Best products from r/webdesign

We found 25 comments on r/webdesign discussing the most recommended products. We ran sentiment analysis on each of these comments to determine how redditors feel about different products. We found 33 products and ranked them based on the amount of positive reactions they received. Here are the top 20.

Top comments mentioning products on r/webdesign:

u/anomalya · 3 pointsr/webdesign

Designing Interfaces is great, and I find myself coming back to it when I'm stuck on something. I should note, however, that the examples focus primarily on desktop applications. It's not a stretch to apply most of the concepts to web apps, but some of the patterns aren't really applicable. However, I primarily do web work and I still think it's worth getting.

A classic Web usability book that's really easy to get through is Don't Make Me Think. Much of what makes for good web design is common sense, but it's nice to have it reinforced/verified.

If you're interested in site architecture (you should be) or some theory behind decisions behind visual design (particularly regarding heavy information), I'd also recommend The Information Design Workbook. Half of it is theory and the other half is examples and case studies. It also has some really nice guidelines for working with clients, such as "What is a design brief? Why do I need it? What should be included in it?"

Designing for Interaction is alright... The interviews in it are interesting, but the subject matter is pretty basic. That being said, it is a good primer. I'd definitely pick Designing Interfaces over this, though, if you're choosing between them.

I've heard good things about Designing Web Interfaces, but I haven't read it myself, so... I can't personally recommend it. (O'Reilly generally has pretty high standards, though, so it's probably a safe bet.)

I'd second useit.com and smashing, but sometimes, nothing beats books.

(If you're interested in getting more into the psychology of it, or are interested in a specific topic regarding UI/UX, let me know, as I have more recommendations... I just don't know what you're interested in.)

u/citrivium · 2 pointsr/webdesign

Trade half of your brain for half of mine? I'm on the other side of the creek from you. Trying to get into development but already established into design. I feel like the main things that would come in handy are

  • Color Theory
  • Typographic Hierarchy / Typography knowledge
  • Maybe user interface but I know development plays a role in that as well.

    Some great sites to check out:

  • Styleboost Great site that shows uniquely designed websites, helpful for inspiration.

  • PSDTUT articles regarding typography/design

  • Smashing Magazine has a lot of great articles regarding design and user interface. I generally read it everyday.

    And if you're really getting into graphic design and enjoying it, I suggest some of these books to dive deeper.

  • Graphic Design Referenced

  • An Eye For Color

  • The Elements of Typographic Style

  • For a quick reference regarding different styles or inspirations - Stylepedia

    There's a ton more so feel free to ask any questions or if you want any critiques I'd be glad to help. Good Luck!
u/[deleted] · 2 pointsr/webdesign

I personally would love a copy of The Facebook Effect. I don't think Facebook is perfect, but it is really interesting to me how in the beginning Zuckerberg didn't sell the site or compromise his idea.


Other ideas:
Adobe App Pillows
The Smashing Book

I hope these help. Good luck and happy holidays!

u/revbobdobbs · 2 pointsr/webdesign

What do you need feedback with?

The site isn't, like complete rubbish or anything. But there a lot of room for improvement, and I don't know where to start.

I'm guessing that'd you probably want some advice on how to make it look better. So, I'll start there.

If you want to learn how to make websites look nice, start here.

Design is actually really hard. It takes a long time to learn the fundamentals, let alone gain mastery. But there are many resources available.

In terms of coding, start by learning about validation.

Getting a design right across different browsers is hard. Validating your code as you go along will make things easier.

Learn the development tools in your browser of choice. Firefox has firebug, which has an awesome array of extension for helping you craft your pages. Firefox can also be extended with the web development toolbar, which you can use to validate your code as you go.

(Incidently, if you search reddit, you will find threads where developers list their favoured web development tool sets.)









u/zhay · 0 pointsr/webdesign

A great GPA (3.8+) will take you far. Also, put some webdesign-related projects on your resume!

If you can, go to a career fair. Be friendly, be prepared, and follow up with thank you e-mails.

I'm not sure how interviews for UI people go. If companies give technical interviews, I recommend you buy and review one or both of the following:

I recommend: Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job

And:
Cracking the Coding Interview, Fourth Edition: 150 Programming Interview Questions and Solutions

If not, I'm not sure. Sorry.

u/mandix · 2 pointsr/webdesign

I have been learning UI/UX all summer.

u/thebigbradwolf · 4 pointsr/webdesign

Read Steve Krug's: Don't make me think.

There's also a case for web underdesign. Also, learn the practical implications of

Fitt's law

Principles of Design.

Rules of Gestalt

There's maybe a few more things, but if you can do this, you'll be pretty well off. Also, The last rule is functional trumps pretty. Something ugly and working is better than something beautiful and a pain to use.

u/MeAndMyArmy · 2 pointsr/webdesign

This is fantastic advice, and pretty spot on to what I would suggest. There is a book called Using Drupal - http://www.amazon.com/Using-Drupal-Angela-Byron/dp/0596515804 - (you can find it as a pdf through google but it might be for Drupal 6)

I used to this to learn drupal and understand all of these modules.

I might also suggest the following as we use them on our site and it makes everyday updates super easy:

• Contexts
• Blocks
• Admin menu

u/mp2146 · 1 pointr/webdesign

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-MySQL-JavaScript-Step-Step/dp/0596157134/ref=pd_sxp_grid_i_1_0

I recommend the above. What you want sounds pretty easy, and this book could get you there in just a few days.

u/h-town · 9 pointsr/webdesign

Designing for the web? First thing to do is read "Don't make me think." It's a thin book you should be able to knock it out in no time.

If you are coming from a print world remember CMYK and inches mean nothing, this world is RGB and Hex colors and pixels. Telling the web guy you want a 15% tint of a Hex color isn't helpful.

Be aware the site, text and text flow will look slightly different depending on the browser and platform. How the page, text and forms look on a Mac in Safari is not the same as a PC with IE7 (or 8 or 9) or a mobile device. Your careful word wrap and precise leading is going to be lost.

Map out the likely clients who are the target of the website and their likely viewing device and browsers. Design for those first. If you are designing a site targeting corporations chances are the viewing will be on a PC with some version of IE. If you are designing a site for photographers targeting designers and ad agencies then a Mac with Safari or FF is your most likely target. If most of your viewers are going to be on laptops or mobile devices keep that in mind first.

Include a Photoshop page with all the main colors used. Text color(s), link colors (link, visited, hover and active colors) and all other colors (background, page, dividers, etc.) that will be showing up.

Finally, online is not like working in InDesign, Quark, Illustrator or even Photoshop. Approve everything at 100% size. Just because the vector files, and 6 point type, look great at 1200% in Illustrator doesn't mean they will translate to 72 ppi in a browser.

Other than that, what everyone else said.

u/musik4kittens · 1 pointr/webdesign

As far as touching up on HTML/CSS, try out this book.

I have zero experience with either and I've actually picked up on both mark up languages very quickly. I had the mindset of theres so much information on the web - why buy a book? It's a great tutorial that touches upon other topics that would be of interest to web development - design, seo, etc.

u/ahhcarp · 1 pointr/webdesign

If I remember correctly, he said that he had to use it once. If they don't pay, then you can take them to small claims court. Not sure how well that works with long-distance clients... That might fall more under getting a healthy deposit upfront and getting paid as distinct work phases are complete. It they quibble on the deposit or payments at different phases, drop them... they will probably be more trouble than they are worth.

He said he barely edits the contract spelled out in the Graphic Artist's Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines. It comes out every 2 years with the newest being 2010. You might be able to grab a copy at the library to read, but I've included the Amazon link also:
http://www.amazon.com/Graphic-Artists-Handbook-Pricing-Guidelines/dp/0932102158/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299991161&sr=8-1

Getting a good contract and not giving an inch once terms are agreed upon would probably help take away some of that stress of dealing with bad clients (or help avoid them?) and then you could focus on your work. I've only had a few clients so far, but 2 of them have been bad and it stressed me the fu%% out. The other issues that I had were because of things that I needed to learn how to do better. Hopefully that helps.

u/farfaraway · 2 pointsr/webdesign

O'Reilly's Effective UI book is modern, well-written and organized and has a fantastic overview of the UI/UX field and design patterns associated with it.

u/vampire_kitty · 8 pointsr/webdesign

Don't Make Me Think is an interesting book that if you can find it in your local bookstore and browse through it might be helpful. It's a small book so you could scan through and see if there are interesting bits that might be useful.

On the whole, though, I'd suggest you find an editor to SEVERELY cut down the amount of text that needs to be read for instructions if you find that people aren't reading it.

Page 45 of the book I mention is a chapter called Omit Needless Words (needless is crossed out). A couple of quotes from the chapter:

"E.B. White's seventeenth rule in The Elements of Style:

"17. Omit needless words.
"Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should contain no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts."

On the next page a section starting with the bold line:

"Instructions must die

"The other major source of needless words is instructions. The main thing you need to know about instructions is that no one is going to read them - at least not until after repeated attempts at "muddling through" have failed. And even then, if the instructions are wordy, the odds of users finding the information they need is pretty low.

"Your objective should always be to eliminate instructions entirely by making everything self-explanatory, or as close to it as possible. When instructions are absolutely necessary, cut them back to the bare minimum."

Then there are some examples. The writer is a consultant for web usability and has been doing it for years and the suggestions are based on his (and others') research. You are finding the same thing that others are finding: they aren't going to read the instructions. See if you can find another way. If you want some ideas, poke through the book (or others that are like it) and see if you can configure a method that makes it self-explanatory as suggested by the writer.

Without seeing the site itself, I cannot offer much else.

Good luck!