Practical Web Design - Fundamentals of Web Design

Keep Learning and Growing

And finally, keep learning. This article is by no means a comprehensive source of information; it's just a beginning. Visit pages like Project Cool's Sightings for some good examples of Web design, and look under the hood by going through View Source to see just how the savants worked their magic. No fair copying other people's code, of course; this is strictly for seeing how other people pull their rabbits out of a hat, not to steal their tricks.

Want to be plunged headlong into examples of how not to design Web pages? Visit the (in)famous Web Pages That Suck, and SitePoint's own 10 Sites That Bite. Remember, the whole reason for us to peruse these sites is to show us how not to do it!

Now that I've written this, I'm thinking of all the ways that my own Website fails to meet the recommendations I've laid out. Looks like a redesign is in order...!

Bibliography and Further Reading

10 Deadly Web Site Sins

http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/66

10 Sites That Bite

http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/160

ACSS: Aural Style Sheets

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/acss.html

Advanced Web Design: A Primer

http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/265

Area 404

http://www.plinko.net/404/area404.asp

Background Audio Tool

http://javascript.about.com/library/tools/blbgaudio.htm

Basic Color Theory

http://www.coa.edu/campuslife/work/courseprojects/polcom/colort.html

Behind the Scenes of a Website Makeover, Part I

http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/323

Behind the Scenes of a Website Makeover, Part II

http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/324

Browser Archive

http://browsers.evolt.org/

Browser Compatibility: Intro and Display Size

http://www.johngaltstools.com/learn/web/browser001.asp

Cascading Style Sheets, Level 1

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS1

CGSD - Gamma Correction Home Page

http://www.cgsd.com/papers/gamma.html

Coloring Outside the Lines

http://www.efuse.com/Design/colorful1.html

Death of the Websafe Color Palette?

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/00/37/index2a.html

Displaying Style Sheets Dynamically

http://html.about.com/library/weekly/aa123101a.htm

Effective Web Design, Navarro and Kuhn, Sybek 1998

Getting Started

http://www.gettingstarted.net/

Home Page Design Guidelines

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020512.html

How to Choose the Right Fonts for Your Web Pages

http://webdesign.about.com/c/ht/00/07/How_Choose_Right_Fonts0962932995.htm

HTML Goodies to Go #216

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/letters/216.html

HTML Validation: Choosing a DOCTYPE

http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator/doctype.html

HTML Web Tips: A Quick Guide to Great Web Design

http://archive.devx.com/projectcool/developer/tips/design01_tips/index.html

The JavaScript Source

http://javascript.internet.com/

Improving the 404 Error Message

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/404_improvement.html

Innovative Marketing Ideas

http://www.promotionbase.com/article/22

Let Users Control Font Size

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020819.html

Links That Work, Sometimes

http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol4/html_no18.htm

Monitor Calibration and Web Color Consistency

http://tiemdesign.com/features/Oct99/web_color.htm

New Top-10 Mistakes: Reader Comments

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530_comments.html

Non-Dithering Colors in Browsers

http://www.lynda.com/hex.html

Page Margins

http://www.johngaltstools.com/learn/web/browser002.asp

Pick a Peck of Palettes

http://www.efuse.com/Design/palettes.html

Reading on the Web

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Safe Web Colours for Colour-Deficient Vision

http://more.btexact.com/people/rigdence/colours/

Search: Visible and Simple

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010513.html

SitePoint: Site Design

http://www.sitepoint.com/faqs/design.php

Sizing Up the Browsers

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/99/41/index3a.html

Site Map Usability

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020106.html

SitePoint Tech Times #56, 1-8-03

http://www.sitepoint.com/newsletter/viewissue.php?id=3&issue=56

SitePoint Tech Times #57, 1-22-03

http://www.sitepoint.com/newsletter/viewissue.php?id=3&issue=57

Style Sheets in HTML Documents

http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/present/styles.html

Top 10 Do's and Don'ts for Web Site Building

http://www.efuse.com/Design/top_10_do_s_and_don_ts.html

Top 10 Mistakes Revisited (originally from 1996)

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990502.html

Top 10 New Mistakes of Web Design (1999)

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html

Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2002

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20021223.html

Tough Luck: Dealing with Browser Bugs Part I

http://www.designharbor.org/Design/opentut.php3?mn=&pn=t&id=1&page=1&

Tough Luck: What To Do About Browser Incompatibility Part II

http://www.designharbor.org/Design/opentut.php3?mn=&pn=t&id=65&page=1&

The W3C MarkUp Validation Service

http://validator.w3.org/

Web Design for Dyslexia

http://www.dyslexia.com/qaweb.htm

Web Graphics for Non-Designers, Roselli, Gibbons, Forman, and Boyce, Glasshaus, 2002

Cited on http://www.webreference.com/authoring/graphics/color/nondesigners/chap2/3/

Web Type 101, A Primer

http://www.efuse.com/Design/palettes.html

Webmaster@AOL

http://webmaster.info.aol.com/

Webmonkey | Reference Chart: Browsers

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/browser_chart/

Writing for the Web

http://www.sun.com/980713/webwriting/

Working with HTML: DOCTYPE

http://developer.apple.com/internet/html/doctype.html

XHTML

http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/PR-xhtml1-19991210/