Food For Thought

Why Designers Should Subscribe to RSS Feeds

At the beginning of my journey as a web designer, I relied heavily on online tutorials and forums for techniques that I needed. Like most people, my degree at school was not in the field I wanted to pursue, and I was self taught learning from free online resources. I would type away on the Google search, swoop in and find what I needed, and get out. Now there is nothing wrong with this picture right? Well, sort of…

I have learned tons from people like Chris Coyer (Css-Tricks.com), hundreds of resources and down-loads from the people at Smashing Magazine, and countless news and tutorials from community sites like CssGlobe.com.

Something that I leaned later down the line was that, these leading industry designers/developers have a lot more to offer than just what you were looking for. Most designers and developers that I have run into in person, do not stay up to date with current technologies, techniques, and trends and they simply research only what they need to know at the moment. Why stop there? Why not subscribe to the feeds and be educated / informed on a day to day basis?

What is the easiest way to subscribe? – RSS!

For those who are not familiar with RSS feeds, here’s some basic information to get you started:

What is RSS?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (aka Rich Site Summary).
An RSS feed provides frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video from the sources you subscribe to, straight to your RSS reader.

You no longer have to visit your favorite site over and over again to see if the site has been updated with new entries. By subscribing to their RSS feeds, the latest articles will be delivered to you as soon as it’s published.

Where and how do I get started?

1. Get a feed readerRSS feeds can be read using software called an “RSS reader”, “feed reader”, or “aggregator”, which can be web-based or desktop-based. There are numerous RSS readers out there for free, I have not tried all of them (personally I use iGoogle for my reads), but here are some most commonly used readers.
   • Google Reader
   • iGoogle
   • Bloglines
   • NewsGator Online
   • Feed Demon
   • Net Vibes
   • MyYahoo
2. Subscribe to Feeds
   Typically, you will see various orange icons labeled RSS on most RSS enabled sites. Just click on that icon/link and choose the reader of your choice.
   
3. Read, Learn, and Share
   Go back to the feed reader you just set up and now you will be seeing your latest subscribed articles. Each time the site updates its articles/news, it will now update your reader instantly.

List of inspirational sites that I follow

• www.smashingmagazine.com/
• www.css-tricks.com/
• www.davidwalsh.name/
• www.designreviver.com/
• www.justcreativedesign.com/
• www.alistapart.com/
• www.cult-f.net/
• www.sitepoint.com/blogs/
• www.cssglobe.com/
• www.scriptandstyle.com/
• www.noupe.com/
• www.designm.ag/
• www.thinkvitamin.com/
• www.sixrevisions.com/
• www.cssbeauty.com/
• www.digital-web.com/
• www.designshard.com/
• www.problogger.net/
• www.psdtuts.com/
• www.aiburn.com/
• www.vectortuts.com/

Looking for more? Check out 127 RSS Feeds That All Designers Should Subscribe To!

Conclusion

I believe it’s important for all designers and developers to always seek new information to better them selves, and interact with the online community. Just like reading the newspaper, it can be just a quick 30 minutes while drinking your morning coffee. Trust me it helps! Ever since I tapped into this web culture, I truly feel I have been influenced by so many talented designers and developers, and it has helped my career in countless ways.