(Part 3) Reddit mentions: The best web development & design books

Sigh. What everyone here saying "just practice!" doesn't realize is that people like OP likely DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PRACTICE. As much as we try to copy other designs, we still totally miss the "behind-the-scenes" theory that holds it all together.

OP, that was my problem. I tried to copy other designs but still couldn't piece everything together without looking sloppy and amateurish.

Then I learned three simple things:

1 -- GRID-BASED DESIGN. If you weren't raised in an environment where good design was appreciated (like me), you likely don't have a pre-developed sense of how things should be spaced out in a design... i.e. how much margin, padding, line-spacing, etc there should be between elements. This is where adhering to a grid will change your life. Specifically, AN 8PT GRID. (When you see "pt" referenced in design materials rather than "px", just know that they both mean the same thing. Google started using "pt" in their Material Design guides to reduce confusion around devices like iPhones, which have 1334 x 750 screen resolutions... but which render content at 667 x 350 to make it retina. In that case, "8 pt" means "8 px" based on the 667 x 350 output.)

Essentially using a grid takes the guesswork out of how much spacing/padding to use. And using an "8 pt grid" specifically is the most universal, device-friendly grid to design to. If you want, you can play around with other grids in the future when you've developed a sense of design taste. But for now... stick with 8 pt grids. Trust me.

2 -- COLOR THEORY. Which colors go together? Color theory is the science behind that. Once you know color theory, you'll suddenly understand a lot more about the world than you did before. You'll see why some people's outfits are absolutely awesome. You'll see why some the insides of some people's houses look fantastic. And on, and on, and on.

In general, the rule here is 60/30/10: 60% of your design should be your primary color (in 90% of modern app design this is just white or slightly off-white), 30% should be your secondary color (in the CSS for this subreddit that is blue), and 10% should your accent color (in the CSS for this subreddit that is red).

3 -- TYPOGRAPHY. Honestly, I recommend just copying the font sizes used in google's Material Design. It will make everything in your design look proportional and pleasing to the eye. (Or, in other words, you & your users won't notice the fonts in any significant way.)

...

Links:

1. Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design: this book helped me understand grid-based design better.
   
   
2. Intro to 8pt grid article on Medium and then 8pt Material Design GUI Templates: these two will give you a solid introduction to 8pt grids. Trust me, just design everything to an 8pt grid until you become a more confident designer and know how to bend the rules. Sticking to an 8pt grid for everything will make your design work VERY easy.
   
   
3. How To Use Colors in UI Design: really good, straight-forward article on color use in web design... including the 60/30/10 rule.
   
   
4. Material Design Font Size Chart: in general I think the look of Material Design is hideous and makes any app look like a cheap Windows 95-era throwback, BUT... the beauty of Google's Material Design guidelines is that they're extremely prescriptive and contain little pieces of gold (like this font size chart). Like using 8pt grids, just rigidly stick to this font size chart until you've developed a better design sense and know how to break the rules. (You may find you don't want to break the rules, though, because this will do the trick for 99% of designs you do.) (*EDIT: when you see "sp" in the font size chart, just know that it again means "px" when it comes to your CSS. This is similar to how Google uses "pt" -- it's a way for them to create a universal terminology for "px" that accounts for retina displays.)
   
   Ok, with these three concepts out of the way, you should hopefully have an easier time deconstructing really good designs and reproducing them yourself. Hope this helps.

If you can afford a Macbook Pro and the Final Cut Pro Software this is a great book that'll get you through the basics easily. I switched from Avid to FCP using it and it was pretty painless. Stay away from FCP X though. It's gonna be a while before they get that one where it needs to be.

As far as the creative aspect of editing the only real way to learn any filmmaking craft is to do it. But there are some great books that did a better job than any of my professors did. This is the best book on editing I've come across. I just got it recently but it would have been really nice to have it back when I started. And this is my favorite directing book. It's written by a film professor but it does a beautiful job of breaking down the creative process. And The Film Director's Intuition is a great place to start with how to work with actors.

For lighting I'd recommend Matters of Light & Depth by Ross Lowell and Film Lighting by Kris Malkiewicz.

Also indispensable is The Pocket Lawyer For Filmmakers.

Those are all great books chock full of practical advice. And if you're interested in screenwriting Story by Robert McKee is pretty amazing. People shit all over that guy but nobody teaches story structure better than him.

This is kind of a side-answer, but it looks like you are just compiling a list of things that are super popular at the moment.

> React.js with Flux seems more hot than all other frameworks

What concerns me is that you seem to not be concerned with what is the best framework for your project(s), but rather what is "hot".

For a long-term career I would recommend focusing on improving your understanding of concepts and theory that these ever-changing tools are built on rather than trying to chase what people think is cool.

The people who spent time learning JavaScript rather than simply "mastering" jQuery were in a significantly better position when client-side frameworks came out because they knew the underlying concepts.

If you haven't mastered these things yet, I think they have more value than most of the list of specific tools I see listed:

• Eloquent JavaScript & JavaScript: The Good Parts - Master the ins & outs of the language
  
• Understand common design patterns - New frameworks are going to be building with these components, what better way to have a jump on the "next big thing" than by understanding the blocks that it's built with?
  
• Functional Programming - React (and to a lesser extent Angular) are increasingly utilizing this paradigm and it is a jumping off point for more advanced techniques like Reactive Programming that lets you leverage an incredible amount of power especially in the big data space.

• An old posh Englishman would drink tea (In the Kitchen)
  
  
• The world watching me read porn in a non-eBook sense would probably be a bit awkward... it's like reading 50 shades on the bus (Books)
  
  
• This could probably be oddly phallic (< $5ish)
  
  
• jQuery pocket reference book. Pretty geeky.
  
  
• I guess Pokemon can be geeky, especially when it's a strategy guide (Books)
  
  
• This would help me be a super awesome baker (and look super cute in my kitchen. Who doesn't have the goal of having a cute kitchen? Also, this is in A girl can dream)
  
  
• Clif bars so I can eat! (In the Kitchen)
  
  Wooo that was fun!

MSEE (wireless & communications) here. I perform studies and do various research on communications technologies and am involved in all 4 of the items you listed (though I am more of an antenna user than theorist).

I would start by trying to do some reading of introductory books on all of these subjects and at the same time trying to do something practical to reinforce these things. RF instrumentation is generally VERY expensive, but check out /r/RTLSDR. There is some pretty neat stuff that you can do yourself for a $20 investment.

As far as books, I just got a great new book that really provides a substantiative, modern overview of communication standards. Balanis is basically the gold standard for antenna reference books though most find this text pretty dry. I am not going to be very effective at providing you an overview of RF Engineering book or Networking book, I have many but none I would recommend as a good 'overview' since the subjects are so broad.

If you have any more specific questions I would be happy to help if I can. Just read, read, read and back that up with some practical knowledge. Being able to communicate some information about practical experiences during interviews etc... will go a long way.

Java, or Javascript? I know you said Java but often times new programmers confuse the two. For Java a good place to start if you're keen for it, is Minecraft. It's easy, well documented, and people will use what you make. For Javascript a good place to start is with literally any of the 9,000 frameworks that currently exist. I suggest Node. As far as resources for that, there's a lot. My channel is a very small one. As far as like, proper resources for Javascript I don't know too many. I never read any because I was a Java programmer long before I got into JS. That being said I DEFINITELY should've read a book before writing JS. Anything async fucked me for a solid day or two until I figured that out. I had no idea. I've heard this book is good

Like /u/groved1 said, it really depends on the person.

If she's a print designer that finds coding intimidating however, I'd recommend the book CSS for Print Desginers as a good starting point.

For people like me, a print designer, coding is not only uninteresting, but frustrating. Despite being heavily logic driven, coding is something where it's only logical within it's own 'universe' or bubble. There is absolutely nothing logical about coding to someone outside that bubble. For example, why certain characters are used, spacing, etc. It all makes sense within that world, but is otherwise somewhat arbitrary.

Basically, it feels like learning a different language, if you're not naturally inclined towards it, or otherwise motivated by innate interest.

That book approaches it for people that have that roadblock, who are used to using programs like InDesign, and to help make comparables and explanations that make sense to someone coming from that perspective.

Honestly, I don't even know where to start.. No offense intended, but you are in the very beginning of digital design. This is not to say that you don't have the technical skills, but that you should study more visual design theory. Good design has rules, which are learnable. Below is a book list, which I think will be a great value to you:

http://www.amazon.com/Ordering-Disorder-Principles-Design-Voices/dp/0321703537/

http://www.amazon.com/About-Face-Essentials-Interaction-Design/dp/1118766571/

http://www.amazon.com/Principles-Beautiful-Web-Design/dp/0992279445/

I don't want to discourage you, your page will look much better if you read only one of these.

If you're still just getting into php/dynamic web pages and are looking for help with wordpress as a backend CMS I've got a few suggestions:

1. Spend a bit of time looking at the default twenty-twelve theme that comes in the the wp-content/themes/twentytwelve folder when you download wordpress. From there you can learn a lot just by referencing the wordpress codex whenever you see a function used.
   
   
2. This book was huge for helping me understand how to use wordpress as a framework and backend CMS. He does a really good job of explaining how manipulating themes makes Wordpress extremely flexible once you get comfortable with it as a framework.
   
   If you need any help feel free to PM me.

Wordpress is one of the easiest CMS's to learn and if you are up to the challenge you can buy a book to learn wordpress's publishing features and teach that to your employees if you wanted to save your company $3000.

It's hard to say whether the price is worth it since it is subjective to the size and depth of the website. A complex website may have multiple page layouts, mySQL queries and custom code which may also factor into custom solutions where you would need to learn how to do specific functions. I would just ask for a written FAQ or guide from the developers, but i have a decent amount of experience in Wordpress so the very particular details would be easy to find out.

Web companies often have a retainer from clients so they can help pay for any time used on developing and updating your site which is finished compared to the time and effort put into winning a new client orworking on a new clients project.

I would still say the $3000 is outrageous for training, but I hate how all certificate programs cost multiple arms and legs as well.

TL;DR Buy a Wordpress book off Amazon, teach your staff, save 3k

wordpress book

If you are good at reading and retaining, for the WP aspect of it, I recommend a book called Professional Wordpress If you find it elsewhere, make sure it is second edition. This book is really good on the ins and out of WP, from how it works behind the scenes to how to properly program for it.

I don't really think saying "I'm damn certain I can do the work, that I can learn Nuke on my own..." is helping your cause. If you are so certain, make time and do it. Either join a VFX house as a runner or other entry level position and then use their kit (Flame) or build up a reel on your own. Here's a good book to start you off with Nuke, which is a beautiful program and also as many other people have pointed out, has a free PLE edition.

but it's a fantastic base to start with. it's simple and object oriented and very powerful.

but if we're really talking a base, then to tinker around, you can't go wrong with "basic", however, it is much nicer to use a language you can actually apply to a potential job.

Back to PHP, I used a book called PHP5. It was a two to three page-per-lesson book with a wonderful lack of abstract horse shit (unlike many C++ books i've run across). However, it's later drawback was it's lack of abstract horse shit.

funny how that works...

either way, it's a great start, imo.

A) hand coding is actually easier then cleaning up shitty code from some generator.

B) it sounds like you might be more suited for the development side of things (unless you have an undeclared background in art/design/media/etc).

C) I'd suggest you look into neuro-marketing/design. Here's a good primer on those topics which you should find helpful.

D) for a text-editor, I recommend aptana studio.

I'd recommend reading blogs to keep up with what's happening, things change a lot. I have read this book however - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1491948965/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_wRRGxbYSV6HK4 - and it is pretty good!

This book really helped me with creating the flow on my websites. I highly recommend Susan, she has some fabulous ideas.

1. Move your nav to the top, that's where we all expect it to see. :)
   
2. Consider introducing "wrap" <div> (with or without fixed size) to center your content. Right now on higher resolution it looks not symmetrical.
   
3. It's a personal preference, but try light background and dark text. Not that there are a lot of text on your site and this color scheme introduces trouble in reading, it just might make site fell "lighter".
   
4. If you are going to make this site as a portfolio, but still want to let people use code or images from site for their personal needs, you might want to license it under Attribution-NonCommercial terms and simply put image, that links to that terms.
   
   
   Bottom line is it's not ugly site, more over it's source looks very good as opposed to many other sites, but it's plain simple, with no theme in it. You might want to pick up some small web design related book to get you started. (I may recommend this one, but it's really up to you.)
   

I had the same feeling a few months ago, so I bought Modern PHP. It's done a pretty good job of catching me up.

basically, we know there are biases and inequalities in life. of course, academics who devote their lives to studying these things understand them better than the average person. if people would take 2 seconds to actually listen and consider some things about their worldview instead of deferring to "hurr feminism Stoopid", they might learn a thing or two. To look at it in maybe a slightly different lens we could consider race. Someone who studies race theory might be able to explain how a company, such as Google, can unintentionally shape opinions of black women due to the results their search engine returns. I read this book in which this exact issue is explored for my digital media theory class and it was quite interesting and eye opening.

Have you tried this book? It's pretty good as a starting ground. Professional WordPress by Brad Williams: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470560541?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1&ref_=aw_bottom_links

If you want to learn Nuke sign up for Digitaltutors.com and also get a book called Nuke 101 http://www.amazon.com/Nuke-101-Professional-Compositing-Effects/dp/0321733479

I took a Nuke class at a community college for around $100 in LA and it was good. However, you can definitely teach yourself Nuke without any problems whatsoever.

This book is excellent.

The problem with books is that they cannot keep pace with the rapid change in the industry.

Therefore, the internet is the best place.

I actually decided to enter the quant track in my grad program because of this! ("This" being the way in which policy professionals misuse statistical analysis to confirm their preconceived notions of black inferiority.)

If you're interested in reading more about this, you might enjoy Weapons of Math Destruction and Algorithms of Oppression.

I found The Web Designers Idea Book by Patrick McNeil to be a pretty good resource for design ideas.

Link below:

As a semi-new web designer myself, I can say I prefer and recommend Sitepoint for their web design books. But, beware, their books can be extremely marked up at some bookstores. Other good books I love to death are Head First Web Design and Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML.. even though the latter is a bit outdated.

I do not know where you live, but I went to the local library (which is pretty big in my city) Then i loaned the newest Wordpress books about theme and plugin development. I got way more out of those books than from 20 "guides" and tutorials on the internet. You can also just buy the books online if you want of course.

This book is one of them i loaned from the library.

Has anyone read this book? Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog (March 3, 2014) by Thord Daniel Hedengren

This looks pretty close to what I'm looking for....a how to for the advanced developer.

I would recommend Matt Glaman’s Drupal 8 Development Cookbook. I found it to be a useful resource and also touches on the development process in Drupal 8.

https://www.amazon.com/Drupal-Development-Cookbook-Matt-Glaman/dp/1785881477

Well, you can start at microwave engineering and work your way back to DC: Pozar

edit:

Antenna engineering is fun and mathy:

Balanis

Stutzmann and Thiele

There's a book called CSS for Print Designers. I think this might be your best bet.

Great, I've been wanting to join the previous groups, hope I can follow now, I am a backend developer with a serious front-end disfunction hehe, and I need it badly for my current project, we use lots of backbone.

Do you have a planned roadmap for the 8 weeks that I missed, or you will post weekly plans?

I've been wanting to dig into FP, what are your thoughts on the http://www.amazon.com/Functional-JavaScript-Introducing-Programming-Underscore-js/dp/1449360726 book? would it be a good mix for this course?

PS. I've tried to finish the good parts, I never can. Also I bought the javascript ninja book, but I never started it...

Thanks!

Videos and books to get you started:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DYSucV1_9w&list=PLtaXuX0nEZk9MKY_ClWcPkGtOEGyLTyCO

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtaXuX0nEZk-Mer_a_P1sp0mroJGVs6TK

https://www.amazon.com/Drupal-Explained-Step-Step-Guide/dp/152099026X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Videos and books on development:

https://www.ostraining.com/classes/drupal-8-development/

https://www.ostraining.com/class/d8-themes/

https://www.amazon.com/Drupal-Development-Cookbook-Matt-Glaman/dp/1785881477/

https://www.amazon.com/Drupal-Theming-Twig-Chaz-Chumley/dp/1782168737/

It might be worth reading the Acquia Exam materials to help guide your learning: https://training.acquia.com/study-guides

30 days is plenty of time to become proficient with Final Cut. As others have said, the versions can be very different, so you would really need to train for the specific version you will be using.

Either way, I would recommend going through the official training book for the version you will be learning - most likely FCP7 or the more recent FCPX

The book for FCPX was printed before a number of big updates, so the info may be a little bit outdated. Also, the basic book doesn't go into multicam editing, or green screen, or any advanced technique; you would need to go through the advanced book to learn those aspects.

Free in the UK! http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00E25KVLW/ref=cm_sw_su_dp

It's also free on amazon.ca.

The exercises are from a book, I'm just trying to get a better understanding.
https://www.amazon.com/Node-js-Right-Way-Server-Side-JavaScript/dp/1937785734/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1538276707&sr=8-4&keywords=node.js+the+right+way

• http://www.phptherightway.com/
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Developer-Best-Practices-ebook/dp/B00JDMPOSY
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Modern-PHP-Features-Good-Practices/dp/1491905018/
  
  You're welcome.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Web-Designers-Idea-Book-Inspiration/dp/1440333157/ref=la_B001JOYMF0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497363493&sr=1-1

I think this might be helpful for you, if you're willing to shell out the money.

• http://www.phptherightway.com/ (free)
  
• Modern PHP written by Josh Lockhart, the guy who create Slim framework: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-PHP-Features-Good-Practices/dp/1491905018

Modern PHP by josh lockhart (creator of the Slim framework) is a good one to get a kickstart into modern development with PHP.

It's a relatively thin book without any fluff, great read.

I found the jQuery Pocket Reference along with online docs and experimentation to be adequate.

Third edition is on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Art-SEO-Mastering-Search-Optimization/dp/1491948965/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

I have this book... and I hated it. Then again, this was about 5~ years ago, back when I was a real newb. That being said - I have the 2nd edition, and again I was a real newb back then.

I really liked the PHP book by Visual by Whitehead (ahem) and Desamero. I found it much easier to understand as a beginner. This book seems to be the equivalent.

To further elaborate, you're describing an antenna and any antenna book will discuss various versions of the problem at length. Balanis is good : http://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Theory-Analysis-Design-Edition/dp/047166782X

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-SEO-Mastering-Search-Optimization/dp/1491948965

I bought it, see if you can find it online. It's on around page 60

Apps:

• http://www.sololearn.com/Course/PHP/
  
• https://www.codecademy.com/lrn/php
  
  Book:
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Modern-PHP-Features-Good-Practices/dp/1491905018
  
  Official manual:
  
  
• http://php.net/manual/en/index.php

The Art of SEO. https://www.amazon.it/Art-SEO-Mastering-Search-Optimization/dp/1491948965

> Balanis

Is this what you're talking about: Antenna Theory: Analysis and Design, 3rd Edition?

Javascript Allonge

Functional Javascript

It already is! In the form of textbooks!

Read this:

• http://www.textbooks.com/BooksDescription.php?BKN=910505&SBC=DDF&kpid=9780135072936N&kenshu=cdea7d76-57dd-484e-872e-ff3c16bd5b17&mcid=XKS-7564-41-1932-GoogleShopping-PRIDREPLACE-291&gclid=CIv5iaKTn9MCFQGraQodVlsC2Q
  
  
• https://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-6-002-electromagnetic-field-theory-a-problem-solving-approach-spring-2008/textbook-contents/
  
  
• https://www.amazon.com/Antenna-Theory-Analysis-Design-3rd/dp/047166782X
  
  If you don't have a strong multivariable calculus and differential equations background:
  
  
• https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-02sc-multivariable-calculus-fall-2010/
  
  
• Diff eq text: http://www.textbooks.com/BooksDescription.php?BKN=1745216&SBC=MBD&kpid=9781939512048U&kenshu=cdea7d76-57dd-484e-872e-ff3c16bd5b17&mcid=XKS-7564-41-341-GoogleShopping-PRIDREPLACE-291&gclid=CKC65f-Tn9MCFQiHaQodh_wE_w
  
  Read and understand these. Than go and answer your own questions.

I found this really good. Plenty of copies of the PDF floating around online.

I found blogs and twitter kind of infuriating as everyone is trying to sell something and you get a very scattered approach to the fundamentals.

Seductive Interaction Design, Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design