October 19, 2001

Recommended sites, magazines and events for new media students

A colleague asked,

I’m putting together a short piece that advises students on how to get into new media — all aspects of it e.g. technology, creative, commercial… I would therefore be eternally grateful if you could please send me all your hot tips including:

• Sites to subscribe to / contribute to
• Magazines to read
• Networking events to attend

I often find myself wondering what advice I could give students starting out. I know what I’d want to steer them away from is further wallowing in and emulation of the work of currently fashionable design celebrities that constitutes much of a typical design education and career. (Required reading here: Zeldman on Style vs. Design.) The interesting things happen where busy craftspeople discuss and share their work and knowledge. So with that in mind…

Sites to subscribe to / contribute to

Whatever you’re interested in, find a community dedicated to it. Peer-to-peer content will always beat “official” publications, and largely renders traditional magazines obsolete. You can quickly get specific answers to your specific questions. What’s more, your own contribution enriches that community (and there are few better ways to learn than by teaching others).

This often means mailing lists. Two of the best, on web design and computer-human interaction, are Webdesign-L and CHI-WEB, but it’s easy to find lists on even more focused topics. Lizst.com is one place to look for them. (Not forgetting Google Groups.)

The following are essential destinations for new media designers. Most have a community aspect. Check as often as possible:

• A List Apart
  “for people who make websites. From pixels to prose, coding to content”
• Evolt
  “Evolt.org is a world community for web developers, promoting the mutual free exchange of ideas, skills and experiences.”
• Webmonkey
  “the web developer’s resource”
• Webgraphics
  “a resource and search engine for web design and development”
• Usable Web
  “1423 links about web usability”
• e-Consultancy
  “Thought leadership for the digital economy”

Some other sites whose newsletters are worth subscribing to:

• Cooper Interaction Design
• Creative Good (less frequent these days unfortunately)
• Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox (still relevant)

To get a feel of the how the internet community works, and to know of stuff before anyone else does:

• Metafilter
  "community weblog”
• Memepool
  “disinfotainment”
  “first on the scene, because we’re the victim”
• Red Rock Eater News Service
  "These days most of the messages concern the social and political aspects of computing and networking."

Magazines to read

I don’t read many (dead medium), but Webtechniques is a very good one (very hands-on, but more aimed at developers than designers). Every monthly issue is available online in its entirety, so it’s easy to check if it’s right for you. Update 1/4/02: Webtechniques is now New Architect. I trust its quality is unaltered.

Networking events to attend

AIGA Experience Design London (used to be known as Advance for Design), meets monthly at the Design Council. Interesting discussions, excellent for networking, free beer: Subscribe here.

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