Universal Principles of Design

I borrowed this book from a friend and have enjoyed it immensely. As another reviewer pointed out, the book follows good design principles and is laid out very well, making it simple to gather much information, whether you skim or read it in depth. Each two-page spread has a concept on the left, a quick summary, more detailed paragraphs, and graphics illustrating the concepts on the right. In fact, this book was so facinating and well laid out, I am reading it with my 8-year-old son, who loves to understand how things work. The design of the pages, the illustrations, and the explanation of the concepts are done so well that my son can understand most of what is presented. I think that says quite a lot! Now that I have seen so much of it, I am ordering my own copy.

This is the **most essential design book** I've had the pleasure of learning from. If there was only one book I could only recommend to design students or for client education, this would be it! The organization of the book follows it's own principles, the content is specific and accurate, and it cites and gives credit where due (also promoting deeper study of a subject/concept). I truly value it because of the quality summaries of design principles I've learned elsewhere consolidated into one book. The ONLY thing I would change about the book is to use a Serif typeface on the body texts for better readability. Excellent writing, excellent topical content, and excellent diagrams and examples. My compliments to the authors, as well as Rockport (whose books I usually despise for lacking substance despite their nice graphics).

This is a really good read for aspiring designers who want to consider different approaches to the creative process, whether you are designing print or reinventing the bottle opener. It gives 100 principles, with examples, and doesn't claim to be exhaustive. For the most part, the insight is useful, but I feel compelled to point out two glaring errors and how ironic it is that such would exist in what is an otherwise very useful book. 1. The section about how to warn future civilizations of radioactive waste is utterly incorrect. The very solutions they offer in the book would draw people towards dangerous areas, not repel them, because of natural human curiosity. If I was hiking around and I saw the visuals suggested I would naturally want to go get a closer look. So, that was clearly overcooked design, when the simplicity of using depictions of skulls and related pictograms would do the trick, regardless of race, culture, background or language. 2. Part of the book regards how to not deter customers from entering an establishment, such as a store or a restaurant. One example they give is to avoid having salespeople waiting for you at the door. In another part of the book, they use the Apple stores as an example of a successfully inviting design, which is ironic given that the first thing you see upon approaching an Apple store is salespeople waiting for you at the door. I'm not sure how these errors made it into the book but it is otherwise very good and I recommend it.

No matter what field you're in, if you are a designer this book is for you. The book's title says it all, this is information that is helpful no matter what kind of design you're doing. It explains how people absorb information and ways a design can be improved to aid in this. The book is well layed out and easy to get into just one topic without having to read everything. Great for reference and education. A beautiful hardcover book. Whether you design products, webpages, software systems or entire buildings this one is for you.

As someone who is relatively seasoned in the design industry, and a person who considers the usability and "experiential" elements of online design daily, I was very pleased with this book. I also think it would make an excellent book from which to teach design in general, since the principles literally apply to all design, always. This book does not teach much of the standard aesthetic principles, but instead uses those ideas to describe the principles behind actually applying design to real life. It is easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to digest.

A short review, but this book is a very good reference book and refresher, but nothing more. It includes spreads of design principles, one side describing the principle and one side illustrating it with examples. It is organized in alphabetical order, another obvious indication of its use as reference material. I bought this book intending to use it as a tool for a basis for design education, but find that I can't really use it as such. I'll need another book that has more in-depth, coherently organized content as a teaching tool. Still don't know if I will return it, but I am sure I will find it useful later in my career.

I was really pleased to delve into this terrific book! It's organized in such a way that you have two-page references to 210 design considerations and you can use that information to organize further searches, if necessary. There is a dual indexing format that uses both aphabetical and categorical listings to help you find a topic, even if you don't know the right terms. My interest is in design of wooden objects and I found several references within the book that were truly useful. I recommend the book as an anthology that will educate and open other doors.

A well thought-out work, with concise topics covered on each page. More of a reference work than a "how-to" book, but if there is a topic in design in which you are interested, this book will give you a great start. My quibble, mentioned before by some others, is that the body text is done in a very small, light gray, sans serif font. To be honest, this is very hard to read, with my failing eyes. I am not sure why a book discussing the core elements of visual communication would be printed in a way that the content could not be read....

If you go to your local bookshop, and browse the section on Design books, you will see a selection of curiously bound offerings. But you will be very very hard pressed to find a book that genuinely covers design in a broad sense. The problem, it seems, as manifested by places like The Design Museum, is that the concept 'design' has become equated with appearance. This narrow perspective allows designers to shirk the responsibilities they have to end users in the design process. All too often a newly graduated designer will seek to stamp their personality or ideas on a product, flagrantly disregarding the basic principles of design. In one fell swoop, this book destroys any excuses designers may have. It is itself an elegant, highly accessible and successful example of good design. Each concept is covered in narrative, by reference and by example(s). From Occam's Razor, Affordability, Hick's Law to many areas not immediately obvious, the breadth of the book is wonderful, and no subject is anything other than easily understood. This coverage is no mean effort, and the beneficiaries cross all industries. Mandatory reading and reference for anyone who calls themselves a designer.

ポスターやポップの見た目など狭い意味のデザインではなく、 『デザイン思考』の観点で必要な100のルールを辞書のようにアルファベット順に解説しています。 80:20の法則、黄金律から、正規分布やヒューマンエラーまで、広く及んでいます。 自動車の設計にも適用しているweakest pointにも触れており、 二次元のグラフィックだけでなく、三次元にも適用され得るルールであり、 一言でいえば、人間の心理がどう捉えるか、 それを踏まえてデザインで留意することは何かをまとめています。 ただ、デザインを本業としている方には当たり前過ぎて、 物足りないかもしれません。 大変読み易い日本語訳を図書館で見つけてからの縁ですが、 日本語訳は、正規分布の平均値(mean)と最頻値(mode)を取り違えて間違って訳していたので、 原書を取り寄せました。 英検2級プラスアルファの語彙があれば読めますが、 背景知識がないと難しく感じるかもしれません。

I bought this from a recommendation in another book I was reading. I am no designer, but after reading A Whole New Mind by Dan Pink, I was inspired to look into the area. This book gives you a list of 100 principles of design, from many different origins, and gives you two pages on each one; including an explanation, some practical applications and some illustrative examples. This is why I say it is not one to read in one sitting, because you basically have a long list of 100 things; no narrative to pull you through. So why 5 stars? Because as a book to dip into, to explore ideas you intuitively understand, it is a delight. Each idea is so quick to consumer and understand. Clearly each page is also beautifully designed. I have no idea if this is academically a great book on design, but for a non expert it is proving a wonder.

Great book

A useful point of reference