One of my interests of late has been to learn the fundamentals of design. I was really challenged by this after doing an all day seminar with Luke W at UI12 in November. Here are some of the resources that have been helpful to me:

  • Site Seeing - Luke W’s book that covers much of the content of the one day seminar I attended. One of the things I got out of it was thinking about hierarchy on a page. Thinking through the hierarchy of content and then coming up with a visual organization on the page to support that message. I also liked the idea of thinking of design in terms of visual organization and personality (often what we call look and feel). I have been challenged to consider visual organization first and then to come up with a personality for the site that enhances that organization and the message that site is trying to communicate.
  • Principles of Design series on Design Meltdown - I liked the use of examples from other Web sites that supported the principles discussed in these articles.
  • Exploring the Elements of Design - I saw this in a Border’s bookstore in Boston while attending UI12. I have enjoyed going through this book. It is filled with lots of examples mostly from the graphic design realm.
  • Universal Principles of Design - This is a book that Andy Rutledge suggested to me. I am looking forward to reading it. It contains short chapters on different design such as 80/20 rule, Fitt’s Law and Gutenberg Diagram.
  • Principles of Design, Elements of Design, Designing for the Web, and The Principles and Elements of Design articles on Digital Web - good primer articles to get familiar with the principles and elements of design. This was the article that I first read and then wanted to go deeper.
  • Contrast and Meaning - Article by Andy Rutledge