The 10 websites featured in this gallery are resources that I turn to for information and tips when I’m working on a Web site design project. Some of the resources are tech centric, and some are helpful guides for making a site look first-rate. All of the Web design sites are useful to Web developers, people who might consider themselves Web designers or Webmasters, or people who don’t do any backend code work.
A List Apart is the site to go to for information about making websites, whether it is writing JavaScript, weird CSS tricks, or HTML oddities.
Related TechRepublic blog: Web design sites with must-read tips.
Jakob Nielsen’s useit.com is a critical resource for usability issues. If you want to know how to ensure that the people who visit your site do not get frustrated, take the time to go through the archives of Nielsen’s Alertbox columns.
Related TechRepublic blog: Web design sites with must-read tips.
Google’s Webmaster Guidelines is a must-read website. Why? Because it tells you what you need to know about making sure that your site is Google-friendly. Why spend money on paid advertising when Google will tell you how to get top billing for free?
Related TechRepublic blog: Web design sites with must-read tips.
The W3C’s website is home to many of the specs that control the Web; most importantly, the HTML and CSS specifications are there. If you want to know why something works the way it does, check out the specs. The W3C also has HTML validators, which can be quite useful.
Related TechRepublic blog: Web design sites with must-read tips.
If you need a font to spruce up your site, Blambot is a great place to look. The site has tons of cool, free fonts, as well as an excellent collection of paid fonts. And for more geek cred, there is a decent chance that some of your favorite comics were lettered by the owner Nate Piekos, or with one of his fonts!
Related TechRepublic blog: Web design sites with must-read tips.
Are you having trouble picking out a new color scheme for your site? If so, Adobe’s kuler site is the place to go. The site currently features more than 11,000 color schemes, and you can create and share your own color scheme.
Related TechRepublic blog: Web design sites with must-read tips.
Danny Sullivan’s Search Engine Land is the best resource that I know of to stay on top of trends and developments in the search engine market. Although the site is primarily for people in the SEO business, I find that reading the Search Engine Land articles allows me to make informed decisions at a technical and design level in order to have my sites be as highly ranked in search engines as possible.
Related TechRepublic blog: Web design sites with must-read tips.
If there is a specification that you cannot find on W3C, the next place to look is RFC Editor. This site has saved my bacon countless times, because there is simply no substitute for understanding how something like HTTP works when you are trying to solve a problem.
Related TechRepublic blog: Web design sites with must-read tips.
The HSL Color Schemer is a useful tool when you’re working on your site’s colors. The tool uses the well-known principles of color math to take a base color and create an array of other colors that will be pleasing to the eye when placed with each other.
Related TechRepublic blog: Web design sites with must-read tips.
I am an all purpose IT person. If there's a generic job title in IT, I've probably had it, most likely more than once. Programmer, systems administrator, DBA, PC tech/repair, Help Desk, webmaster, web designer, web developer, applications developer, network engineering. Somehow I have managed to get my thumb stuck in each one of those pies!
