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Recommended reading material
Recently, a beginning webdesigner asked me what he what I thought the must-read books and articles were. My standard answer is Designing websites with web standards by Jeffrey Zeldman, but then I thought to myself: “Hey, I can’t keep repeating this title over and over. There’s so much else out there.”
I ran through my two thousand plus list of web pages I’ve bookmarked the past one and a half year and handpicked the best of the best, for your reading pleasure. Not every link directly relates to webdesign but they will all make you smarter. Enjoy.
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Getting Real by 37signals
37signals explain their approach to business and building web applications in this book. It’s available as a free e-book on their website, or you can buy a PDF or paperback version. This is a must read to anyone building software.
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Don’t shave that yak! by Seth Godin
It’s good to know what yak shaving is so you can help yourself when you’re in a yak shaving situation. Seth Godin explains the term wonderfully with a fun example.
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Don’t make me think, by Steve Krug (sample chapter)
If you’re thinking of reading up on the subject of usability and interaction design, this is your foundation. A basic, seemingly obvious writeup of how people actually use websites - yet a must-read because it puts those unconscious choices you make [as a designer] into words.
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The myth of content and presentation separation, by Jeff Croft
Blue Flavors’ Jeff Croft demystifies the idea that HTML and CSS allow for a complete separation of structure and presentation in this blogpost. When you redesign a website, you always go back to the XHTML. Non-semantic classnames don’t hurt.
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Thinking and leaping, by Garrett Dimon
Sometimes the obvious choice is the worst one you can make.
Follow-up with more reading goodness coming soon.