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The Pros and Cons of Self-Employment for a Design Business: By David Airey; Dec 3, 2012; David Airey shares the pros and cons of being your own boss from his first seven years as an independent designer.

Author Talk: Alberto Cairo on the Functional Art of Infographics (Podcast Transcript): By Alberto Cairo, Nancy Aldrich-Ruenzel; Oct 16, 2012; New Riders/Peachpit Publisher Nancy Ruenzel talks with Alberto Cairo, professor of information graphics and visualization at the University of Miami and author of The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization. Alberto names some of his favorite designers and data visualizers working in the field today, and discusses the complex relationship between function and form.

The Infographics Complexity Challenge: Presentation and Exploration: By Alberto Cairo; Oct 3, 2012; An information graphic is a tool for the designer to communicate with readers, and a tool for readers to analyze what’s being presented to them. It doesn’t matter if you see yourself as an engineer or as an artist: If you create infographics and visualizations, the balance you achieve between these two dimensions will define whether or not your work is good.

Bringing Infographics And Visualization to the Mainstream: Not Just the Tools, but the Ideas: By Alberto Cairo; Sep 10, 2012; Alberto Cairo, author of The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization, explains that the democratization and commoditization of infographics is a wonderful trend, but it will get even better if it is informed by a solid understanding of certain universal guidelines.

"The Best Design Advice I Ever Got" with Alberto Cairo: By Alberto Cairo; Aug 28, 2012; Underneath the packaging, an infographic serves a very simple purpose—to educate. Alberto Cairo, professor of information graphics and visualization at the University of Miami and author of The Functional Art: An introduction to information graphics and visualization, talks about the importance of making infographics work on an instructional level.

Project Objectives and Approach for UX Designers: Know Which Star to Navigate By: By Russ Unger, Carolyn Chandler; May 1, 2012; This chapter covers forming objectives for your project and offers some questions that will help you solidify those goals. You'll also learn some common project approaches (or methodologies) and how they may influence the way you work.

Top 10 Content Strategy Mistakes to Avoid: By Melissa Rach; Apr 20, 2012; Melissa Rach, coauthor of Content Strategy for the Web, Second Edition, sees far too many organizations making similar mistakes in their outreach attempts. The "throw it together" approach that most people employ tends to create havoc, rather than useful information for potential customers and clients. She shares 10 of the most common (and dangerous) pitfalls that everyone should learn to avoid.

Working with Pages in jQuery Mobile: Apr 20, 2012; Working with Pages is easy with jQuery Mobile. With most of the heavy lifting being done by the framework it's easy to focus on the results of the website being built. In this excerpt from jQuery Mobile Develop and Design, Kris Hadlock explains the internal functionality behind how pages work in jQuery Mobile so you can get ready to write your own custom functionality.

Why Your Website's Content Sucks and What to Do about It: By Kristina Halvorson, Melissa Rach; Mar 5, 2012; In this chapter from Content Strategy for the Web, 2nd Edition, Kristina Halvorson and Melissa Rach look at some of the most common obstacles that keep us from turning bad content into better content.

From Looking to Seeing: The Craft of Typography: By Jim Felici; Sep 5, 2011; Everyone looks at type, but the typographer has to see more, because eliminating all traces of visual discord is what elevates type from being merely legible to being comfortingly readable. Jim Felici, the author of The Complete Manual of Typography: A Guide to Setting Perfect Type, Second Edition, explains how even the untrained eye suffers from badly set type (untrained doesn’t mean unsophisticated), and how discerning eyes are needed to set the fine type that readers deserve.

The Complete Manual of Typography: About Fonts: By Jim Felici; Aug 17, 2011; Working with fonts forces you to learn more about your computer than you probably want, but everything you need to know is in this chapter.

The Elements of User Experience: The Scope Plane: Functional Specifications and Content Requirements: By Jesse James Garrett; Feb 17, 2011; There are two main reasons to bother to define requirements: so you know what you're building and so you know what you're not building. Jesse James Garrett examines the importance and process of defining the scope of your website, including defining requirements and functional specifications.

An Interview with Jesse James Garrett: By Russ Unger, Jesse James Garrett; Dec 21, 2010; Russ Unger interviews Jesse James Garrett about the new edition of The Elements of User Experience, what's changed since the first edition was released in 2002, why client work is still important to him, and the relationship between UX and the video game industry.

What Do You Test, and When Do You Test It?: Why the Hardest Part Is Starting Early Enough: By Steve Krug; Jan 14, 2010; If there’s one thing that usability professionals agree on, it’s that you want to start testing as early as possible. Steve Krug shows you how to do it.