I’ve been thinking a lot about the changing landscape of web design and development, and I believe there’s already a fast-moving shift in how customers are approaching getting online. I may elaborate more later, but here are the overall thoughts.
There are 2 absolute truths about me when it comes to books: I love reading and I don’t read enough. I try to read 18 books a year but generally end up around 12. I’m also of the opinion that I don’t read enough fiction. I focus mostly on Business books and US History. There have been a bunch of great books I’ve read in the last few years that really shaped my approach to running a business and how to grow it into something more sustainable without killing myself in the process. They’ve been so integral in the way I do things that I want help other people in the same way they helped me. That’s why I’m giving away 4 of my favorites. Enter after the jump.
It has become a bit of a time-honored tradition for me to do gift guides around the holidays. This year I decided instead of making yet another post, I’ll create this page and child pages that I can update each year. I have some big plans for when I (finally) redesign this site, but for now, check ’em out:
What other gift guides do you want to see? I was thinking about putting together one for cigar smokers as well as some stuff I use every day. Have an idea for a guide I could make? Leave it in the comments!
If you’ve done a Google Search on your mobile device recently, you may have noticed that Google adds a bit of text in the search results alerting you to the fact that a website is (or is not) mobile friendly. This can have a big impact on your website’s search ranking.
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I recently published a new gift guide on this site- one for Remote Workers (as a matter of fact, there’s some good stuff on that list that could be on this list). I think it’s a pretty good one, so you should check it out if you haven’t already. Today I’m giving you my slightly more annual list: theGift Guide for Web People. There are some constants on the list that I’m going to list at the bottom, but I’m going to try to add mostly new stuff for this year. Check out the list after the jump.
As you’ve probably read, my book, Responsive Design with WordPress, came out last month and is now available to purchase online and in stores. My publisher has also sent me a few copies to give to family, friends, important people, etc. I’ve decided that I’m going to give a few of those copies away through a couple of contests.
They are both pretty basic and outlined here. The first one is through the website GoodReads. I’m giving away 3 copies and the contest runs until the 31st. All you have to do is enter here, assuming you have a GoodReads account.
The other is your pretty standard social media content. There are 2 copies up for grabs and the contest runs until January 13th. You can enter on Facebook, Twitter, or by signing up for this contest only newsletter. Details for both Facebook and Twitter are on the contest page.
So hurry up! You have 1 week. You can enter all 4 ways to increase your chances, but you can only win one copy of the book. They are print versions and if you win I’ll be in touch to get your mailing address. Shipping in the USA and Canada is on me, but depending on the shipping cost elsewhere, I might ask for some help. If you have any questions, leave a comment here.
Here’s a little secret: I love these lists. I love writing them, I love reading them, and I love buying stuff, so I love researching them. Plus, 2013 is a great year for web development and technology. Responsive Design is now in full swing as it’s pretty much standard practice to build a responsive site by default now. Great people like @wilto are pushing the standards fight forward for responsive images, there are great podcasts, and more. Shopping for web people shouldn’t be a difficult task, but I’d like to narrow it down for you. This list isn’t just going to be a list of books, or even a list of computer things. It’s going to be a list of stuff I like, and that I think other web people will also like.
Going through my feeds this morning, I came across a link to a story on Engadget talking about how the Samsung Galaxy Gear was hacked to browse the web. With this, another screen/device that can view websites enters the fray, making Responsive Web Design as important as ever.
If you’ve been milling around the site lately, or follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, or Dribbble, you’ll know I’ve been working on a book. Last week I officially launched the site for @NEPABlogCon and I’m happy today to officially announce my second book, Responsive Design with WordPress.
Responsive Design with WordPress shows readers Responsive Web Design principles, as well as how to develop responsively when using WordPress. With a greater push towards mobile and the emergence of Responsive Web Design (RWD), more and more WordPress developers are looking to create responsive themes for their websites. The book goes into detail, covering what default CSS classes WordPress uses and how to handle them when creating responsive designs. It shows how to implement the multiple images sizes and readers will learn to plan responsive layouts for common WordPress templates such as Archives, Search, Comments, how to find responsive friendly plugins, and more.
I got the idea earlier this year when I was doing a lot of work creating responsive themes in WordPress and felt that this would be a great follow up to my first book, Building WordPress Themes from Scratch. I decided to send a proposal to a Peachpit/New Riders (or Voices that Matter), a publisher I deeply respect as they’ve published some amazing works by Jeffrey @Zeldman, Dan Cederholm (@simplebits), Jesse Friedman (@professor), Ethan Marcotte (@beep) and more. I was put in touch with Michael Nolan and am eternally grateful that he has given me the chance to write this book with a fantastic team of people.
The book comes out on December 16th, 2013 – just in time for Christmas 😉 . You can pre-order it at rwdwp.com. Keep an eye out for discounts, giveaways, and more in the coming weeks!
PS- If you’d like me to speak at an event regarding the book or RWD/WP in general. please get in touch.
Yesterday, Web Design Tuts+ (@wdtuts) published a somewhat lengthly article I wrote about designing websites for Google Glass. I cover quite a bit, from device usage, to UX, to Mobile First and RWD. From the article:
…we as web developers should be mindful of how we develop our websites. As it turns out, the principles I’m going to discuss aren’t all that new, but suggest a future-friendly approach to web design; important as devices like Glass (or even Apple’s fabled iWatch) are released to the market.
I will also be releasing an e-book sometime in the near future delving more into this topic, along with some sample code. For now, if you’re interested, check out the article!
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