Front-End Web Development Resources
If you’re a developer, you know that keeping up with the speed of our industry can feel overwhelming. Here’s a list of the front-end development resources I rely on to stay up-to-date. Items marked with an asterisk (*) are particularly good, in my opinion.
Newsletters #
Smashing Magazine* #
Bi-weekly collection of all-around development articles, topics include CSS, JS, design, UI & UX.
Sidebar* #
Daily email with 5 links related to design, development & tech.
Responsive Design Weekly* #
Weekly list of responsive design links, includes interviews, tutorials & libraries.
CSS Layout News* #
Weekly email from Rachel Andrew with news, tutorials, case studies and articles about CSS Grid, Flexbox and other layout techniques.
UI Animation Newsletter* #
Weekly email with from Val Head UI animation inspiration & tutorials.
Web Animation Weekly* #
Weekly email with from Rachel Nabors UI animation inspiration & tutorials.
Front-End Newsletter* #
Weekly email with front-end links about HTML, CSS, JS, fonts, UI/UX, and more! (Curated by me!)
Sass News #
Weekly email of Sass-related links, includes articles, tutorials, & events.
Sass News is no longer active.
CSS Weekly #
Weekly email of CSS links, includes tutorials, articles & CSS3 advances.
Web Design Weekly #
Weekly email, includes HTML, CSS, pre-processors & JS.
HTML5 Weekly #
Weekly list of HTML5 links, includes spec discussions, polyfills & job postings.
JavaScript Weekly #
Weekly list of JS links, includes browser API news, tutorials, and polyfills.
WPMail.me* #
Weekly list of WordPress links, includes news, tutorials, themes & plugins.
Blogs #
Smashing Magazine* #
Articles and tutorials in the following topics: coding, design, mobile, graphics, UX design & WordPress.
CSS-Tricks* #
All about CSS, written by Chris Coyier and a number of industry-expert guest authors.
Brad Frost Web* #
Brad Frost writes great articles on content-first, responsive web design.
A List Apart* #
Articles and tutorials on a wide range of topics including code, content, design & business.
CSS Wizardry* #
Harry Roberts’ blog on CSS best practices.
SitePoint #
Articles on a wide variety of topics, including several languages (HTML, CSS/Sass, JS, PHP, Ruby), WordPress, UX & design. I’ve written for SitePoint.
David Walsh Blog #
Articles and tutorials, primarily covering JS & CSS topics.
Cloud Four Blog #
Helpful articles and tutorials on solving common development problems.
Elliot Jay Stocks #
Web developers with a penchant for typography should read this blog.
Typekit Practice* #
Practical case studies for using web fonts well.
James Steinbach Blog* #
Oh right, you’re already here. I write about CSS/Sass, WordPress and other front-end topics.
Reference Sites #
MDN* #
If you haven’t blocked w3schools from your search results, please do. Instead, use MDN. It’s a fantastic resource for looking up almost anything in HTML, CSS & JS and getting an accurate, organized description of what it does.
CSS-Tricks Almanac #
Look up any CSS property and get a useful description of what values it takes and what it does.
CSS Guidelines* #
This is a great guideline for writing clean, maintainable CSS. It’s a guideline, not a law, but in my opinion, it’s largely worth following.
Sass Guidelines* #
Just like CSS Guidelines, but for Sass.
Can I Use* #
Look up any CSS, HTML5, SVG or browser API property and see what browsers support it (and which ones need prefixes or fallbacks).
WebsiteSetup #
This introduction to setting up your first website covers all the topics you’ll need: hosting, domains, CMSes and more. It focuses most on WordPress.
Sass Docs* #
Everything you need to know about Sass. I learn something new every time I come here.
WordPress Codex #
Invaluable for WP developers. Get all the details on core functions, actions & filters.
Courses #
Treehouse* #
$25/mo. Interactive code challenges to accompany video instruction. Topics include: HTML, CSS, JS, PHP, Ruby, Design, WordPress, iOS, Android & Business.
Codecademy* #
Free. Write interactive code in the browser as you complete lessons. Topics include: HTML+CSS, JS, jQuery, Python, Ruby & PHP.
Learnable #
$29/mo; $149/yr. Screencast videos, PDFs and courses. Topics include: HTML+CSS, JS, PHP, Ruby, Design+UX, Mobile & Workflow.
Lynda #
$30/mo; $300/yr. Video courses on just about any part of web development imaginable.
The Lodge (CSS Tricks) #
$13/mo to stream, $20/mo to download. Four very practical courses: Mobile-First WordPress Development, Site Redesign Workflow, Learn jQuery, Learn SVG.
Podcasts #
Sorry, I don’t listen to many dev podcasts. Here are the ones I do occasionally listen to:
ShopTalk #
Chris Coyier & Dave Rupert talk about web development with guests. There are also jokes.
A Responsive Web Design Podcast #
Karen McGrane & Ethan Marcotte interview guests on RWD-related front-end topics.
Toolsday #
Una Kravets and Chris Dhanaraj host a podcast highlighting “the latest in tech tools, tips, and tricks.”
Syntax #
Wes Bos and Scott Tolinkski hosts a podcast with tasty treats for web developers.
The Web Ahead #
Jen Simmons hosts a podcast to help you keep up with the future of web development. There haven’t been new episodes for 3 years, but lots of the content is still quite relevant.
Books #
Smashing Library* #
$99/year. Access to several dozen books on great topics: Code, Design, WordPress, Content, Freelancing & Graphics. Subscribing for a year lets you download all previously published books as well as two new books published each month during your subscription (PDF, ePub, Mobi).
A Book Apart Library* #
Eleven books by industry experts on several useful topics: HTML, CSS, Responsive Design, Content Strategy, Sass, Web Typography & more.
Five Simple Steps* #
Short but immensely practical books on various topics in web development: HTML email, animations, symbol fonts, performance, accessibility & more. Sadly, they’re no longer publishing / selling books, but a few books survived.
O’Reilly Books #
They cover all the major (and many minor) languages in their books.
Work in Progress #
I’ll be updating this list as I discover more resources. If you find a link that’s broken or leads somewhere unexpected, please let me know. Thanks!