The 3rd installment of our ‘Must Read Links for Web Designers and Developers’ is our biggest and best yet with over 80 awesome links to check out. I can’t think of a better way to spend a cold February weekend.

If you are a web designer and developer, one of the most important aspects of your job is to find out what the client needs and wants. In the case of very small projects, a quick phone call or a few exchanged emails is all that you might need, but if you have been awarded a complex and rather large project, you need to find out as much as possible about the project’s details. Keep in mind that great many of your clients might not be as computer or Internet savvy as you are and might have completely wrong idea of what, when, and how things are happening – it is in your best interest to figure out all the important details in advance in order to avoid cancelled projects, missed deadlines, and dissatisfied customers.

In today’s tutorial we will be showing you how to create a stamp effect using simple operations in Phtoshop. Once you complete this techniques you will see the result resembles that of a “bleeding ink” effect and a cutout, poster or comic appearance.

One of the most important parts of a computer is the central processing unit or CPU. This is the component that makes all computations possible, and performs four basic logical operations that complete the fetch-decode-execute cycle of a computer.

In today’s competitive world, a lot of things depend on how highly people think about your skill levels. You may have worked in a field for a number of years, however, the charm a certification holds over potential clients or employers is an entirely different phenomenon. To be fair, it does seem to provide a baseline against which people can measure your skills.

One of the most fascinating and overlooked elements web designers tend to overlook is the influence of color on their website visitors. While a color palette may look visually pleasing, is it psychologically pleasing? When you go to design your next website pay special attention to your color choices and what they actually mean. To help you out with that we have created this beautiful infographic.

There are great many software products, which can make the work of a web designer much easier and dramatically increase his or her productivity. However, some of them cost hundreds of dollars, which not every beginner web designer can afford and they could take months to master as well.

This tutorial will show you how to create an exploding planet effect using Photoshop. This effect is also used to recreate the dying star or super nova effects. This Photoshop technique is going to involve using stock photos of earth or mud cracks so it is suggested that you Google and download images for cracked mud before starting this project.

With more and more people working from home setting up the ultimate home office is what could make all the difference between a productive day and hours of wasted time. A home office should be well organized, well lit, and well ventilated in order to provide a safe and efficient working environment.

Gone are the days when you needed your own server for collaborative work between colleagues. Today, it’s possible to create an entire business on subscription plans and free collaboration tools that help you do everything you need with minimal effort and maximum reliability. This has already led to the creation of virtual offices all over the world – the open source ecosystem being one of the biggest and most successful examples of this. That shows that it’s finally possible to do away with expensive rental plans for offices and thousands of dollars for setting up and maintaining even a small-sized infrastructure.

Have you ever imagined of mystical beings with bodies of crystal water? Like water but moving and in the form of animals such as dolphins, sharks and other marine animals. In this tutorial we are going to create a liquid crystal being in the form of a dolphin using Photoshop.