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Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design by [William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler]

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William Lidwell

Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design Second Edition, Revised and Updated, Kindle Edition

by William Lidwell (Author), Kritina Holden (Author), Jill Butler (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated is a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary encyclopedia covering 125 laws, guidelines, human biases, and general considerations important to successful design. Richly illustrated and easy to navigate, it pairs clear explanations of every design concept with visual examples of the ideas applied in practice. From the 80/20 Rule to the Weakest Link, every major design concept is defined and illustrated.

Whether a marketing campaign or a museum exhibit, a video game or a complex control system, the design we see is the culmination of many concepts and practices brought together from a variety of disciplines. Because no one can be an expert on everything, designers have always had to scramble to find the information and know-how required to make a design work—until now.

Just a few of the principles that will broaden your design knowledge, promote brainstorming, and help you check the quality of your work:

Baby-Face Bias
Expectation Effect
Golden Ration
Ockham's Razor
Proximity
Scaling Fallacy

The book is organized alphabetically so that principles can be easily and quickly referenced by name. For those interested in addressing a specific problem of design, the principles havealso been indexed by questions commonly confronting designers (How can I help people learn from my design? How can I enhance the usability of a design? How can I make better design decisions? ...).

Each principle is presented in a two-page format. The first page contains a succinct definition, a full description of the principle, examples of its use, and guidelines for use. Side notes are included, and provide elaborations and references. The second page contains visual examples and related graphics to support a deeper understanding of the principle.

This landmark reference is the standard for designers, engineers, architects, and students who seek to broaden and improve their design expertise.

ISBN-10

9781610580656
ISBN-13

978-1592535873
Edition

Second Edition, Revised and Updated
Publisher

Rockport Publishers
Publication date

January 1, 2010
Language

English
File size

38092 KB
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William Lidwell
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in Computer Graphic Design
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William Lidwell is the Chief R&D Officer at Avenues: The World School, where he leads teams tasked with conducting research in education and the learning sciences; the development of new educational curricula, programming, and technologies; and the architecture and design of new campuses around the world. The co-author of Universal Principles of Design and The Pocket Universal Principles of Design, he has written other books in a variety of disciplines, including design, education, and management. His online lectures on the psychology of color are available at TheGreatCourses.com, and his online courses on the universal principles of design and logo design are available at LinkedInLearning.com. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Kritina Holden is a Human Factors Technical Fellow with Leidos at the NASA Johnson Space Center. She has over thirty years of experience working in the area of Human Factors, with a focus on human-computer interaction (HCI), human-centered design, and usability. She has served as Principal Investigator for several NASA-funded research efforts, including studies onboard the International Space Station. She is also a subject-matter expert for all of the major spaceflight programs. Tina received her Ph.D. in Engineering Psychology from Rice University. She lives in Houston, Texas.

Jill Butler is the founder and president of Stuff Creators Design, an interaction design consultancy. She has over twenty years of experience designing, teaching, and consulting in the areas of graphic design, information design, and typography. She has designed covers, layouts, and typography for more than a hundred published novels and children's books, and more websites than she can count. Her current focus is the UI/UX design of global online K-12 learning systems. Her online courses on the universal principles of design and typography are available at LinkedInLearning.com. She lives in Houston, Texas.

--This text refers to the flexibound edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00A3T5UO4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rockport Publishers; Second Edition, Revised and Updated (January 1, 2010)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 1, 2010
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 38092 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 280 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #175,898 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #17 in Graphic Arts
- #46 in Commercial Graphic Design (Kindle Store)
- #47 in Design (Kindle Store)

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849 ratings

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William Lidwell

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Will writes, speaks, and consults on matters of design and engineering psychology. He is particularly interested in cross-disciplinary design and the means by which organizations achieve and institutionalize innovation. He is a Stuff Creator in residence at Stuff Creators Design Studio and a Lecturer of Industrial Design at the University of Houston. Follow Will on Twitter at www.twitter.com/williamlidwell.

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When you see bad design, do you see why it's bad? This book will help you understand.

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2017

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I've been using this book as the basis for content in my UX design courses for over seven years. It is the best single resource available for the principles of design. It sets out design principles, based in the way the human brain and visual system work. Using these principles, you can judge not only if a design is good or bad, but also *why* it's good or bad.

Befitting a book on design, the book itself is well designed. Each principle is summarized in a single page, and the face page shows examples of the principles in action, or being violated.

Don't read it at a sitting. Read ten or twelve of them and give them some time to digest. But definitely get through all of them. You'll never think about design of the products and software you use the same way.

21 people found this helpful

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Math Mom

So many topics! So engrossing!

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2013

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As a math-person rather than a design-person, I really just wanted something that could give me a Reader's Digest version of some design principles to give me the flavor of the field (the same reason why I love the series "101 Things I Learned in ... School").

I have learned so much from this book! Not only does it give me insight into the question of why things around me look they way they do, but it has given me ideas of how to better design my lectures, slides, and hand-outs to improve information acquisition and retention for my students. Moreover, there were several topics with roots in mathematics that I might bring up in my Math for Liberal Arts course. It was also interesting to read about the design principles (or lack of adherence thereof) behind such epic failures as the Jeep Grand Cherokee "unintentional acceleration" debacle.

My only "problem" with this book is how engaging and engrossing it is. You might think that because of the little bites of information it presents, it would be easy to read a topic or two in what snippets of time you have, but no, it's more like eating from a huge bag of M&Ms. Each morsel of idea seems to pass too quickly and you want another one. Before you know it, you've nibbled your way through the whole book and it's 4am on a day when you have to get up at 6am. Consider yourself warned!

18 people found this helpful

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Deborah Arnold

Excellent textbook for non designers

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2021

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The book I didn't know I needed. For anyone who doesn't have design training but needs to understand and communicate in the design world I would highly recommend this book. I am a writer and I feel the knowledge I gained from this text upped my game and boosted my value in being able to communicate and understand what is happening with the design team. This book earned it's place on the shelf with my thesaurus.

One person found this helpful

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The RBG Review

If You are Creative, You Should Have Designs on This Book

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2016

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If you want to think like Einstein, DaVinci, Newton, Kepler, Gates and Jobs all rolled into one, this book is your cup of Eureka! It gets right to to heart of what makes design, any design: graphic, mechanical, architectural, technological, programming work for the customer/user. As you read over this wide range of examples of what makes great design, it begins to give the reader insights on how great designs work, how good designs become great and how it's time to drop those things that just aren't working. If we are in a business, any business, we must create and provide what users/customers want in a way that they want, a way that is clear, a way that is inviting. Nobody buys great ideas if they're to vague or shoved down their throat. A book of good examples to emulate and bad examples to avoid.

10 people found this helpful

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Gary E. Hoover, the man with 60,000 Books

Exceptional.

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2013

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This is one of my favorite books of the last few years.
I buy around 1000 books a year, so that is saying a lot.
There are so many parts of life to which this book applies.
And so many new and different ideas for the design of anything -- museum exhibits, stores, factories, products, websites, and on and on.
I cannot imagine anyone in a leadership position in any field who would not benefit from studying this great book.
It is also incredibly well organized, easy on the eye and the brain.
But stop on each of the 100+ ideas and think about it for at least a day; how it applies to whatever your own goals are.
Remember that Apple's huge success is not based on science and hardcore technology so much as human factors and design -- the kinds of things you will learn in this book.

10 people found this helpful

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ArtIsImportant

Everyone should read this, especially artists and designers.

Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2022

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A terrific book of design concepts; I recommend it to everyone. I had 4 semesters of design for my fine-art degree, but never touched on most of these concepts.

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mbk

Straightforward primer

Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2011

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A real gem. This book has a very useful structure, almost like an encyclopedia - it takes you to major principles of design in few words per principle, explains them, gives examples, and cites some basic references. I think almost anyone will find something they did not know in there, or something that did at least make them think. This is not a textbook, nor a true professional encyclopedia, but a high level exposition of stuff that works. For what it's worth it obviously takes cues from Christopher Alexander's "A pattern language", by the goal and by the way it is organized. It is less coherent within the realm of design than "A pattern language" is within the realm of architecture - it does not completely form a body of ideas consistent within themselves. But this is simply because the principles covered are of various types and apply across disciplines (say, psychological, physical, etc...). I saw this book in a coffee shop (of all places) and had to buy one for myself almost right away.

5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Great Book for Anyone Interested in Design & Why Things Are Designed the Way They Are

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2013

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I've bought a few copies of this book over the years as gifts for people interested in all kinds of design. The book is great for amateurs and students of design - to pros who could use a step back from their own thoughts - to anyone who just wants to know more how design works with the human mind.

One of the best things that makes this accessible to anyone is that instead of long chapters - the book takes 100(in the original) principles and gives them each 2 pages. Which also makes it a great coffee table book / conversation starter.

Covers principles behind the Volkswagon bug and Coca Cola bottle - the math and the psychological why - which will make you start to look at things all around you differently.

I also saw the author speak at HOW in Atlanta several years back - it's all really interesting stuff.

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Top reviews from other countries

Benny

Incredible book, LAZY LAZY LAZY republication

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 10, 2013

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Essential content. Nice typography/layout. Dated imagery.

Incredibly informative and useful resource, covering a wide range of design disciplines. I'm sure a must for anyone in any design related industry. I found some sections that delve into the psychology of design particularly interesting.

However, I cannot believe that they have rereleased the book adding 25 additional design principles from the original publication, and seemingly failed to update some of the original examples or imagery, which can be very tired/ugly/dated. I was expecting beautiful imagery for a design book!! Pull your finger out for the next publication please!

13 people found this helpful

pn

Awesome book! Not just for designers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 3, 2013

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This book is something one reads over and over and over again, pick it up read one or to principles let it soak, rince and repeat!

I bought it because it was recomended in a video about designing APIs, but the principles in this book apply to a whole range of professions and even on a personal level. Just buying this book to keep in your cofee table makes your living room a more interesting place to be in :-)

As a programmer and engineer, reading this book as made me a better professional, no doubt!

2 people found this helpful

David Jones

A pretty good read and it's simple and easy to follow and understand

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 3, 2016

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A pretty good read and it's simple and easy to follow and understand. Each principle is written over 1-2 pages so far which makes it easy to digest and nip in and out of. Also contains some pretty good real world examples.

The only negative point is it does repeat some points within each chapter, it almost feels like there wasn't enough content to bulk out the 1-2 pages. This doesn't put me off though. My underlying reason for buying the ebook was to get a grasp of the principles of design and it does that.

DBVR

A Little bit of everything and where to find out more

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2014

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A good basic introduction to the topic with a small section on each of the principles (Buzz words).
What is better is the additional reading that accompanies each mini section allowing more thorough follow up.
Recommended for those with an interest or first year students.

Earnest Mann

115 Percent Invisible

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 8, 2014

Verified Purchase

Even though this has somewhat outdated examples(10 years old already!), the actual principles are insightful and can be applied across a wide range of disciplines. I dare you not to reach for further reading!

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Bruce Hanington
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Krug Steve
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in Computer Graphic Design
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