Vandelay Website Design Blog

77 Resources to Simplify Your Life as a Web Designer

Color Tools

Choosing the right color combination can be a difficult task. Try some of these tools to make it an easier decision.

For more color-related tools, see Find the Perfect Colors for Your Website.

Free CSS Navigation Menus

CSS-based navigation menus are used by most websites now, but they don’t need to be created from scratch. There are hundreds of menus already created and available for your use. You can use them as is, or customize them to meet your needs and match your website.

DHTML Navigation Menus

Xtreeme DHTML Menu Studio is a great tool for quickly creating dynamic navigation menus (cost: $49).

Photos for Your Website

Quality images greatly enhance the look and appearance of a website. You can find photos for free or buy higher quality photos for as little as $1.

Icons

Blank WordPress Templates

If you design WordPress themes you can save yourself a lot of time by downloading these blank themes (from Tomorrow’s Laundry). The blank themes provide you with a very basic starting point to work from.

CSS-Based Design Templates

You may be able to save time by starting with a basic CSS-based template. Most websites are built off a one of several different layouts that can be started from a template.

Eric Meyer’s CSS Sculptor

One of the leading CSS designers has created CSS Sculptor to speed up the creation of CSS-based layouts. If you design a lot of websites this $149 software may be very helpful.

Dead Links Checker

Dead links are extremely frustrating to visitors, but checking them manually is not realistic. These tools will do it for you.

Testing in Multiple Browsers

Adequate testing is a part of the design process, and unfortunately that means testing in a variety of browsers.

For more information on this subject see Effectively Testing Your Website in Multiple Browsers.

Validators

Valid code is generally more accessible and it should be one of the first things you test when you encounter a problem.

Scripts

There’s no need to re-invent the wheel. Save yourself some time by using free scripts that others have created.

Favicon Generator

Favicons are very popular right now, and they don’t have to be difficult to create. Try these free tools to create your own and help brand your website.

Fonts

Typography and fonts can make or break a design, but it can be time consuming to try a number of different options. Try some of these resources.

Web 2.0 Tools

Most of the modern web 2.0 and social media sites have several design features in common. Help to make your designs look more modern by incorporating some of these design tools.

Button Makers

Buttons are everywhere. Easily and quickly create your own buttons with these tools.

Gradient Image Tools

Gradient images are another staple of web 2.0. If you don’t have Photoshop there are some other ways to create gradients.

Rounded Corner Boxes

Creating boxes with rounded corners is easy when you have the right tools.

CSS Speech Bubbles

Speech bubbles will give comments and quotes some variety and add to your design.

CSS Tools

If you’re looking to clean, optimize and compress your CSS code, here are some choices.

Miscellaneous

Originally Published September 10th, 2007

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