Lots of good web designers here!
I love webmonkey and webpagesthatsuck! Both great resources. May I add one more that I didn't see posted here? Jakob Nielsen's web site. (Okay, I'm too new to post a link. But it's one of those www sites with useit in the middle and .com at the end.
) Nielsen is the guru of usability, a feature too often overlooked in design.
I work with a small team (4 of us) doing web site design, creation, and management for a government department. My title is Web Writer, and I write and post a lot of content, do the admin maintenance stuff on our Internet and intranet, and serve as the support person for about 20 or so other people in the department who are responsible for content. And I do a LOT of QA.
I'm the middle person who talks to the users of the programs and sites we create, and to the programmers. If they talk to each other, they both get frustrated because their perspectives and mindsets are so different. So they each talk to me, and then I go "translate" for the other group.
Katelyn, the thing my bosses appreciate most about my skills is that I can understand both the technical and non-technical aspects of web design. If you write well
and understand web design and use, there
really is a future for you! Have you thought about technical writing? That's my background. Learn everything you can about usability and what makes for good design from the end-user's perspective. Honestly, in a tight job market, I have people trying to steal me away from my current job. I got my job through monster.com, by the way. Late one night, in a fit of frustration, I typed in the word "writer," and up popped the job I've had for over three years. Don't be discouraged. Good writing skills will get you a job.
