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@DylanFM
Created July 7, 2010 03:09
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I'm just going to list out a few books for you. They relate to quite a few different sections of web design and development, but it's good to cover a broad bunch of subjects when building a foundation.
Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
http://www.sensible.com/dmmt.html
This is probably the most important book I've read and I wouldn't be surprised if it stays that way. Don't Make Me Think is about usability -- it teaches you how to build really simple websites that work. Often we complicate things when we make websites, but by reading this book you save yourself from making a ton of mistakes.
Designing With Web Standards [3rd Edition] by Jeffrey Zeldman
http://www.zeldman.com/dwws/
Web Standards are a set of principles and processes that should be followed when building a website. Most websites out there don't really adhere to them, and if they do it's only with a gentle nod. When you follow web standards you get a whole lot of benefits, some being less code (and less problems), better accessibility, better SEO and so on.
This book isn't overly technical, but it's a really really good read for learning more about web standards, how they can be applied and why they should be.
HTML and CSS books
http://www.bestbooktop10.com/best-books-html-and-css.html
You'll need a book on good web standards based HTML and CSS. The top book here, CSS: The Missing Manual looks good. I haven't actually got any of these books. I've learned most of what I know from around the web and some books here at home (nothing good enough to recommend though). I'd suggest getting the books here that seem good to you. The #1, #2 and #3 books all look pretty good here.
DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith
http://domscripting.com/book/
This book teaches you the basics of JavaScript and how you can use it to make websites more interesting, usable and engaging. Although I'm now using a library called jQuery to help me do a lot of DOM related stuff, this book provided me with a really solid foundation for doing fancy things with JavaScript. Jeremy also has a really good mind for web standards and teaches and promotes some very important principles for making sure your JavaScript enhanced sites are usable by all users.
Programming Ruby
http://pragprog.com/titles/ruby3/programming-ruby-1-9
You might not be interested in learning about programming on the server (a.k.a back-end), but if you do I highly suggest learning how to program in Ruby. Aside from front-end web development with HTML, CSS and JavaScript; programming with Ruby basically what I do. I'd say it's 50/50 front-end back-end.
Ruby is a fantastic language. Do try it out if you want to do any sort of back-end development. I initially used PHP for a few years but moved to Ruby. That was a good move!
Agile Web Development with Rails
http://pragprog.com/titles/rails3/agile-web-development-with-rails-third-edition
If you choose to go down the path of learning Ruby and using it to build dynamic websites, you'll definitely want to check out Rails. Ruby on Rails is a framework written in Ruby which is used to build websites. It helps you cover a lot of ground with minimal effort and has a really good and solid foundation. It's what I use to build sites 80% of the time. There's a lot of work out there with this, but there's also a lot of work out there for this whole area from front-end to back-end really.
This is the best Rails book out there, but I need to say that there's a new version of rails, Rails 3, coming out really soon. Once it comes out a lot of what's in this book will be obsolete or changed. It might be better to wait until an updated version for Rails 3 comes out.
That about covers it. There are other books I'd recommend (like Information Architecture for the World Wide Web and The Elements of Typographic Style), but for now I think this list is enough to give you a really good foundation in web design and development.
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