No matter the industry or area of expertise, the best work comes from individuals who are inspired to create. Simply put, inspiration drives innovation! This can look a lot of different ways depending upon what you do and who you serve, but for web developers, the best websites, both in design and function, are often inspired by existing content.
As you advance in your career from an associate website developer to more senior roles, you’ll quickly learn that the individuals who are most successful and effective at their job know where to look to find inspiration and solutions. This means having a robust library of resources that inspire new website design, layout, form, and function. It’s not cheating to find inspiration in existing resources; it’s smart. And if you’re not leveraging such resources to inspire your own work, you might be needlessly spinning your wheels trying to create something from scratch.
If you are interested in starting a career as an associate website developer, or if you’re already a website designer/developer looking for sources of inspiration, keep reading to learn more about these excellent resources in the industry. And consider adding these to your own library of inspiration!
Awwwards
Awwwards touts itself as being a hub where design, creativity, and innovation meet on the internet. Naturally, this makes it a prime resource for web designers and developers! Think of this resource as a central location for digital design professionals from across the globe to find inspiration, impart knowledge and experience, connect, and share constructive, respectful critiques. You can browse new website designs, sorted by category, test out their functionality, ask questions, and find solutions.
But Awwwards is much more than a website that curates great examples. It is an organization dedicated to recognizing the best of the web design and development industry. It is a place to see some of the most innovative websites out there! Awwwards’ tagline is something every web professional can take to heart: “Always questioning, always evolving.” This is one valuable resource to help facilitate exactly this!
Behance
Behance is a design community created by Adobe. The discovery page provides thousands of websites to inspire website developers. This large database provides amazing filtering options which will help find almost anything you could want. The inspiration is not the website itself, but its focus: carefully curating and showcasing the most outstanding creative projects from around the web. Think of Behance as a buffet of the best of the best—artists, designers, photographers, retouchers—all on display for you to browse at your convenience. It’s an online gallery of exceptional web design and artistic expression. And with the financial backing and authority of Adobe, this is a tightly-run site that is also instantly connected to a significant creative community that submits, reviews and favorites the most impressive work.
Siteinspire
Siteinspire is a showcase of the finest web and interactive design, making it an exceptional resource or inspiration! Over the last decade, Siteinspire has become one of the largest and most-respected showcases of web design and directory of agencies and freelancers, used by upwards of 15,000 daily unique visitors. Siteinspire is a great resource for finding inspiration for specific projects or topics. The website has an extensive tagging system that allows visitors to combine tags to create a wide variety of interesting results.
Best Website Gallery
Best Website Gallery is a great collection of high end websites curated by designer/developer David Hellman. The website started as a collection of David’s bookmark and has evolved over the years into the gallery it is today. The website’s “claim to fame” is providing multiple screenshots of the featured websites. Visitors can view multiple pages on a website without having to actually click through to that website. This is helpful for professionals looking for inspiration on pages other than the home page.
Many know Pinterest as a one stop shop for recipes, fashion, home decor, and the latest workout or fad diet. But it has evolved into so much more than this! If you’re not leveraging Pinterest for professional advice and inspiration, you’re missing out. Believe it or not Pinterest is a great resource for website design and development professionals. Pinterest provides access to a variety of projects that have inspired other website developers. The great thing about Pinterest is that you can find great graphic design, code snippets, tips for maintaining websites, and complete projects.
The Big Takeaway
Every website designer/developer from associate website developer to senior web developer needs inspiration from time to time and it's great to have resources that can spark your imagination. So long as you use these examples as inspiration for r your own unique design, you can and should leverage these resources to help you solve website challenges and stretch your skills. Most importantly, inspiration websites will help you break through roadblocks and challenge you to try new techniques that will grow your knowledge!
As part of NuPaths associate website developer program you can further enhance your design and development skills by learning from instructors who work in the industry and who know the best ways to leverage inspirational resources. These instructors also have an extensive list of high-quality, trustworthy resources they will share with you throughout your learning, adding even more value to your experience. The best place to start is by having a conversation with a NuPaths student success coordinator who can answer your questions and advise your next steps to get started. We invite you to learn more here!
