This is the fifth part of our ongoing series of site-building resources. Today we’ll be focusing on design and usability resources.

• A List Apart – “A List Apart explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices.”
• Boxes and Arrows – “Boxes and Arrows is devoted to the practice, innovation, and discussion of design; including graphic design, interaction design, information architecture and the design of business.”
• SEOmoz.org – “Read SEOmoz. Rank Better.” The article 17 New Rules for Successful E-Commerce Websites is a must-read.
• Smashing Magazine – “We smash you with the information that will make your life easier. Really.” Be sure to check out the article 30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of while you’re there.
• Usability.gov – “Your guide for developing usable & useful Web sites” Be sure to check out Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines while you’re there.
• useit.com – “usable information technology” Jakob Nielsen has been synonymous with website usability since the mid-1990s.
• UX Magazine – “UX Magazine sets out to explore, promote & discuss the multiple facets of user experience one article at a time. It is built upon the foundations of ProjectNeo, a global interactive design community.”

Please add any other related resources you’d like to recommend in the comments below.

Related Articles:

• Resource Links (Part 1) – Site-building Tools and HTML/CSS
• Resource Links (Part 2) – PHP and Javascript
• Resource Links (Part 3) – Statistics and Graphics/Design
• Resource Links (Part 4) – Business/Financial

This is the third part of our ongoing series of site-building resources. Today we’ll be focusing on website statistics and graphics/design resources.

Statistics

• Crazy Egg – hosted statistic package with a variety of visualization options
• tapefailure – hosted statistic package with a variety of visualization options
• Mint – self-hosted, extensible web statistics
• AWStats – powerful free and open source log analyser

Graphics/Design

• PhotoshopCandy.com (formerly Photoshopit) – free Photoshop tutorials and templates
• iStockphoto – royalty free stock photos and illustrations
• Webdesigners Toolkit – free Photoshop browser templates
• Shutterstock.com – royalty-free stock photos
• Planet Photoshop – Photoshop tutorials
• Color Matters – color theory
• 24 ways – “24 ways to impress your friends”
• Font Tester – preview typefaces
• Color Jack – color theory and swatch palettes
• Open Source Web Design – free web design templates

Do you have a website statistics and graphics/design recommendation you would like to share? Please tell us about it in the comments.

Related Articles:

• Resource Links (Part 1) – Site-building Tools and HTML/CSS
• Resource Links (Part 2) – PHP and Javascript
• Resource Links (Part 4) – Business/Financial
• Resource Links (Part 5) – Design/Usability

This is the first part of an ongoing series where we’ll be providing links to sites that provide useful information for helping you build your website. We welcome your suggestions for additional resources in the comments. Today, we’re focusing on site-building tools (web browsers and extensions) and HTML/CSS.

Site-building Tools

• Firefox – “The award-winning Web browser is now faster, more secure, and fully customizable to your online life.”
• Firebug – “Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of web development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.”
• The Web Developer extension – “The Web Developer extension adds a menu and a toolbar to the browser with various web developer tools. It is designed for Firefox, Flock, Mozilla and Seamonkey, and will run on any platform that these browsers support including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.”

HTML/CSS

• W3Schools – “At W3Schools you will find all the Web-building tutorials you need, from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, SQL, Database, Multimedia and WAP.”
• HTML Code Tutorial – “Our goal is to provide the most helpful and complete guide to creating web pages anywhere.”
• The Complete Reference HTML & XHTML – website supporting the fourth edition of the eponymous book
• URL Decoder/Encoder – “Handy for turning encoded JavaScript URLs from complete gibberish into readable gibberish.”
• CSS Formatter and Optimiser – “CleanCSS is a powerful CSS optimizer and formatter. Basically, it takes your CSS code and makes it cleaner and more concise.”
• CSS Panic Guide – a guide for the unglued. – “This is not a complete resource, this is a fast resource.”
• Tizag – “Tizag was designed to teach beginner web programmers how to use HTML and CSS.”
• Free Webmaster Help – “Everything a webmaster needs – for free. Here you will find many high quality tutorials and articles dealing with some of the most popular and important issues and technologies surrounding web development.”
• Web Form Factory – “Web Form Factory is an open source web form generator which automatically generates the necessary backend code to tie your form to a database.”

Do you have a site-building or HTML/CSS recommendation you would like to share? Please tell us about it in the comments.

Related Articles:

• Resource Links (Part 2) – PHP and Javascript
• Resource Links (Part 3) – Statistics and Graphics/Design
• Resource Links (Part 4) – Business/Financial
• Resource Links (Part 5) – Design/Usability