Design Resources
A list of resources that I’ve found helpful in my design journey. I hope you find something useful here too. ✌️
📚 Reading list
Atomic Design by Brad Frost
The design system bible. This title is getting along in years, but it’s the standard that most of today’s conception of design systems is based on.
Design is a Job by Mike Monteiro
how to navigate the business of design. Business development, working with clients, and how to take care of yourself.
The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman
A necessary prerequisite IMO for practicing the craft of product design.
Outcomes Over Output - Joshua Seiden
Essential reading for optimizing how we build good products.
Cadence & Slang - Nick Disabato
How to create beautiful and useful products.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness - Richard Thaler
A great introduction to behavioral economics and how to account for human tendencies when designing for human interactions.
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics - Richard Thaler
Also a great book for digging into human behavior, psychology, and behavioral economics.
Discussing design - Aaron Irizarry and Adam Connor
A practical guide to techniques, tools, and a framework for helping members of your design team give and receive critique.
Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters - Ryan Singer
Read this book and work smarter.
🕸️ Web Resources
Typewolf.com - Go to typography resource
Nounproject.com - Icon resource and reference library
27 designers worth listening to... 🔊 - Some good design audio content here
How to build a design system with a small team - Massive collection of design system resources
Build effective design teams - Nice overview on building and rounding out effective design teams
Anatomy of a design system - Nice overview of the hierarchy and overlap of design systems - As above, so below
Object oriented design process - Intro to OOUX.
OOUX: A Foundation for Interaction Design - More Objext oriented design prosses
Apple: Human Interface Guidelines - Always good to have on hand
Screenlane - Library of UI flows for mobile
Principles of animation UX - Great resource for animation + UI transitions and feedback
A product design process for the real world - Nice read on product design process
Responsive Patterns - A collection of patterns and modules for responsive designs
Intercom on Product Management - Good read on PM work
Growth: Smart trials - Casestudy on free-to-paid conversion with product trials
JTBD Framework - An excellent tool for clarifying personas and primary use cases
Dashboard Design Patterns - Nice collection of component patterns for dashboards
Data Visualization Vocabulary - So you know what you’re talking about when choosing charts for data vis
Principles of Emotional Design - Another lense to apply to your work
Design Ops Study Guide - If only I had the resources
Service Design Study Guide - Interesting read
UX Research Methods: Glossary - UX, quantitative, and lean/agile research methods
👨🌾 Words for the day
“Think positively, for yourself and for the people you interact with. ”
“Do not blame people when they fail to use your products properly.”
“What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.”
“Take people’s difficulties as signifiers of where the product can be. ”
“Question everything generally thought to be obvious.”
“Eliminate all error messages from electronic or computer systems. Instead, provide help and guidance.”
“Allow people to continue with their task: Don’t impede progress — help make it smooth and continuous. Never make people start over.”
“Make it possible to correct problems directly from help and guidance messages.”
“Assume that what people have done is partially correct, so if it is inappropriate, provide the guidance that allows them to correct the problem and be on their way.”