Where I Get Design News & Training
I have been a professional web designer for five years. I developed an interest in graphic and interactive design as a journalist covering technology issues when I had to design my own website seven years ago. Since then, I have been hooked and have designed dozens of websites for other people over the years.
I also teach web design to other journalists. Last week I had the opportunity to instruct a multimedia design for media development class in New York City for a group of journaIists from the developing world during UN Week. Many were very excited to be in the class, as it is often difficult to receive this kind of training in their home countries. They asked me how I got my training. I told them that I took some traditional web and graphic design classes in the past, but I am mostly self taught from just taking in all the free resources online.
Technology is always changing, so I have to stay up to date with the latest news and innovations. The students in the media development class asked me to share my resources on my blog. The following is a short list of online resources for design training:
Smashing Magazine: This is the most popular online magazine for web designers and developers with useful resources in their blog and ebook series.
A List Apart: Another must-read website for web professionals. They have great articles about the politics of web design, like this piece on making web design events more inclusive for young designers. Their sister company, A Book Apart, also sells a great selection of design ebooks.
Awwwards: This is a pretty cool website to go to see some of the most innovative websites from around the world. You can even vote on the ones you like.
CSS Zen Garden: HTML and CSS go together like peanut butter and jelly (wait a minute…) You can learn how to design better style sheets straight from the pros.
W3Schools: If you ever Google any HTML code, most likely a link from this website will pop at the top of the search list. A great website for basic explanations and tutorials on regularly used coding.
Code Academy: Another great site to learn coding
Khan Academy: Good place to learn JavaScript through an interactive experience.
Graphic Design Blender: If you have any interest in freelancing, this is a great place to hear from other self employed designers talk shop and inside baseball on running your own business.
YouTube: When in doubt, most likely someone already thought of doing a video tutorial about whatever web design question you have.
Graphic Design School: If I had to recommend one book you should read, it’s this one. It gives you a basic foundation of graphic design principles that are useful for print and web.
Do you have other recommendations? Leave a comment or email me directly.