If you’re into this “Web” thing, which, if you’re reading this, I imagine you are, then you probably already read a lot of blogs about it. On the off chance you don’t, here is a list of the seven best blogs currently written about Web design, development, or just the Web in general.
Stuff Tagged ‘web design’
Everyone knows that, when starting out a new web project, you should do some extensive prototyping. Sketching your interface on paper, using the lowest level of detail possible, is a very good idea, mainly because it lets you quickly see the bigger picture as well as conduct some informal usability testing, without getting bogged down by the finer points of your design.
I’ll admit that so far I haven’t really been practicing what I preach. I find drawing on paper somewhat cumbersome, and it doesn’t really give me the flexibility I need to do changes, both big and small, without having to redraw the whole thing over.
Enter Mockups, a web/desktop application made by Balsamiq. It presents you with common web application interface elements, allowing you to drag and drop them around a stage in order to build prototypes. Unlike with actual pencil drawing, you can make changes really easily, and create sketches that are more accurate and actually good looking. Another cool possibility Mockups gives you is the ability to easily share your creations, and let other members of your team write comments, make changes or suggestions to your prototypes. The full version costs $79, but you can use a version with less features (such as saving) for free. Also, if you ask nicely enough, the authors just might give it to you for free. Try it out now!
The Yahoo Design Patterns Library is a must-see if you are into web design and web development. There you can find answers to common design problems, such as how to correctly implement tabbed navigation, date-pickers, sign-in wizards, etc.
Each section details the problem faced, when to use a certain UI solution, and the proper ways to implement it, considering both usability and accessibility issues. You can also join the forums to further discuss each pattern and suggest ways to improve it, or even suggest new patterns, if you think something is missing. Either way, this is a great resource that you should probably use extensively when working on web projects. Keep it at hand at all times!
Sitepoint, a website filled with resources for web designers and developers, is giving away “The Art And Science of CSS” as a downloadable PDF.
All you have to do to get the freebie is to follow Sitepoint on Twitter, and in a matter of minutes, you’ll get the download link delivered to your inbox. Make haste, though, the offering only lasts for two weeks! I haven’t read the book yet, but it seems good enough – and hey, it’s free, right?
Just as the name implies, a CSS Reset is a stylesheet that lets you start your project on a real blank slate. What this means is that the styles defined in this particular stylesheet override (and effectively strip off) all the default browser styles Web Designers usually rely upon.
So why would you want to reset those styles? After all, they’re useful and save you a lot of code, don’t they? The answer is of course yes, but the problem is that different browsers have (very) different defaults, and if you trust default styles with too much you might just end up serving a very different experience for people with other browsers. Using a CSS Reset, however, you’re going to have to define some styles you probably didn’t even care about before, like strong, em or small. But believe me, it’s worth the extra work.
The CSS Reset stylesheet I’ve been using for a few projects now is the one written by Eric Meyer, CSS guru. You can download it here, and you’re encouraged to alter it to fit your needs.