit a few times a week.

Web Design Style and Graphics
What are the conventions of web design? Where is a good place to learn how to do this stuff properly...

Yale Web Style Guide
Comprehensive coverage of basic design principles for creating web sites.

Websites That Suck
Knowing what NOT to do is just as important as how to design web sites properly. Learn from other designers' mistakes and ensure you don't wind up with a site that sucks donkey nutz.

Web Design @ Wiki
A good introduction to web design, history and current issues. Lots of internal resources and links to good quality related material.

Website Wire-frames
Website wire-frames are the best method of planning and scoping out a website project. I consider wire-frames as the most effective tool for communicating a web design project details to all parties involved from the client to the gfx designer to the developer.

Web Design Coursework and Tutorials
Good tutorials are hard to come by these days. The topic is now full of spam and duplicate content. 90% of the search results for design tutorials are utter garbage. So where to look? Dig into those search results and bookmark a few gem sites, the diamonds in the rough so to speak. Alternatively, check out some of these premium sites:-

Lynda.com
Software training & tutorial video library. Our online courses help you learn critical skills. Free access & previews on hundreds of tutorials.
(Lou - keep ur fricking 'poach lynda content' youtube link to yourself)

W3Schools
HTML XHTML CSS JavaScript XML XSL ASP SQL ADO VBScript Tutorials References Examples.

Web Design Library
Web Design Library offers free web design tutorials, articles, news, interviews, web design showcase, software reviews, free web design stuff.

Sitepoint Courses & Books
An Aussie mob, so I may be biased; but Sitepoint is one of the major players in this niche - there's no denying that. I have a shelf devoted to Sitepoint publications and every book in pdf version. One of the best reference libraries in use at our office.

Web Design Software & Digital Assets
What software do you need to be a productive & creative web designer. Consider though, if you are going to make a living out of web design, pay your dues to the companies that built your software and don't use pirated software.

Photoshop or Gimp
Photoshop if you can afford a license - this is a must. Use Gimp in a pinch.

Fireworks
Fireworks is a graphics optimisation solution. Fireworks is NOT for photo or graphics editing/animation. Whilst Fireworks can do basic bitmap, vector editing and animation, this is not it's primary purpose. Fireworks is chiefly about optimising web graphics; no other software does it better.

Illustrator or CorelDRAW
Many companies will supply logos and digital assets as vector files. Photoshop doesn't handle vectors with remotely as much sophistication as Illustrator or CorelDRAW. For those of you on a budget, check out the open-source offerings (you get what you pay for though): InkScape and Karbon14.

Visual Web Designing Software
Dreamweaver has the largest market share. It is the standard for the visual web design industry.
MS Expression Web (formerly FrontPage). With a heritage from FrontPage, I wouldn't touch it with a 10ft barge pole - but others swear by it, especially if you want to work on MS servers & technology.
NetOjbects Fusion
A fair amount of hype around netobjects. Download a trial and judge for yourself.

There are others, CoffeeCup HTML, KompoZer, and SeaMonkey. All cheap, and will get the job done.

FileZilla
Open-source FTP program (Windows, Linux & MacOSX). Supports everything you'll ever possibly need for file transfers and bulk permissions.

iStockphoto
All web companies that I have worked for have had iStock accounts. Whilst iStock is a good source of stock images and graphics, it is also a controversial source of generic logos and ID designs. If you want a career in web design, don't support off-the-shelf design suppliers.

Fotolia
Buy and sell royalty-free stock photos on Fotolia. Affordable royalty-free stock photos, cheap stock images and stock pictures.

WikiMedia Commons
WikiMedia is a fantastic source of digital assets on a budget (free). Just be sure to double check the licence for what you use.

Your Own Digital Camera
You should own a 1/2 decent, portable digital camera and take it with you EVERYWHERE! Take photos of anything and everything, from fruit down at the local supermarket, crowds and buildings, cars and trees. Build up a collection and organise/tag/categorise them. You won't have to pay for these images, and they're original.

Copyright Warning
You should not source graphics and photos to use in your site from image search engines. In 99.9% of cases, you'll be breaching copyright.


Appreciated your thought on sharing this!
 

Absolution

New Member
I am not sure if the original poster is still around. But I think Inkscape should have a greater emphasis as it rates itself by the few features it doesnt have that Illustrator does, rather than the amount of features it does have, which is a ton and many Illustrator doesn't.

Also I think Notepad++ should be put on there as well. Emphasis on hand coding and clean coding early on saves a lot of work later. In my opinion at least. :)
 

Roka

New Member
For those of you that want to learn Web design and would like a recommendation of on-line and off-line resources, what to do, and what not to do, this thread is for you.

Inspiration and Industry News
Get yourself informed about the web design industry. It's an extremely dynamic arena, so this is a never ending practice.



useful sources and great effort

thanks a lot :)
 

Santosh

New Member
Thank you V8Media ... I got something new from you webdesign listing. I always love w3school.com and psdbucket.com to check out. Thanks again.
 

sophiessmom

New Member
You are awesome!

Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (imagine a horizontal number 8 for infinity) much for posting this thread! It has really helped me a lot! :)
 

westind

New Member
Great post

Very nice article. Extremely useful information. I learned something new from this post :):)
For those of you that want to learn Web design and would like a recommendation of on-line and off-line resources, what to do, and what not to do, this thread is for you.

Inspiration and Industry News
Get yourself informed about the web design industry. It's an extremely dynamic arena, so this is a never ending practice.

Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine is focused on design and web-development. We deliver useful information, latest trends and techniques, useful ideas, innovative approaches and tools.

A List Apart
A List Apart Magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

CSS Zen Garden
A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design.

CSS Gallery Sites
Do a google search for 'css gallery'. Find about 10, frequently updated gallery sites that suit your tastes, bookmark them, and visit a few times a week.

Web Design Style and Graphics
What are the conventions of web design? Where is a good place to learn how to do this stuff properly...

Yale Web Style Guide
Comprehensive coverage of basic design principles for creating web sites.

Websites That Suck
Knowing what NOT to do is just as important as how to design web sites properly. Learn from other designers' mistakes and ensure you don't wind up with a site that sucks donkey nutz.

Web Design @ Wiki
A good introduction to web design, history and current issues. Lots of internal resources and links to good quality related material.

Website Wire-frames
Website wire-frames are the best method of planning and scoping out a website project. I consider wire-frames as the most effective tool for communicating a web design project details to all parties involved from the client to the gfx designer to the developer.

Web Design Coursework and Tutorials
Good tutorials are hard to come by these days. The topic is now full of spam and duplicate content. 90% of the search results for design tutorials are utter garbage. So where to look? Dig into those search results and bookmark a few gem sites, the diamonds in the rough so to speak. Alternatively, check out some of these premium sites:-

Lynda.com
Software training & tutorial video library. Our online courses help you learn critical skills. Free access & previews on hundreds of tutorials.
(Lou - keep ur fricking 'poach lynda content' youtube link to yourself)

W3Schools
HTML XHTML CSS JavaScript XML XSL ASP SQL ADO VBScript Tutorials References Examples.

Web Design Library
Web Design Library offers free web design tutorials, articles, news, interviews, web design showcase, software reviews, free web design stuff.

Sitepoint Courses & Books
An Aussie mob, so I may be biased; but Sitepoint is one of the major players in this niche - there's no denying that. I have a shelf devoted to Sitepoint publications and every book in pdf version. One of the best reference libraries in use at our office.

Web Design Software & Digital Assets
What software do you need to be a productive & creative web designer. Consider though, if you are going to make a living out of web design, pay your dues to the companies that built your software and don't use pirated software.

Photoshop or Gimp
Photoshop if you can afford a license - this is a must. Use Gimp in a pinch.

Fireworks
Fireworks is a graphics optimisation solution. Fireworks is NOT for photo or graphics editing/animation. Whilst Fireworks can do basic bitmap, vector editing and animation, this is not it's primary purpose. Fireworks is chiefly about optimising web graphics; no other software does it better.

Illustrator or CorelDRAW
Many companies will supply logos and digital assets as vector files. Photoshop doesn't handle vectors with remotely as much sophistication as Illustrator or CorelDRAW. For those of you on a budget, check out the open-source offerings (you get what you pay for though): InkScape and Karbon14.

Visual Web Designing Software
Dreamweaver has the largest market share. It is the standard for the visual web design industry.
MS Expression Web (formerly FrontPage). With a heritage from FrontPage, I wouldn't touch it with a 10ft barge pole - but others swear by it, especially if you want to work on MS servers & technology.
NetOjbects Fusion
A fair amount of hype around netobjects. Download a trial and judge for yourself.

There are others, CoffeeCup HTML, KompoZer, and SeaMonkey. All cheap, and will get the job done.

FileZilla
Open-source FTP program (Windows, Linux & MacOSX). Supports everything you'll ever possibly need for file transfers and bulk permissions.

iStockphoto
All web companies that I have worked for have had iStock accounts. Whilst iStock is a good source of stock images and graphics, it is also a controversial source of generic logos and ID designs. If you want a career in web design, don't support off-the-shelf design suppliers.

Fotolia
Buy and sell royalty-free stock photos on Fotolia. Affordable royalty-free stock photos, cheap stock images and stock pictures.

WikiMedia Commons
WikiMedia is a fantastic source of digital assets on a budget (free). Just be sure to double check the licence for what you use.

Your Own Digital Camera
You should own a 1/2 decent, portable digital camera and take it with you EVERYWHERE! Take photos of anything and everything, from fruit down at the local supermarket, crowds and buildings, cars and trees. Build up a collection and organise/tag/categorise them. You won't have to pay for these images, and they're original.

Copyright Warning
You should not source graphics and photos to use in your site from image search engines. In 99.9% of cases, you'll be breaching copyright.
 

marketer_5000

New Member
Great list! Thanks for posting this! I agree with most (if not all of these recommendations) Awesome! :)

For those of you that want to learn Web design and would like a recommendation of on-line and off-line resources, what to do, and what not to do, this thread is for you.

Inspiration and Industry News
Get yourself informed about the web design industry. It's an extremely dynamic arena, so this is a never ending practice.

Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine is focused on design and web-development. We deliver useful information, latest trends and techniques, useful ideas, innovative approaches and tools.

A List Apart
A List Apart Magazine explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.

CSS Zen Garden
A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design.

CSS Gallery Sites
Do a google search for 'css gallery'. Find about 10, frequently updated gallery sites that suit your tastes, bookmark them, and visit a few times a week.

Web Design Style and Graphics
What are the conventions of web design? Where is a good place to learn how to do this stuff properly...

Yale Web Style Guide
Comprehensive coverage of basic design principles for creating web sites.

Websites That Suck
Knowing what NOT to do is just as important as how to design web sites properly. Learn from other designers' mistakes and ensure you don't wind up with a site that sucks donkey nutz.

Web Design @ Wiki
A good introduction to web design, history and current issues. Lots of internal resources and links to good quality related material.

Website Wire-frames
Website wire-frames are the best method of planning and scoping out a website project. I consider wire-frames as the most effective tool for communicating a web design project details to all parties involved from the client to the gfx designer to the developer.

Web Design Coursework and Tutorials
Good tutorials are hard to come by these days. The topic is now full of spam and duplicate content. 90% of the search results for design tutorials are utter garbage. So where to look? Dig into those search results and bookmark a few gem sites, the diamonds in the rough so to speak. Alternatively, check out some of these premium sites:-

Lynda.com
Software training & tutorial video library. Our online courses help you learn critical skills. Free access & previews on hundreds of tutorials.
(Lou - keep ur fricking 'poach lynda content' youtube link to yourself)

W3Schools
HTML XHTML CSS JavaScript XML XSL ASP SQL ADO VBScript Tutorials References Examples.

Web Design Library
Web Design Library offers free web design tutorials, articles, news, interviews, web design showcase, software reviews, free web design stuff.

Sitepoint Courses & Books
An Aussie mob, so I may be biased; but Sitepoint is one of the major players in this niche - there's no denying that. I have a shelf devoted to Sitepoint publications and every book in pdf version. One of the best reference libraries in use at our office.

Web Design Software & Digital Assets
What software do you need to be a productive & creative web designer. Consider though, if you are going to make a living out of web design, pay your dues to the companies that built your software and don't use pirated software.

Photoshop or Gimp
Photoshop if you can afford a license - this is a must. Use Gimp in a pinch.

Fireworks
Fireworks is a graphics optimisation solution. Fireworks is NOT for photo or graphics editing/animation. Whilst Fireworks can do basic bitmap, vector editing and animation, this is not it's primary purpose. Fireworks is chiefly about optimising web graphics; no other software does it better.

Illustrator or CorelDRAW
Many companies will supply logos and digital assets as vector files. Photoshop doesn't handle vectors with remotely as much sophistication as Illustrator or CorelDRAW. For those of you on a budget, check out the open-source offerings (you get what you pay for though): InkScape and Karbon14.

Visual Web Designing Software
Dreamweaver has the largest market share. It is the standard for the visual web design industry.
MS Expression Web (formerly FrontPage). With a heritage from FrontPage, I wouldn't touch it with a 10ft barge pole - but others swear by it, especially if you want to work on MS servers & technology.
NetOjbects Fusion
A fair amount of hype around netobjects. Download a trial and judge for yourself.

There are others, CoffeeCup HTML, KompoZer, and SeaMonkey. All cheap, and will get the job done.

FileZilla
Open-source FTP program (Windows, Linux & MacOSX). Supports everything you'll ever possibly need for file transfers and bulk permissions.

iStockphoto
All web companies that I have worked for have had iStock accounts. Whilst iStock is a good source of stock images and graphics, it is also a controversial source of generic logos and ID designs. If you want a career in web design, don't support off-the-shelf design suppliers.

Fotolia
Buy and sell royalty-free stock photos on Fotolia. Affordable royalty-free stock photos, cheap stock images and stock pictures.

WikiMedia Commons
WikiMedia is a fantastic source of digital assets on a budget (free). Just be sure to double check the licence for what you use.

Your Own Digital Camera
You should own a 1/2 decent, portable digital camera and take it with you EVERYWHERE! Take photos of anything and everything, from fruit down at the local supermarket, crowds and buildings, cars and trees. Build up a collection and organise/tag/categorise them. You won't have to pay for these images, and they're original.

Copyright Warning
You should not source graphics and photos to use in your site from image search engines. In 99.9% of cases, you'll be breaching copyright.
 

WebSquad

New Member
I always suggest people to just jump in and not waste your time on tutorials. Just become enveloped in the programs and see where it goes.
 
First time I looked at this page and I didn't go thru all the pages, so sorry if this has been posted. W3Schools while good for some things should be taken with a grain of salt. Please before taking all of it for gospel, take a look at Paul Irish's site:
W3FOOLS
 

zipinel

New Member
From this list I often use Lynda...but there are a lot of websites that I didn't even now about them.

WebSquad ..you say that thing to new designers because you want them to practice it..but..before practice you really need some theory
 

Jajinder

New Member
Hi,

Just new on the forum, but here's something. In the beginning of this year I wanted to create my own website and code manually. Fortunately there are LOADS! of tutorials people can find on the internet, however I couldn't find any texteditor which had features I really wanted to see in an HTML-editor.

Fortunately I know how to code in .NET and I started to create my own HTML-editor, named "Webstract Studio". I had some beta-tester and they are extremely enthusiastic about the way the software works. "Tutorialzine" and "Smashing Magazines" are going to write a review on their website(s), cause they are quite impressed.

Why don't you have a look and tell me what you think of it.

http://www.x-impress.com/software/webstract.html

Kind regards,
Jajinder
 
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