Today while blogging about the Outlook standards saga, I remembered how I wanted to write a post on the best tutorial sites on web design and development. One of the major reasons why standards aren’t adopted as much as they should have are because of lack of awareness and knowledge. And one of the main reasons why people are beginning to talk a lot more about standards it is because of Tutorial sites like the ones below. Essentially they serve these dual purpose of awareness and knowledge dissemination.

However, beyond being amazingly useful resources these sites also present some good business models for content oriented sites to pursue. So without further adieu, some of the best web design and development tutorial sites:

1. Echoecho

Back in the das when I was a young little boy excited about photoshop brushes and geocities, Echoecho was a frequent haunt. I have a feeling it is not updated anymore, but the site still has its beginner level tutorials and is an excellent resource for people to start off at.

2. W3Schools

W3Schools was the quintessential web designer/ developer resource , the fall back guy, man friday and other such expressions. Over a period it has set the standards regarding web standards and is one of the few completely free resources on the web. It also provides certifications and tests which make it a must visit for any budding designer.

3. Sitepoint

Though I discovered the articles and resources on Sitepoint quite late, I quickly became a huge fan of their content. Sitepoint is a complete web business repository actually and has tutotrials on everything from domains to site business strategy, not to forget scripting and coding. Excellent site.

4. Webmonkey

One of my earliest Photoshop lessons came from Webmonkey, when they put a tutorial on how to have TV like lines on photographs (like the one above), for 2 years that was practically the only skill I carried in PS but thanks to the tutorial I carried it pretty well.  Webmonkey has no gone on to become a wiki like resource for designers where you can also contribute and edit while learning. It covers a wide range of topics, lot of stuff to bookmark.

5. Nettuts

Nettus is by a company called Envato and is part of their tutorial series of sites (which include Photoshop, Vector, AE tutorials among others). Among all the sites here they are the newest on the block but have so far had some really kick ass content. Compared to other sites I find them sort of what one call cutting edge because of the various authors they have on the blog and the different perspective they bring to the tutorials. Nice stuff this.

6. Good Tutorials

If I remember correctly I used to visit Good Tutorials mostly for photoshop tutorials, but even then they had a sizeable collection of HTML and related resources. Now they have changed quite bit, and though I don’t find the site design very appealing it sitll has a hgue resource fo stuff for web developers to go through. It also has some socal goodness injected through ratings and other aspects driven into the site.

7. HTML Goodies

HTML Goodies is probably the oldest site of the lot, beginning as early as 1996. It has an active forum now though I don’t know if any toher part of the site is still updated. However like Echoecho one of the very few sites to go to when you need hand guidance on good ol’ web design. I learnt my first Javascript code on this site.

With the advent of blogging numerous sites have cropped up offering tutorials and tips and tricks, and each authored by very capable people. So it would be difficult to judge on which site is the best and the only one to go to. Even more difficult to compile a bigger list. Therefore I have limited myself to the time tested ones above. Nevertheless it would be great if anyone of you have some good sites to share on web design and development that we can all go to.