Web Designers Should Visit Design Blogs

Design Blogs.
What Are They?

They're your new best friend! Design blogs are great resources for you to turn to when you get stumped on a project, need more information on a certain topic, are looking for inspiration, or are just bored out of your mind!

A design blog's content can either be super specific, like focusing only on UX design, or being very broad, like focusing on multiple topics that could apply to a variety of creative industries. They also ususally showcase their content in various formats such as articles, videos, podcasts, images, etc.

The Benefits Of
Visiting Design Blogs

Learn Something New

Knowledge is power! Every time you visit a design blog, you're almost guaranteed to walk away with a new nugget of information!

Kickstart Your Creativity

If you find yourself in a pickle during a project, take some time to peruse some design blogs for some inspiration. You know what they say, inspiration can come from anywhere!

Find A Community

These blogs were all made by people who want to get down and nerdy with their topic of choice just as much as you do! Also, you're not the only one reading these blogs! Take a moment to interact with the comments on a blog's page, or on its social posts, and meet other people with similar interests!

Keep Up With Design Trends

The industry is constantly changing! Visiting design blogs regularly allows you to stay in the know about the latest design trends and current industry standards.

Gain A New Perspective

Let's face it, it's easy to get set in your ways and it happens to the best of us. But if you actively visit design blogs, you'll be exposed to a variety of new ways to think about things and see other people's perspective on a certain topic.

Collect Assets

Assets like fonts, templates, and mock-ups can get pretty pricey. But design blogs often offer great freebies either directly on their site, or in an article that links to a whole bunch of free assets.

Blog Recommendations

Now that we've covered why you should visit design blogs, it's time to take a gander at some of the blogs below and see if any of them suit your fancy! These blogs are run by credible companies, studios, or people and are updated on a regular basis. Between them all, they offer a variety of content in the form of articles, podcasts, videos, interviews, images, assets, tutorials, newsletters, etc.

Web Focused

These blogs are geared more toward web related topics such as web design, UX / UI, and web development.

Web Designer Depot

“We’re passionate about standards, accessibility, clean code, and responsible design, because we love the web; and we want you to love it too. We’re here for anyone who calls the web their home. You don’t need to be designing out of an open plan loft in Manhattan, you don’t need “Guru” as part of your job title, heck you don’t even need a job title; just be curious about the future of the web, and we’ll do the rest.”

Smashing Magazine

“Smashing Magazine delivers reliable, useful, but most importantly practical articles to web designers and developers. We don’t care about trends; we care about things that work or fail in actual projects.”

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.”

Wix Blog

“Get inspired by stunning website showcases, fresh web design tips, tutorials and so much more.”

Sidebar

“Sidebar has been collecting the best design links of the day since October 2012. Sidebar links can be anything from an article, to a beautiful portfolio, to a cool CodePen demo.”

UX Magazine

“UX Magazine has been exploring, promoting, and discussing the realm of experience design for more than two decades. . . There’s virtually no aspects of daily life remaining that UX doesn’t affect, and here you’ll find information that keeps you current with this ongoing conversation.”

Visual Inspiration

These blogs shine a spotlight on the visual side of web design.

Awwwards

“The awards that recognize the talent and effort of the best web designers, developers and agencies in the world.”

Siteinspire

“Siteinspire is a showcase of the finest web and interactive design.”

Httpster

“Httpster is a showcase of damn fine website design, lovingly curated and categorized so we can perv on it at our whim.”

Webflow Showcase

“Discover inspiring design work from the Webflow community
The Webflow Showcase is the place to find, clone, follow, like, and comment on the latest community sites.”

Land-book

“You’ll find a great variety of different types of websites. No matter what project you’re working on, there’s always something that might inspire and encourage you to do even better stuff.”

Commerce Cream

“Commerce Cream features the best design work built on Shopify as well as the global agencies behind those sites.”

General Topics

These blogs offer a broad variety of topics to get your brain going and your ideas flowing!

It's Nice That

“It’s Nice That believes passionately that creative inspiration is for everyone and by championing the most exciting creative work on our website and social channels, and through our events programme, we want to open up this world to the widest possible audience.”

AIGA Eye On Design

“Eye on Design is an editorial platform that explores what it means to be a designer today. We cover the issues important to the global design world + elevate the voices of contemporary designers as a way to build a more engaged design community.”

The Great Discontent

“Focusing on beginnings, creativity, and risk, The Great Discontent provides a memorable look into the lives of creatives via long-form interviews in digital and print, short features, film-based projects, podcasts, and events.”

Google Design

“Google Design is a cooperative effort led by a group of designers, writers, and developers at Google. We work across teams to create content and produce events that showcase Google’s design work and champion innovators in our field.”

Creative Boom

“We share breaking industry news, keeping you updated on what's happening in your creative field. We showcase the most exciting creative work to offer inspiration and champion emerging and established talent. We write about recommended tools, resources and books, and interview the brightest and best creatives. We also provide invaluable tips and insight to help creatives everywhere thrive.”

99u

“Our digital publication features the stories behind the careers of leading creatives, plus guides and tips on everything from navigating entrepreneurship to achieving work-life balance.”

Keeping Track

Here are some simple ways to keep track of your favorite design blogs and to stay updated on what they post!

Newsletters

Most blogs offer a weekly newsletter that you can sign up for! If you check your email often, this is an easy way to stay in the know and keep track of new content from your favorite blogs!

Social Media

If you spend a decent amount of time on social media, give your favorite blog a follow! Then when they post new content, it will pop right up on your feed while you're scrolling!

RSS Feeds

Some blogs have an RSS feed that you can subscribe to, but before you do that you need to download an RSS Reader and install it on your computer. Once you have it installed, you'll be able to see the latest articles from all of the blogs you follow, and it's all in one space!

Browser Bookmarks

This is an easy way to keep track of your favorite design blogs. First, you create a bookmark for each of the blogs you want to save. Then, in your browser, you can create folders to organize the blogs by any category you like! You can even use this method of organizing to group specific articles together!

Lists

This is one of the simplest way to keep track of your favorite design blogs! Simply copy the URL of the blog you want and paste it into what ever note taking app you would like! You could use a Word Document, a Google Document, a spreadsheet, a basic notes app, etc.