Web Designing Tutorial - Learn HTML, CSS, Java Script, Flash Website Designing Tips: Guide to Stay on Top of Web Design Trends

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Guide to Stay on Top of Web Design Trends

Let’s Face It, web design trends and fads come and go as fast as you can say the word “Trends”. Staying on top of web design trends can be difficult and time consuming, but it is extremely important to not be left behind. One of the best things any web designer can do is to learn the newest trends or fads and put your own spin to them. To stay on top of web design trends you must visit websites, blogs, read books and magazines, which are sometimes difficult to find. The links below are will guide to stay on top of the latest trends in web design.

Tutorials Sites

Tutorials will teach you new techniques and are even a great source for inspiration. These Tutorials sites cover current trends and past trends.

PSDTUTS - PSDTUTS is a great site with great tutorials added every week.
NetTuts - NetTuts is a new tutorial site that features web design tutorials.
Pixel2Life - Pixel2Life is a great site that has tons of tutorials in many different programs.
Abduzeedo - Abduzeedo has some wonderful tutorials focusing on photoshop, html, and fireworks.
Good-Tutorials - Good-Tutorials is tutorial resource site that links to tons of tutorials that are very useful.
Tutorialized - Tutorialized is another Tutorial resource site that is very popular and you must check out.
N.Design Studio - N.Design Studio is a very good tutorial site and blog that will keep you up to date on the latest trends.
Woork - Woork has some of the best written coding tutorials I’ve seen. They are so in depth and you must check them out.

Blogs

Since Trends in web design are such a big topic there are blogs that cover trends and news. These blogs will tell you about the latest trends.

A List Apart - A List Apart is a site for Web Designers. It has some of the best content on the web.
WebDesigerWall - WebDesignerWall is a blog dedicated showing you trends, tutorials, and ideas.
Smashing Magazine - Smashing Magazine is online magazine/blog that brings you some very good resources and shows you latest trends.
BittBox - BittBox is blog that tells you about latest web design resources and news that is going on.
Sitepoint - Sitepoint is good site that has the latest news and tons of great articles and resources for designers and developers.
Noupe - Noupe is a site that is very well written with tons of resources and they even have a news section that features articles from other sites.

Social Media

Social Media sites are now one of the best ways to see the latest trends. Social media sites let the smallest site get a big exposure on the content that they write.

CSS Globe - CSS Globe is a great site. CSS Globe could easily be in the blog section with the great written articles, but the news section has so many great articles I included it as a social media site. Nonetheless it is still a great site you should check out.
Del.icio.us - Del.icio.us is one of the most popular social media sites. This site does a good job showcasing very good web design articles and various other articles.
popurls.com - PopUrls brings you popular posts from all the major social networking sites. A great site to find the latest trends.
CSSDrive - CssDrive is similar to CSSGlobe but has some different articles in its news section. Also instead of an written articles CSSDrive has a CSS Gallery featuring great websites.
Design Float - Design Float is a Graphic/Web Design Digg. Is a great site and with great articles.
9rules - 9rules is a collection of web blogs that have many communities specified by categories. The content of the blogs are very high quality.

Books and Magazines

Before the major spread of the internet the best way to get the latest trends is through Magazines and Books. Magazines and Books now still give you great information but the bummer is that they are not updated daily.

.Net - From the site “.net delivers cutting edge practical advice on the full range of topics essential for today’s web builders: design, development, sales, marketing, usability and accessibility, information architecture, security, copywriting, advertising and more.”
Layers Magazine - Layers Magazine is magazine containing everything adobe.
The Principles of Beautiful Web Design - A Fully Illustrated book that will teach you great design principles.
CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions - A Great guide to cutting-edge CSS Development.
Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition - A great book that brings humor into web design and will teach you great usability.

Inspiration Galleries

Inspiration Galleries is a great way to see the latest trends and fads.

CSSElite - CSSElite is a good site that showcases sites with very good CSS coding.
Cool Home Pages - Cool Home Pages has been around for many years and showcases sites from pure flash sites to CSS sites.
FWA - The FWA has become a leader in showcasing Flash websites. It is one of the best sites around with some of the most incredible flash websites.
Beautifully web design - Beautifully web design showcases blog sites, flash sites and everything in between. It is a great site that you must see.
Design Shack - Design Shack is a good looking site with nice gallery and a great article section. You should check this site out.