While recently I've spent most of my time doing proposals, site testing, and project management, I'm constantly viewing all my work through the lens of design and usability.

I've taken a few minutes to capture just a few ways that I keep an eye of design, and where I find a little inspiration every day.

Twitter.com (more specifically Tweetdeck)

I've been using twitter for some time now, and while there is a ridiculous amount of confusion about what to do with twitter, I find that its a fantastic monitoring tool to stay up on design trends.

I absolutely love tweet deck for their column few of search results. My two favorite search terms, "User Interface Design" and "Web Design Inspiration" provide me with a regular feed of more amazing links to resources and inspiration than I could possibly ever consume.

Smashing Magazine

Smashingmagazine.com is will probably not be a surprise to anyone reading this list. They've been around for several years now, but I will say that they are consistently providing top notch material for designers, freelancers, developers, and creatives in general. I'm not sure how they manage to scrape the internets to find such great resources over and over, exposing new and fantastic content authors, but they they continuing to find resources for individuals that  push the envelope in design and more importantly taken a clear stance on usability.

Envato

I wouldn't say that I'm obsessed, but boy am I impressed with the Envato community. I'll admit, I commonly rest in that space of the 95% of online users that consume content, but rarely contribute.  And I feel like I'm just steeling in some horrible way when I spend time on any of the Envato sites.   Tuts+Hub, Marketplaces, FreelanceSwitch, AppStorm, Creattica, and TheNetsetter.  I could spend most of my day just enjoying the smooth styling of their pages let alone the resources I gather while I'm there.  

These sites were created for me. I'm sorry guys! If you go there, have fun! But just remember that when Envato was starting I'm sure they were thinking, "What style, feel, content, and resources would George Brook in Kansas City want to enjoy?" They weren't thinking of you, and its not your fault!  Maybe one day, but for now, I've fallen in love with the Envato sites.

The Rabbit Hole

As you all know, as you dig in to the web, it can easily become a glorious and almost overwhelming rabbit hole of information, but when it comes to design I love it.  I love finding one page that links to another and then another and another analyzing how we can make code usable. How do we take data that once was impossibly in-consumable (double negative?) And put that top love of Creme (more to come on that theme soon), that golden Crema that rises to the top of the perfectly made espresso shot. All at the same time invoking emotion, simplicity, intrigue, and making information accessible to all.