William Lidwell

Constraints make for sharper design. No wonder I prefer this backpack/game table/nightstand version of a familiar design reference. The concise text encourages casual reading and reflection on commutes or while watching TV.

A beautiful presentation of other peoples' ideas. My mind toggles between "seen before" and "simply charming". The book serves as a mouthwatering reading list (although you can find most of their sources at their website too). It is not clear, however, why a certain idea or principle merits its inclusion (or exclusion).

The clean layout makes it an excellent educational reference tool (as well as an intrigueing coffee table book). I only wish, the authors had attempted to show that show more principles clash. If you adhere to one principle, you will have to give way on the other. The designer's task is to find the best trade-off. show less

The subtitle of this book is "100 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions and teach through design" and it is pretty accurate. The principles are drawn from different design disciplines including information architecture, interface design and architecture as well as engineering and (some) marketing. There is a strong bias in favor of human-factors principles dealing with individual perception and cognition. I would imagine that it can show more serve as a handy reference for interaction designers, particularly in cases concerned with interface design and usability. show less

Good overview, and great pointers. Examples are good too, although sometimes a bit hard to get.
Some concepts overlap.
No recap of multiple principles on some examples. Could have been useful.
Marked ~40 principles that are essential to my j0b as product manager. However, no big discoveries or true guidelines. Simply confirming what I observed already.