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Dreamless
http://www.dreamless.org/
Dreamless is a deep and open community primarily populated by young graphic designers and Flash artists. Though the site’s gray-on-gray, Arialonly design gives it a somber appearance, it’s anything but dull. Dreamless discussions range from the seriously spiritual to the deliberately silly. The site has a fanatical following and encourages its members to get together at parties in various cities. If you have trouble finding the site’s front door, use View Source.
Evolt
http://www.evolt.org/
Evolt, a multi-faceted mailing list, online message board, and member-cre- ated publication, provides useful dialog spaces for technically minded web designers and developers worldwide. Accessibility and web standards are hot topics here, and you can learn simply by reading other members’ posts. Like all communities mentioned here, Evolt is self-policing; and like all successful communities, it manages the task unobtrusively.
Metafilter
http://www.metafilter.com/
Matt Haughey’s noncommercial community site is not about web design or web programming, but many web content creators will be found in its forums. Billing itself as a “community weblog,” the occasionally raucous discussion site can help you get a handle on aspects of the Web’s emerging culture. This in turn will remind you that the Web is not about HTML tags or graphic design; like Soylent Green, the Web is people.
392 HOW: Never Can Say Goodbye: From Tag Soup to Talk Soup
Redcricket
http://www.redcricket.com/
Dan Beauchamp’s personal site includes a web design forum (“Community”) that’s small, lively, and friendly. HTML questions? JavaScript woes? Redcricket could be the ticket. By maintaining a fairly low profile, Redcricket’s forum generally avoids the flame wars and ego trips that sometimes plague other lists and communities. Spend time at the site before you post. Redcricket is a tight community of friends; barging in and loudly demanding attention won’t go over well.
Webdesign-l
http://webdesign-l.com/
Stewarded by Steven Champeon, Webdesign-l is a long-running, smartly focused design and development list. Some of the brightest people in the industry participate in this highly respected list. Champeon, a systems guru who technical-edited Taking Your Talent to the Web and who co-founded The Web Standards Project, runs a tight ship. As list administrator, he keeps misinformation to a minimum and stops bad behavior before it starts. Beginner questions might be well-received if submitted with restraint. (“Hellllllp! My site is hosed!!!!!!” will probably not generate the kind of feedback you want.) Read the list rules and get used to the general discussion tone before posting to the list.
When All Else Fails
http://www.r35.com/edu/
Consider a class. R35edu offers a curriculum of over 60 courses, covering nearly every facet of web strategy, design, development, commerce, and marketing—all via “a unique distance learning environment that puts you in direct contact with creative innovators and designers from all over the world.”
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EYE AND BRAIN CANDY: EDUCATIONAL AND
INSPIRING SITES
Attempting to figure out web design exclusively from a book is like trying to learn about music without listening to any. Fortunately, the Web is rich in inspiring and educational sites. Following are a few of our favorites, including a couple of our own (cough).
Design, Programming, Content
A List Apart (http://www.alistapart.com/), “for people who make websites. From pixels to prose, coding to content.” See previous section for more on this.
Apple Internet Developer (http://developer.apple.com/internet/), launched in 2001, started small, but what it has is choice: brief and pungent tutorials on HTML, online typography, CSS, JavaScript, and the DOM.
Builder (http://www.builder.com/), “solutions for site builders,” provides articles and tutorials on graphic design, multimedia, back-end development, and even software (“Fireworks vs. ImageReady”). There is also a discussion board (Builder Buzz), and the site hosts a dandy annual web design conference in New Orleans.
Each month, Digital Web (http://www.digital-web.com/), “the web designer’s online magazine of choice,” brings you fresh interviews, tutorials, columns, and even classifieds (to help you get your next job). Edited and published by Nick Finck, who also contributes to A List Apart.
Web Page Design for Designers (http://wpdfd.com/), published monthly by Joe Gillespie, is “aimed at people…already involved with design and typography for conventional print, [who] want to explore the possibilities of this new electronic medium.” In other words, it speaks to the audience of this very book! (We would have titled this book “Web Design for Designers” if Joe hadn’t beaten us to the punch, darn him.) The site includes typefaces optimized for the Web, columns on web design and typography, and a solid listing of third-party resources.
394 HOW: Never Can Say Goodbye: Eye and Brain Candy
The Web Standards Project (http://www.webstandards.org/), co-founded by Glenn Davis, George Olsen, and your humble author, maintains a Resources section for your educational pleasure. Confused about CSS, ECMAScript, and the rest of the alphabet soup? You’ll find links to relevant articles here.
Web Techniques (http://www.webtechniques.com/) is a vast, professional publication with an accompanying real-world magazine you can read in the bathtub or carry in your attache case. It covers web technology and business and can help you understand how wireless technology interfaces with web design.
Web Review (http://www.webreview.com/) publishes some of the smartest tutorials we’ve ever seen on XHTML, JavaScript, and other web technologies and has always been a great friend to web standards. Highly recommended, particularly for those who wish to understand web technologies instead of simply pushing buttons in WYSIWYG editors.
Think of Webmonkey (http://www.webmonkey.com/), originally directed by Jeff “Art & Science of Web Design” Veen, as Builder.com with more attitude. A deep resource dating back to the earliest days of the designed Web, the site sports swell tutorials on HTML, JavaScript, and other technologies, along with columns and articles on streaming media, emerging standards, and the web business. Not updated as often as it used to be, but still a fine smoke.
Webreference (http://www.webreference.com/), a subsidiary of Internet.com (yes, there really is an Internet.com), is tailored more to developers than designers but will repay your exploration. Edited by Andy King, the vast site covers everything you could ever want to know on the web technology front. Interviews and discussion forums enhance the site’s value.
Webtype (http://www.webtype.org/), dedicated to better online typography, keeps you posted on this vital and sadly under-reported topic. (Sometimes web designers seem more interested in scripting and gimmicks than they are in ensuring that type is legible—let alone attractive and pleasurable to read.) Webtype gives you the lowdown on everything from