ASP.NET Applications and User Interface Design Aesthetics
I'm "aesthetically challenged" !
Doing good "look and feel" work doesn't come natural to me, and I want to change that. For both the demo applications that I will be using in 2008's webcasts and videos, as well as for my "pet projects", I want to build great LOOKING web applications (as well as great WORKING ones.)
Visual Studio 2008 has some GREAT new designer and CSS support.
I've recently finished recording a series of 8 videos on "What's new in Visual Studio 2008". They are currently in post-production and will hit the web within a week or two (I'll blog a notice when they do.)
The tool support really helps me use the technology, but I've still been struggling with the "what and why" of it. So, I started doing research, thinking I should doa vedeo series on the "designer" process of building ASP.NET application.
There really isn't much ASP.NET specific reference on the subject, but I though I woul share some of the stuff I came up with.
First - you gotta read this book!
Next, did you know there are hundreds of "ready-to-use", free / Open Source" web designs out there ?
Check out these sites for many of them.
Of course, CSS is a MUST.
I found these 2 books useful.
CSS Mastery was a good tutorial, but the CSS Cookbook has a bunch of great examples that really helped me "wrap my head around" how to use CSS and what you can do with it.
Here are some cool CSS oriented wen sites!
And don't forget the CSS Control Adapter Toolkit !
CSS Control Adapter Toolkit for ASP.NET 2.0
Do you have some great "Designing for ASP.NET" resources, tools, or ideas?
Please send them to me!