The 11 Most Important Web Design Blogs in 2015

Web designers and developers have to keep themselves up to date and have their finger on the pulse of the time. You can do so by reading the best blogs about web design. I want to present some blogs to you today that were trendsetters in 2014 and before and will be in 2015. They provide the latest information on everything about design as well as tips, tricks, and the best tutorials. We focused on high content quality and attached great importance on usability to make it beneficial for novices as well as professionals. Since self-praise is no recommendation, we don't mention Noupe in this list, but of course you should take it into account ;-)

The Best Web Design Blogs in 2015

I focused on the most popular blogs, which have a high Alexa rank and thousands of followers in the social media. Naturally, I also considered how often content is updated. High-quality posts and variety were important factors to me. The more people can benefit from the content, the better. Today's article lists only international blogs in English.

1. Smashing Magazine

Alexa rank: 2,256
Social media: Twitter - 902,000 followers; Facebook - 246,000 likes
Post frequency: 3-5 articles per week
Content types: articles, guides, research, prize draws, freebies, e-books

The Smashing Magazine is in a different league and virtually the dinosaur among web design blogs - but hopefully with a better end. It offers articles about web design, coding, programming, user experience design, and graphics. Most tutorials provide an in-depth look at the subject requiring a good knowledge base. Besides own printed or e-books, Smashing Magazine also offers conferences and workshops. There's also a weekly newsletter.

2. Hongkiat

Alexa rank: 1,664
Social media: Twitter - 39,200 followers; Facebook - 92,000 likes
Post frequency: up to 10 articles per week
Content types: articles, tutorials, reviews, freebies, design inspiration

Initiated by Hongkiat Lim, this blog is a good resource for people who are interested in web design, web development, graphics, and photography. Here you'll find high-quality articles about web design, tips and tutorials on HTML and CSS.

3. Tuts+

Alexa rank: 1,077
Social media: Twitter - 122,000 followers; Facebook - 121,356 likes
Post frequency: up to 7 articles per week
Content types: articles, tutorials, reviews, design theory, news, interviews

This blog is a good resource for comprehensive, useful, and extensive tutorials on all web design aspects. The tutorials can be used by novices as well as professionals. It provides a glossary explaining the different web design terms to help establish a basic knowledge.

4. Creative Blog

Alexa rank: 2,239
Social media: Twitter - 117,000 followers; Facebook - 211,556 likes
Post frequency: couple of posts per day
Content types: articles, videos, tutorials, reviews, design and illustration news, roundups, freebies, and more

The Creative Blog is a good resource that covers several design-specific topics. They publish many inspirational articles, present typefaces, and offer Photoshop tutorials. Graphic designers will find a lot of 3D animations and illustrations here.

5. Codrops

Alexa rank: 2,215
Social media: Twitter - 125,000 followers; Facebook - 84,163 likes
Post frequency: up to 3 articles per week
Content types: articles, tutorials, tips, development and programming, inspirations, news and interviews

Codrops concentrates on web design tips and tutorials. Here you can find the most advanced tutorials and most interesting effects. Codrops is virtually a design laboratory. Freebies and inspirational articles top the package off.

6. Web Designer Depot

Alexa rank: 5,149
Social media: Twitter - 729,000 followers; Facebook - 206,322 likes
Post frequency: daily
Content types: articles, web design theory, Twitter roundups, comics, freebies

The Web Designer Depot offers daily articles about theoretical web design, good tips, and lots of freebies. Interesting tweets and the comic of the week complete the offer. The website brings out the latest trends and news in the wide field of web design.

7. Designmodo

Alexa rank: 6,721
Social media: Twitter - 255,000 followers; Facebook - 118,903 likes
Post frequency: 3-5 articles per week
Content types: articles, tutorials, tips, inspirations

This blog not only covers web design and development topics. Entrepreneurs will find useful recommendations on online branding, SEO, and marketing. Designmodo also provides the latest news and technological novelties. Different tutorials on back and front end development, programming, and design are helpful for novices, experienced designers, and programmers.

8. Co.Design

Alexa rank: 4,539
Social media: Twitter - 357,000 followers; Facebook - 322,124 likes
Post frequency: most of the time daily
Content types: everything about design

Co.Design publishes the widest topical spectrum. The main topic is design and covers all areas including clothing, interior design, technical innovations, and also web development. They also write about apps.

9. Speckyboy

Alexa rank: 7,951
Social media: Twitter - 66,300 followers; Facebook - 50,547 likes
Post frequency: daily
Content types: articles, tips, tutorials, freebies, e-books, inspirations

The Speckyboy blog covers different aspects of web design and web technology. It's not as comprehensive as Co.Design but here you'll find neat and inspiring articles about graphic design, illustration, website building and UX. Articles about freebies, weekly news, and inspirations also don't go short.

10. CSS Tricks

Alexa rank: 1,950
Social media: Twitter - 198,000 followers; Facebook - 55,836 likes
Post frequency: up to 5 posts per week
Content types: coding tips, tutorials, videos, podcasts

CSS Tricks is one of the dinosaurs of web design and has been on the market for a long time. Its founder, Chris Coyier, publishes mainly technical articles and problem solutions for CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and PHP. Throughout its long existence, CSS Tricks has published loads of articles about responsive design, web development, and similar topics. There are also videos and podcasts. The snippets database provides problem solutions for all markup and programming languages. It also covers the latest trends on front and back end design.

11. SitePoint

Alexa rank: 1,330
Social media: Twitter - 127,000 followers; Facebook - 67,467 likes
Post frequency: daily
Content types: web design articles, tips, tutorials, reviews

SitePoint offers a lot of articles about front and back end development as well as web design topics in general. UE and UI studies complete the overall picture, not to mention the articles about SEO and marketing.

Conclusion

A good mixture of the leading blogs about all relevant topics in web design guarantees a good and always up-to-date basic knowledge. If you follow these 11 blogs, you'll get a good overview of the latest developments and technical innovations. Which one is your favorite?

(dpe)

Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay