Every so often, someone at the forums asks about the value of web design classes.

It’s not uncommon for people to answer those questions with a selection of great books, forums, blogs, and web sites. It’s much rarer to see a recommendation for an actual set of classes.

The next time someone asks that question, I’m going to ask them if Ann Arbor, Michigan, is too far of a commute for them. In Crafting a User Experience Curriculum, Jason Withrow shows off the classes he has put together for a Internet Professional (INP) program.

If I were closer to Ann Arbor, I’d sign up. Maybe I should send a copy of this article to my local University.

If you don’t have a school nearby with a program like the one put together by Jason Withrow, I’ll reproduce here the last list of books I recommended in one of those Cre8asite threads:

Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman

In the first hundred or so pages of the book, the author explains the need for web standards and the reasons why they are important. In the rest of the book, he distills a great amount of information about the different techniques and technologies that make design work well these days. If you were to take a course on web design from someone, and the instructor hadn’t read this book, consider taking classes from someone else.

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug

This is an extremely easy book to read, and an extremely helpful one. It avoids technical language, and provides ideas and suggestions that are practical and thoughtful, and can help you design sites that are easy for people to use.

Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed by Jakob Nielsen, Marie Tahir

This book takes 50 of the most popular web sites and deconstructs their home pages, going into detail on what makes them work well, and what doesn’t. It also provides some practical guidelines that you can use on your site.

Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design by Eric A. Meyer

and

More Eric Meyer on CSS by Eric A. Meyer

The first book uses 13 projects to show you how to use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) on web pages, and the second one adds 10 more. A strong technical knowledge of how to use CSS is a great addition to your toolkit of web design skills. Working through the projects along with Eric Meyer is a pretty good way to get a grasp on this technical subject.

Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook by Dan Cederholm

I haven’t read this one yet, but it’s on my reading list. It’s not for beginners, but if you read the Meyer’s books, this one will add more to your knowledge of CSS and standards.

Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites by Andrew Chak

Another easy to read, but very helpful book. If you want to build ecommerce pages, this book is filled with some great suggestions on how to make one that works well, and helps convert visits to sales.

Net Words: Creating High-Impact Online Copy by Nick Usborne

There are a few good books on writing copy for web sites. This one is one of my favorites. The title of one chapter is “Words build relationships”, and so can web sites, if you use the right words.

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville

While this book focusing on what Information Architecture is, it’s also a great resource for strategies about organizing and structuring a web site - especially large ones. The business strategies section has some great ideas that could easily be adopted by designers in addition to Information Architects.

There are a lot of other good books on design, usabilty, ecommence, writing copy, and the other things that someone should consider looking at to broaden their knowledge. Finding and reading a good book, or blog, or set of tutorials, and working through them is a great of investing in yourself and building your skills and knowledge.