Category Archives: resources

Weekly Resources #2

Learn

Weekly News for Designers (SpeckyBoy Design Magazine) – A great list of resources including SASS, .js, WordPress, and GUI design elements.

Announcing Google Search Console – the new Webmaster Tools (Google Webmaster Blog) – Google Webmaster tools has been rebranded as Google Search Console to better reflect it’s different types of users.

Develop

What Really Matters: Focusing on Top Tasks (A List Apart) – A great article about identifying the top tasks that matter most to your users and learning to focus and refine those.

Design

40 High-Resolution Photoshop Brush Packs (SpeckyBoy Design Magazine) – A great list of free brushes for your use.

Weekly Resources # 1

Learn

Some Common Legal Misconceptions About Image Usage (SpeckyBoy Design Magazine) – A great article about using images you find online, and many misconceptions that come with it. Covers government images, creative commons, and stock photos.

Finding more mobile-friendly search results (Google Webmaster Central Blog) – Google is lending more weight to mobile- friendly websites. This is a good time to add the option.

Develop

Building a Custom Archive Page for WordPress (Smashing Magazine) – A great tutorial if you’ve ever wanted to spruce up your archives page.

How to Improve UX Design with A/B Testing (Vandelay Design) – An introduction to A/B testing as well as tools to achieve it.

Design

10 Free Detailed Vector Halftone Texture Backgrounds (Spoon Graphics) – A set of free vectors for your Illustrator projects.

Short List

I remember the days when the mighty directory was on the front page over at Yahoo; the days before Google and that little search bar took prominence. While I can’t deny the power of that massive web database I used to get a bit annoyed when searching through the list only pointed me to another website that was also an exhaustive list of links. It wasn’t just Yahoo of course, there were other web directories like that, where you never seemed to actually get to any real websites, just lists upon lists. So it’s not surprising that I have some issues with “resource sites.” However there are a few I find particularly useful, so here’s a (very) short list.

Web Developer’s Handbook – I use this one constantly. It’s a massive list (all on one page) of all sorts of web design/development resources ranging from inspiration to code. The good thing about this one is that the sites that link are direct, and not directories themselves.

20+ Free Web Design Ebooks and Guides – Can’t afford those expensive books? Well here you go. Arranged by category.

Web Design Library – A bit more commercial but useful anyway. Covers basics, code, scripting, and offers graphic design tutorials for a variety of programs.