Arts & Culture
Design
Intentional problem-solving through form — the discipline that decides how most objects and interfaces behave.
7 fields · 59 topics · 7 curated works
Fields within Design
Design Fundamentals
8Principles that transfer across every design discipline.
Visual Hierarchy · Composition & Layout · Balance & Contrast · Grid Systems · Colour in Design
Typography
9The most consequential and least noticed design decision.
Anatomy of Type · Typeface Classification · Type Pairing · Kerning & Tracking · Readability & Legibility
Graphic & Brand Design
8Identity and communication through image.
Logo Design · Brand Identity Systems · Editorial Design · Poster Design · Packaging Design
Product & Industrial Design
8Designing physical objects for manufacture.
Industrial Design Process · Ergonomics in Design · Materials for Product Design · Prototyping · Design for Manufacture
User Experience Design
10Designing behaviour, not just appearance.
UX Research · Information Architecture (Design) · Wireframing & Prototyping · Interaction Patterns · Usability Heuristics
Design Thinking & Method
8Process frameworks, and honest criticism of them.
Human-Centred Design · Problem Framing · Ideation Methods · Iteration & Testing · Constraints in Design
Craft & Applied Design
8Design close to the hand.
Textile Design · Fashion Design · Jewellery Design · Ceramic Design · Furniture Making
Reading in Design
7Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
- BookDon't Make Me ThinkSteve Krug, 2000
Users satisfice rather than optimise — they scan and guess — so every question an interface raises is a cost it is charging.
- BookUniversal Principles of DesignWilliam Lidwell, Kritina Holden & Jill Butler, 2003
125 design principles with the evidence for each on a facing page — a reference for arguing about design with something other than taste.
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
- BookDesigning for PeopleHenry Dreyfuss, 1955
Founded industrial design as a discipline grounded in measured human bodies rather than in styling.
- BookThe Elements of Typographic StyleRobert Bringhurst, 1992
Typography as an ethical craft in service of the text, with the concrete rules that follow from that premise.
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
- BookNotes on the Synthesis of FormChristopher Alexander, 1964
Treats design as decomposing a problem into weakly-interacting subproblems, and is honest that the decomposition is the hard part.
- BookThe Nature and Art of WorkmanshipDavid Pye, 1968
Distinguishes the workmanship of risk from the workmanship of certainty, which is the sharpest available account of what machines actually changed.
- BookGrid Systems in Graphic DesignJosef Müller-Brockmann, 1981
The grid is an ethical position as much as a tool: constraint applied consistently is what makes information navigable.