A DIY web design education — from noupe.com
13 hand-picked web form resources for developers — from designreviver.com
CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 Help Cheat Sheets (PDF) — from Smashing Magazine
Also see:
PHP: What you need to know to play with the web — SmashingMagazine.com by Christian Heilmann
What Is PHP?
PHP is a server-side language that has become a massive success for three reasons:
- It is a very easy and forgiving language. Variables can be anything, and you can create them anytime you want.
- It is part of the free LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and thus available on almost any server you can rent on the Web.
- It does not need a special editor, environment or build process. All you do is create a file of the .php file type, mix PHP and HTML and then put it on your server for rendering.
From DSC:
Christian makes this sound so easy. However, in my experience, programmers have a different skillset that is not easily mastered or obtained. They have a different way of thinking, and the syntax of coding languages is not something many people enjoy working with. That is why there seems to be two camps: web designers (who focus on the front-end of the web) and web developers (who focus on the back end of things such as application development/programming and database integration). Sometimes, a person can bridge those two worlds…but rare is the person who can stay up-to-date and do both sides of the house well…and consistently over time.
Dreamweaver CS5 first look: More WordPressy, more Firebuggy — from webmonkey.com by Michael Calore
The gradual disappearance of Flash websites — from SmashingMagazine.com by Brad Cooper
HTML vs. Flash Resources
Here are a few fairly recent articles. Make sure to check out their comments.
Relevant links:
Helpful Links
Also see:
Introducing creativeLIVE.com: Worldwide FREE Creative Education — from Chase Jarvis
22 handy HTML 5 & CSS3 tools, resources and guides — from 1stwebdesigner.com
HTML 5: Why should we care? What might this specification give us?
video and audio elements make this really easy. Most of the APIs are shared between the two elements, with the only differences being related to the inherent differences between visual and non-visual media.HTML 5 Conference (Online):
From DSC:
In an earlier post from today, I pictured higher education caught in a tidal wave of technological change. It isn’t just education that’s got tidal waves hitting it. Consider the world of web design and web development and this article from Noupe: 100 Essential Web Development Tools. Heh, all’s you have to know is these 100 web development tools (and that’s not even all of them by a long shot). What’s the big deal? ; )
A related comment here…
is that the bean-counters are always trying to get the most talent for the least amount of money. They want you to wear 10,000 hats and then they pay you for the value of wearing 2-3 hats. For example, a quote from the above article includes this assertion:
As web technologies constantly advance, the skills a developer is expected to have are constantly increasing. Web users are beginning to expect Ajax interfaces, charts and graphs and a whole host of other tricks and features. This means web developers not only have to be skilled with HTML and a server-side programming language such as PHP or Perl, but they now also need to be JavaScript gurus, Flash experts, and skilled graphic designers (emphasis DSC).
The accounting and ledger sheets and the HR-based job descriptions simply don’t reflect reality. That is, you might want someone who can wear 10,000 hats, but rarely will you find an individual who can do it all. That’s not how we are made. We each have our own gifts, abilities, and strengths; but we also have our own limitations and our own weaknesses. Few, if any of us, can do it all.
For those who can wear 5,000 hats, they aren’t interested in the position that you’re offering anyway — as you are not offering to pay them for nearly what they’re worth. There are web designers…and then there are web developers…but rarely will you find someone who is excellent in both areas. And if you can find them, you can’t afford them. So for the bean-counters and HR departments out there, you need to get real with either one of two things:
Common…let’s get real. We’ve had more than a decade now to figure this out. As my old telecommunications instructor at Northwestern always used to say, “There is no such thing as a $5,000 new Mercedes.” That is, you get what you pay for.