Top ten blogs for Web Designers and Developers, as chosen by our digital team.
When it comes to working in the digital industry, there’s always something new to learn. One day, you think you’ve mastered multi-platform development, the next, Apple announce a new iSomething and it’s back to square one *shakes fist*. To keep on top of the latest trends and news, we’re all about making the most of what t’internet has to offer, so here are a few of our top blogs for Web Designers and Developers as chosen by Team MadeDigital…
Awwwards
Awwwards (clever www. reference – we dig it) is a great blog for featuring well polished sites and shining a spotlight on those with particularly good development. It’s the default tab on our browsers every morning so we can see the ‘Site of the Day’, which is marked on design, usability, creativity and content. A daily must-see!
Site Inspire
Pretty much what it says on the tin, Site Inspire is a big directory of great sites and always a good one to reference for those that are more on the abstract side. Two thumbs up from us!
Web Creme
If a site’s popular on any of the above web inspiration sites, you often find it across them all, but on the odd occasion, WebCreme manages to feature something the others don’t (you trendy devils, you). It’s a good mixture of design and development and a great one to reference to find any hidden gems.
Tympanus Codrops
For things like front end inspiration, Tympanus is a great resource, it has loads of people’s experiments with animations and cool transitional effects that are all ‘nice to haves’ when you’re designing a site. Also, top marks for their tutorials, some of the best we’ve seen!
Abduzeedo
If you’ve hit a creative block, this is place to go to fix it! Full of visual inspiration, handy tutorials and daily inspirations, it’s a great all-rounder for web and graphic designers alike. Fun fact: The Founder of Abduzeedo, Fabio Sasso, is a senior designer at Google (if that’s anything to go by, it’s pretty good!)
Smashing Magazine
As essential one to have bookmarked, Smashing Magazine is more of a wordy blog than the others and focuses mainly on coding, design, mobile, graphics, UX design and WordPress, to name a few. It’s one of the best ones for really in-depth articles.
DesignModo
A great site for featuring inspiration lists, or features on good plugins, design theory, trends etc. It’s one of the best blogs to reference for ‘what’s hot’ in web design – a top one for web designers and coders, but also a brilliant resource for all you photographers and graphic designers out there too.
CSS Tricks
CSS Tricks is a blog/community created by Chris Coyier. Founded in 2007, CSS Tricks is a great resource for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP, WordPress and, of course, trends in the web industry. Despite the technical nature of the content, it’s actually a really fun one to read!
A List Apart
Hailed as the number one trusted source for web standards on the internet, A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices. Great articles by contributing web professionals, they’re all about setting new industry standards.
SpeckyBoy Design Magazine
SpeckyBoy is considered as one of the most influential web design blogs on the internet and turns out, it was started just up the road in Inverness! Who knew? Web Designer, Paul Andrew launched SpeckyBoy as a personal freelance page in 2007 and it has grown to the giant we see today. A great one for insightful tutorials, time saving techniques and the occasional Lego post – it’s a win-win!
