We’re sponsoring dConstruct 2012, a Brighton-based conference for web developers. In honour of the occasion, we’re pulled together a list of fresh, useful reads for web developers (and designers!) to get inspiration and add to their skills.

Read a great web dev article recently that we’ve missed? Let us know the URL in the comments!

11 Signs Of Problematic Clients You’ll Meet In Freelancing

“Avoiding clients who might pose problems in the future is a smart move; What’s not smart is judging prospective clients harshly. They’re not always at fault. Freelancers are known to be a problematic bunch too.”

Changing Perspective: A New Look At Old Problems

“Being a creative is often like being a blind person. We are dealing with a problem that we cannot see. We talk about it, we look at it, and then we try to solve it understanding only the parts that we can see. The problem is that we can get in a rut and start seeing the same problem and offering the same solution.”

jQuery: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

“Web development is too often a process strapped for time and saving minutes or even hours of work is often not a luxury but a necessity. John Resig and the other developers behind the jQuery project genuinely understand the time/money equation that faces web developers on a daily basis. Speedy implementation usually means more dollars in your pocket.”

How To Put Together A Solid Freelance Portfolio

“Another technique when building your portfolio is to limit attention and focus onto a single area. You mostly want people checking out work which you’ve completed in the past.”

JavaScript Code Debugging For Beginners

“Scripting has become an entire class of web development unto itself. With modern day libraries prominently including jQuery we are seeing more HTML/CSS developers taking an interest in coding JavaScript. Admittedly it can be tough to handle at first – but how you deal with bugs and errors is a true sign for your skills as a programmer.”

Designing Modern Web Layouts With Professional Flair

“In this article I want to look into modern design techniques for creating professional websites. I’ll use a few current examples in the article which we can compare with each other. Some trends just do not work well on all websites, so you’ll have to take these ideas with a grain of salt and gauge them for each situation.”

How Web Developers Can Break Into Freelancing

“The goal is to have your name and branding quickly recognized after doing a Google search. It should be easy to determine what you’re offering and how to get in touch. If you want to network and meet other developers you should look into more concentrated communities.”

Semantic Grid Class Naming With Placeholder Selectors In Sass 3.2

“CSS frameworks are known for taking a club to the idea of semantic HTML. This is such a problem that developers everywhere have entirely sworn off the idea of grid-based frameworks solely on the principle that it leads to non-semantic class names.”

Key Elements For A Successful Mobile User Experience

“You’ll have to consider many situations involving user navigation and tap/touch controls. The smartphone market has exploded causing new trends to develop all over the mobile marketplace. But aside from some heavy competition, now is the perfect time to launch your own mobile idea online.”

Diving Into .NET Web Development

“Many people think of PHP, Ruby on Rails or Python and Django when choosing a language to create a new website or when choosing a language to learn to get that exciting new job. .NET, however, seems to occupy a space somewhat apart from this playground of cool kids. It’s always the last to be picked for team sports; it was shouting “Wassup!” at parties well after 2000; and it has been just plain left out in the cold.”

10 Ways Freelance Web Developers Can Stand Out From The Crowd

“The chances of someone who owns a restaurant or works in finance knowing another web dev are much lower than someone who works in tech. If you already have clients in a variety of fields, you can start there. Ask them for recommended events to attend or introductions to people they know.”

Responsive Web Above The Fold

“I’ll often making the decision to leave a website within a second of arriving if I don’t immediately see what I came for, or if I think the site looks like it was built by rodents. Judging books and websites by the cover doesn’t usually hurt until a lack of results has me return to that same page to look harder, only to find the content in question sitting smug just below the fold.”

Mental Preparation: What To Do When You Lose Motivation

“There’s no real cure for procrastination, and to be honest, as a creative person, you probably wouldn’t want the cure even if there was one. Why? Because procrastination is a major source of distraction, and distraction is what allows you to be creative in the first place. Think about it. If your life was merely a series of tasks from your to-do list, which you did flawlessly all the time, where would you find the time to be creative? And what are you usually doing when you’re at your most creative?”