LTU Web Design

Since I began teaching “Web Site Design” at Lawrence Tech, I’ve researched a bazillion (or so) web design sites.

Web sites about web sites, if you will. Thousands abound, though most are crap. You’d be shocked at how many these so-called “sources” still carry a torch for Dynamic HTML, ignore open web standards in favor of vendor-locked drivel or give honest SEO pros a bad name.

Never mind the foolish attempts to monetize social media. Tsk, tsk.

Having tossed those bad apples, I’ve sampled the good ones with my students. Some of the better sites have come and gone—forgotten classics such as Webmonkey (long abandoned by Lycos) and Builder.com (which redirects to a distant cousin Down Under). Charity Kahn, if you’re out there: we miss your “Stupid Web Tricks.”

Anyway, I was asked the following a few weeks ago by Tim M., one of my students:

“Could you share with us your most favorite web design sites?”

Sure, I thought. I’ve been meaning to publish a complete list of my personal favorites to share with my class. This will be simple. It wasn’t.

Never mind that my disparate web libraries were woefully tangled. Upon sorting through the perennial examples and battle-tested tutorials, I realized that I had bookmarked far too many sites and long ignored most of them, save a few standbys.

Information overload is a poor excuse, as any GTD disciple will tell you. Besides, I’m supposed to be the web prof here. Tim is depending on me. I can’t let him down.

Fair enough. I decided to give myself three simple parameters in choosing my list of all-time web design faves:

1. The web site must be timely, informative, inspirational and well-written, as well as provide excellent learning examples for both novices and experts alike.
2. It goes without staying that the design of the site itself must be creative, simple and elegant.
3. Were the site ever to stale or cease to exist, I would cry my eyes out, stomp my feet, quit my job and open a hot dog stand. Maybe an old record store.

What I decided not to do was subjectively rank them in any way. Such feeble-mindedness is akin to arguing whether Pet Sounds was superior to Sgt. Pepper. You’d just get yourself into all sorts of trouble.

At the very least, I grouped them into a few basic categories. In alphabetical order:

Comprehensive web design sites
Soup-to-nuts coverage of XHTML, CSS, scripting, visual design, usability, information architecture, server administration, web standards, accessibility, search engine optimization, social media and so forth…

• A List Apart
• Digital Web
• SitePoint
• W3Schools
• Web Page Design for Designers (back from the dead!)

Speciality web design sites
Particular emphasis on best practices in (typically) one area of web design…

• 24 ways
• Alertbox (by Jakob Nielsen, usability guru and self-admitted non-designer)
• Boxes and Arrows
• Google Webmaster Central and blog
• MaxDesign (home of the Listamatic, Listutorial, Floatutorial and Selectutorial)
• Microformats
• Quirksmode
• ReadWriteWeb
• Stylegala
• UX Magazine
• Vitamin
• Westciv
• Yahoo! Developer Center, including the Design Pattern Library and User Interface Library

Web designers whom I sincerely respect
Well-known experts in the field that I would hire or wish would hire me, either way…

• Dan Benjamin
• Mark Boulton
• Dan Cederholm
• Jesse James Garrett
• Shaun Inman
• Roger Johansson
• Andy King
• Dan Shea
• Steve Smith
• Jeffrey Veen
• Jeffrey Zeldman

I’m missing many a name, truth be told. Molly Holzschlag, Dean Edwards, Eric Meyer (a fellow Clevelander, no less!), Tantek Çelik, Steve Champeon and countless others. Mention any more and I’d just be name-dropping. I fancy myself a trail guide, but these folks are the real trailblazers.

Not to mention other sites likes BrainJar, Web Developer’s Virtual Library, HTML Help, HTMLSource, HTML Dog, Evolt and The Web Standards Project—all sites I came to rely on over the years but fell out of favor for a variety of reasons. Again, your results may vary.

In fact, I’d love to hear from you. How about your “best of the web” sites? Which bookmarks wouldn’t you trade for water if lost on a desert island? And who or what did I sorely miss?

I hope this answers Tim’s question. It wasn’t quite as easy as ticking off my “Top 5,” but like John Cusack in most of his movies, I’d just be beating myself up.

Feel free to steal these links, bookmark them and share at will. I prefer ma.gnolia.