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Curated breakdown of the most valuable resource collections across major categories, based on what actually gets used professionally.
Design Resources & Inspiration
Behance – Adobe's design portfolio platform. Industry standard for finding designers and studying case studies. Filter by industry, tool, and style. The "Discover" section helps find work similar to your target aesthetic.
Dribbble – Design community for UI/UX, branding, illustration. More polished work than work-in-progress platforms. Premium ($5/month) unlocks advanced search. Excellent for studying micro-interactions.
Awwwards – Award-winning web design showcase. Each site includes technology breakdown and developer interviews. Collections organized by trend and industry. Invaluable for understanding what's possible in web design.
Fonts In Use – Typography in real-world context. See how fonts perform in actual designs. Search by typeface, format, industry. Essential for informed font choices.
Development Documentation
MDN Web Docs – Mozilla's web development documentation. More accurate than W3Schools. Interactive examples, browser compatibility tables, best practices. Bookmark the CSS, JavaScript, and Web APIs sections.
freeCodeCamp – Complete curriculum from HTML through data science. Entirely free, project-based. Their YouTube channel has full courses on every major technology.
DevDocs – API documentation browser combining 100+ technologies. Offline support, instant search. Replaces dozens of documentation tabs. Available as web app or desktop.
Roadmap.sh – Visual guides for learning paths. Frontend, backend, DevOps with resource recommendations. Regularly updated. Excellent for structured self-education.
Stock Assets
Unsplash – Free high-resolution photos. Unsplash License allows commercial use. Use Collections for curated sets.
Pexels – Free stock photos and videos. All free for commercial use. Video section strong for B-roll. Download without attribution required.
Freesound – Creative Commons licensed sounds. Over 500,000 sounds. Requires attribution for most. Advanced search by duration, license, tags.
Google Fonts – Free, open-source fonts optimized for web. All commercially usable. Variable font options and pairing suggestions.
Tool Directories
Product Hunt – New products launch daily. Follow by category. Comments reveal limitations. Golden Kitty Awards highlight best tools. Collections organize by use case.
AlternativeTo – Find alternatives to any software. Filter by platform, license, features. Particularly useful for finding open-source alternatives to expensive software.
G2 – Software reviews focused on business tools. Real verified user reviews. Comparison charts show feature differences. Grid reports categorize by market presence and satisfaction.
Learning Platforms
Coursera – University courses from Stanford, Yale, Google. Audit most courses free. Specializations provide structured paths. Financial aid available.
Udemy – 200,000+ courses. Quality varies. Wait for sales (constantly happening). Check recent reviews. Best for practical, tool-specific training.
Frontend Masters – Premium platform ($39/month) for deep-dive web development. Courses by library authors and experts. Worth investment for serious frontend developers.
API Resources
RapidAPI – Marketplace of 40,000+ APIs. Single API key works across all. Test directly in browser. Categories include data, AI/ML, social, finance.
Public APIs – GitHub repo listing free APIs. Organized by category with authentication and CORS support noted. Perfect for practice projects.
Design Systems
Material Design – Google's design system. Comprehensive guidelines and tools. Even if not building for Android, principles are valuable.
Apple Human Interface Guidelines – Design principles for Apple platforms. Valuable interface wisdom regardless of platform.
Refactoring UI – Book by Tailwind creators about professional design. Practical tips without design background required. $99 for book and resources.
Productivity Tools
Notion – All-in-one workspace. Free for personal use. Templates for every use case. Steeper learning curve but extremely flexible.
Raindrop.io – Bookmark manager with tagging, collections, full-text search. Free tier covers most use cases. Better organization than browser bookmarks.
Community Lists
Awesome Lists – GitHub repo of curated lists on every topic. Programming languages, frameworks, design resources, data science. Start here for any new topic.
Free for Developers – SaaS, PaaS, IaaS with free tiers substantial enough for development. Hosting, databases, CI/CD, monitoring.
How to Use These
Don't try consuming everything. Bookmark what's relevant to current projects. Use Raindrop or Notion to organize by category. Revisit quarterly to prune outdated resources.
When you find something useful, share it here with context about how you use it and why it's valuable.
Design Resources & Inspiration
Behance – Adobe's design portfolio platform. Industry standard for finding designers and studying case studies. Filter by industry, tool, and style. The "Discover" section helps find work similar to your target aesthetic.
Dribbble – Design community for UI/UX, branding, illustration. More polished work than work-in-progress platforms. Premium ($5/month) unlocks advanced search. Excellent for studying micro-interactions.
Awwwards – Award-winning web design showcase. Each site includes technology breakdown and developer interviews. Collections organized by trend and industry. Invaluable for understanding what's possible in web design.
Fonts In Use – Typography in real-world context. See how fonts perform in actual designs. Search by typeface, format, industry. Essential for informed font choices.
Development Documentation
MDN Web Docs – Mozilla's web development documentation. More accurate than W3Schools. Interactive examples, browser compatibility tables, best practices. Bookmark the CSS, JavaScript, and Web APIs sections.
freeCodeCamp – Complete curriculum from HTML through data science. Entirely free, project-based. Their YouTube channel has full courses on every major technology.
DevDocs – API documentation browser combining 100+ technologies. Offline support, instant search. Replaces dozens of documentation tabs. Available as web app or desktop.
Roadmap.sh – Visual guides for learning paths. Frontend, backend, DevOps with resource recommendations. Regularly updated. Excellent for structured self-education.
Stock Assets
Unsplash – Free high-resolution photos. Unsplash License allows commercial use. Use Collections for curated sets.
Pexels – Free stock photos and videos. All free for commercial use. Video section strong for B-roll. Download without attribution required.
Freesound – Creative Commons licensed sounds. Over 500,000 sounds. Requires attribution for most. Advanced search by duration, license, tags.
Google Fonts – Free, open-source fonts optimized for web. All commercially usable. Variable font options and pairing suggestions.
Tool Directories
Product Hunt – New products launch daily. Follow by category. Comments reveal limitations. Golden Kitty Awards highlight best tools. Collections organize by use case.
AlternativeTo – Find alternatives to any software. Filter by platform, license, features. Particularly useful for finding open-source alternatives to expensive software.
G2 – Software reviews focused on business tools. Real verified user reviews. Comparison charts show feature differences. Grid reports categorize by market presence and satisfaction.
Learning Platforms
Coursera – University courses from Stanford, Yale, Google. Audit most courses free. Specializations provide structured paths. Financial aid available.
Udemy – 200,000+ courses. Quality varies. Wait for sales (constantly happening). Check recent reviews. Best for practical, tool-specific training.
Frontend Masters – Premium platform ($39/month) for deep-dive web development. Courses by library authors and experts. Worth investment for serious frontend developers.
API Resources
RapidAPI – Marketplace of 40,000+ APIs. Single API key works across all. Test directly in browser. Categories include data, AI/ML, social, finance.
Public APIs – GitHub repo listing free APIs. Organized by category with authentication and CORS support noted. Perfect for practice projects.
Design Systems
Material Design – Google's design system. Comprehensive guidelines and tools. Even if not building for Android, principles are valuable.
Apple Human Interface Guidelines – Design principles for Apple platforms. Valuable interface wisdom regardless of platform.
Refactoring UI – Book by Tailwind creators about professional design. Practical tips without design background required. $99 for book and resources.
Productivity Tools
Notion – All-in-one workspace. Free for personal use. Templates for every use case. Steeper learning curve but extremely flexible.
Raindrop.io – Bookmark manager with tagging, collections, full-text search. Free tier covers most use cases. Better organization than browser bookmarks.
Community Lists
Awesome Lists – GitHub repo of curated lists on every topic. Programming languages, frameworks, design resources, data science. Start here for any new topic.
Free for Developers – SaaS, PaaS, IaaS with free tiers substantial enough for development. Hosting, databases, CI/CD, monitoring.
How to Use These
Don't try consuming everything. Bookmark what's relevant to current projects. Use Raindrop or Notion to organize by category. Revisit quarterly to prune outdated resources.
When you find something useful, share it here with context about how you use it and why it's valuable.