I know rattling off websites in blog posts are a dime a dozen these days and may not be your cup of tea. But you might want to read and bookmark these sites—you’ll definitely keep coming back to them.
It’s a very short list, so you won’t tire easily reading this, and the sites are more like Position is Everything than Smashing Magazine. (No offense intended; I know that SM does a wide variety of blog posts, not just lists and freebies. I just mean they’re more references than resources, okay?)
Web Design+
Web Design+ contains the solutions to common web standards problems. From choosing a DOCTYPE to implementing CSS hacks, this is a great one-stop-shop for the best practices in web design out there. There are a ton of HTML and CSS cheatsheets out there, but reading them shouldn’t stop there. Refine your markup and stylesheets with the help of this site, free!
When Can I Use…
When can I use… compares support for several web design features according to browser version, from HTML to CSS to SVG to other technologies.
For example: thinking of using CSS3′s rounded corners (border-radius)? It’s not even available on IE8 and Opera 10 yet. Of course, you don’t have to avoid using them just because the conclusion says “not ready”. It’s still a very useful page for recalling which browser version can support what.
On Having Layout
On having layout demystifies the concept of Internet Explorer’s hasLayout property. A lot of the IE-related CSS problems that web designers run into are related to hasLayout, so understanding how it works is essential.
The Ultimate Website Launch Checklist
The Ultimate Website Launch Checklist helps one go over key aspects of a website once it goes live. It’s more for the designer-webmaster hybrid, but regardless of your role in the process it’s a good view of what needs to be done.
Check out the more colorful, animated visualization of browser support for the latest HTML5 and CSS3 features based on data from When can I use… Inspired by a General Dynamics postcard and an infographic on America’s wealthiest religions, this single-serving site is quite literally a rainbow that’s painting optimism for the future of web standards.
Each ray represents a feature, and the different bands of color represent the leading browsers, IE6 excluded (finally). More under the hood details here, praising the virtues of Sass and Photoshop-less, in-browser design. Kudos to Paul Irish (again!) and Divya Manian.
Dribbble is a finely crafted community for designers, by designers. It’s invite-only in order to maintain high quality work on the site, but that doesn’t mean you can’t browse around for inspiration. Give it enough time to fine-tune the tagging and search features (color search is already there; UI patterns, textures, etc. would be great) and we may have the most useful, A-grade design reference out there from people who know their stuff.
There are several things that set it apart from generic portfolio and gallery sites, as it is also dubbed the “Twitter for designers”. From the tagline “what are you working on?” to its system of “rebounds” (basically a response to a “shot”) to uploads of 400 pixels or less, Dribbble is focused on brevity and the right now even when they could have entertained the whole spectrum.
Of course there’s the basketball metaphor working all around too, which when expanded even further can create some interesting activities and interactions for the community: think games, collaborations, meetups, leagues, merits. Think social games like Foursquare and BarStar, only more productive.
People have been complaining about the quality of a lot of things in the design community lately, whether it’s resource articles or the actual interactions within the community, and I see Dribbble as a partial solution to that.
*/
