Interesting Resources for PDI/Design Students

Creativity and Process

Ideas and techniques for creativity; design strategies; the many forms of the design process.

An Interview with Ze Frank - About Creativity

"The Show's Ze Frank talks about unsolvable problems, 'brain surfing,' pain management, and how creative pursuits change perception."

Ze Frank on "Brain Crack"

Ze Frank talks about using good ideas.

Hunkering: Putting Disorientation into the Design Process

Jared Spool writes about a process he calls "hunkering."

43 Folders | Time, Attention, and Creative Work

"43Folders.com is Merlin Mann's website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work...
Right now, 43 Folders is focused on an arc about how to improve the quality of your career and life by managing your attention in a way that allows you to work your ass off on the creative projects that matter most to you."

Robert Epstein on Creativity and Innovation

Psychologist Robert Epstein researches, trains, and writes on a range of topics including creativity. This page offers several articles to download for free.

Entrepreneurship and Business

Innovation applied to business, social entrepreneurship, and marketing.

Business Innovation & Design - BusinessWeek

BusinessWeek dedicates a section of its magazine to topics in innovation, including product design, branding, and business process innovation.

Seth Godin

Seth Godin writes and speaks about entrepreneurship and marketing, about what makes a business "remarkable", and what makes ideas spread, with regard to both marketing and culture in general. He has written a number of best-selling books that rethink modern marketing; that have introduced ideas such as "permission marketing" and "tribes"; and that discuss how marketing can be made a part of a business strategy or a product, rather than an afterthough--and much more. Also see Seth Godin's blog as well as Godin's two TED talks and his talk on why marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.

Joel on Software

A blog by Joel Spolsky, the CEO of a small but wildly successful software company. Although most of his articles are directed towards software developers, his experience as a CEO and startup founder gives him insight into the intersection of innovation and business strategy.

A five-step guide to creating an amazing brand

This article points to a few GREAT resources that get at the core of branding and brand strategy.

The Recession-Proof Graduate

Charlie Hoehn presents his view on how to find work after college. He explains that graduates must take a non-traditional approach to job searching, and he suggests that "free work" is good way to move forward in your career.

General Design and Innovation Links

Miscellaneous links on design and innovation.

Innovation Junction

Burt Swersey's blog on innovation, creativity, and working towards a "socially responsible entrepreneurial attitude."

A List Apart: Articles: Good Designers Redesign, Great Designers Realign

Aesthetics-driven versus purpose-driven design.

Ghost in the Pixel

A blog about interaction design that also gets into philosophy of design.

Can the Cellphone Help End Global Poverty?

A New York Times Magazine article about Jan Chipchase, a researcher for Nokia, who travels around the world to study human behavioral patterns. Also see Chipchase' TED talk and his website, Future Perfect.

User-Centered Design, Usability, and Psychology

The role of the user in all types of design.

Essays by Donald Norman

Donald Norman is an expert on design and usability. His 1988 book "The Design of Everyday Things" established many important concepts in usability and the psychology of design. His essays provide insights valuable to all types of design and technology.

Dan Lockton - "Design With Intent: Using Design to Influence Behavior"

Dan Lockton is a doctoral student researching the many ways design can be used to influence human behavior. His blog, presentations, and download-able resources discuss how these methods can be used to generate positive changes in the way people interact with their environment.

Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen is the world's leading expert on web usability. His "Alertbox" column discusses usability guidelines as well as research findings.

Bruce Tognazzini

Bruce Tognazzini is an expert in human-computer interaction design. "AskTog" is his column/email newsletter on interaction design.

Industrial Design and Product Design

Core77 / industrial design magazine + resource / home

"Industrial Design content and community site - articles, discussions, interviews and resources."

Graphic Design

Jason Santa Maria

A blog by famous graphic designer Jason Santa Maria, valuable for both graphic designers and web designers. The level of his creativity and "outside-of-the-box" thinking is visible in the blog itself: each major article has its own unique layout and style, based on the content of the article.

Smashing Magazine

A magazine on graphic and web design.

Typedia: A Shared Encyclopedia of Typefaces

"Typedia is a resource to classify, categorize, and connect typefaces."

Web Design

A List Apart

ALA is an online web design magazine on topics ranging from technology to design culture. This is a great place to learn about the philosophy, strategies, and techniques of modern web design.

Cameron Moll - Authentic Boredom

Cameron Moll's writing ranges from CSS and and HTML to design theory and philosophy.

Bread Board

A blog on experience design, by Sliced Bread, an interaction design firm.

For a Beautiful Web

Blog by Andy Clarke, a celebrity-level web designer. He focuses on CSS, typography, and other aspects of design strategy.

Jeffrey Zeldman presents the Daily Report

Jeffrey Zeldman is a famous designer/developer who has played a big role in the development of HTML and CSS and has promoted the use of semantic markup in the web design community.

HTML5 Doctor

A blog intended to help the web design/development community understand and implement HTML5 as the new standard goes through the process of development and adoption.

Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the design

Boxes and Arrows is an online magazine about interaction, information architecture, content strategy, UX design, and other aspects of user-centered web design.

WebAIM Quick Reference: Web Accessibility Principles

A summary of accessibility principles for web design. WebAIM provides comprehensive guidelines in other parts of the site.

Card sorting: a definitive guide

An article on card sorting, a technique for developing user-centered information architecture. This is generally used for information architecture in websites, but it's worth considering for other categories of design.

What Is Content Strategy? (Part I)

"Hear the term "content strategy" often but aren't sure what it means? That's not surprising because different people use the term in very different ways. And as a relatively new term to the user experience (UX) glossary, content strategy's definition is still taking shape. A few takes on content strategy include%u2026"

Content Strategy: The Philosophy of Data

More on content strategy. It's important to realize that "everything is content."

Building a Data-Backed Persona

On developing personas, an extremely useful (and in some cases, necessary) method for user-centered design. This particular article was written for the context of web design, but it's an important strategy for other types of design. Let me know if you find any articles or websites about personas in product (or other) design.

The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web - a practical guide to web typography

This is an in-progress set of guidelines to good web typography, based on The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.

6 Ways To Improve Your Web Typography

Summary of considerations regarding web typography. Note that the sections about embedded fonts and alternatives, though informative, is a little out of date. For information about the recent developments in embedded font technology, refer to posts from July and August 2009 on Jeffrey Zeldman's blog.

Web Design is 95% Typography

One more thing on web typography, with a list of additional links/resources on the subject.

Elegant Web Typography

A slideshow on web typography.

Random Stuff

Miscellaneous Links

Designer//Slash//Model

A firm that uses desgn to change the wolrd.

Business Card Design: Better Than A Plain Ol' Business Card

A Smashing Magazine article on creative approaches to business cards.

Brooklyn Fare's Packaging and Graphic Design

"We're sort of loving Mucca Design's packaging design and cheeky copy for the newly-opened gourmet store Brooklyn Fare..."

Good Copy Bad Copy

Good Copy Bad Copy is "a documentary about the current state of copyright and culture". It goes beyond the argument between record companies and Creative Commons; it offers a global perspective on current copyright issues, from hip hop culture to underground music in Belem, Brazil to the Nigeran film industry.

YouTube - Design Coding

"The Poetic Prophet (AKA The SEO Rapper) is back with another marketing rap. This time he describes how web standards and proper design can affect the ranking and conversion of pages on your site."

25 Logos with Hidden Messages

A collection of logos that play with positive and negative space.

Baseball Infographics

Infographics on baseball and other sports.

Worthwhile TED talks

Recordings of talks from the TED Conference.

Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy

"In this talk from 2003, design critic Don Norman turns his incisive eye toward beauty, fun, pleasure and emotion, as he looks at design that makes people happy. He names the three emotional cues that a well-designed product must hit to succeed."

Niels Diffrient rethinks the way we sit down

"Design legend Niels Diffrient talks about his life in industrial design (and the reason he became a designer instead of a jet pilot). He details his quest to completely rethink the office chair starting from one fundamental data set: the human body."

Seth Godin | Profile on TED.com

Seth Godin has given two TED talks:

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead - "Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so."

Seth Godin on standing out - "In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones."

Ze Frank's nerdcore comedy

"Performer and web toymaker Ze Frank delivers a hilarious nerdcore standup routine, then tells us what he's seriously passionate about: helping people create and interact using simple, addictive web tools."

Jacek Utko designs to save newspapers

"Jacek Utko is an extraordinary Polish newspaper designer whose redesigns for papers in Eastern Europe not only win awards, but increase circulation by up to 100%. Can good design save the newspaper? It just might."

Robert Full | Profile on TED.com

Robert Full has given three TED talks about how he has used research on cockroach legs and gecko feet to inspire the design of robots, including a robot with incredible wall-climbing capability.

Dan Ariely | Profile on TED.com

Dan Ariely is a "behavioral economist" who tries to learn about why people make bad or irrational decisions. His work can provide insight into user interaction and decision-making.

Dan Ariely on our buggy moral code - "Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies the bugs in our moral code: the hidden reasons we think it's OK to cheat or steal (sometimes). Clever studies help make his point that we're predictably irrational -- and can be influenced in ways we can't grasp."

Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions? - "Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we're not as rational as we think when we make decisions."

Tim Brown on creativity and play | Video on TED.com

"At the 2008 Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play -- with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn't)."

Philippe Starck thinks deep on design

"Designer Philippe Starck -- with no pretty slides to show -- spends 18 minutes reaching for the very roots of the question "Why design?" Listen carefully for one perfect mantra for all of us, genius or not."

Paul Bennett finds design in the details

"Showing a series of inspiring, unusual and playful products, British branding and design guru Paul Bennett explains that design doesn't have to be about grand gestures, but can solve small, universal and overlooked problems."

Joshua Prince-Ramus on Seattle's library

"Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus takes the audience on dazzling, dizzying virtual tours of three recent projects: the Central Library in Seattle, the Museum Plaza in Louisville and the Charles Wyly Theater in Dallas."

Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows

"Hacker and writer Joshua Klein is fascinated by crows. (Notice the gleam of intelligence in their little black eyes?) After a long amateur study of corvid behavior, he's come up with an elegant machine that may form a new bond between animal and human."

Jeff Bezos on the next web innovation

"The dot-com boom and bust is often compared to the Gold Rush. But Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos says it's more like the early days of the electric industry."

Chris Anderson shares his vision for TED

"Chris Anderson gave this talk in 2002, prior to taking over leadership of TED. Founder Richard Wurman was leaving and TED's future was hanging in the balance. He seeks to persuade TEDsters that what was then a for-profit conference had a secure future as an idea-based nonprofit endeavor."

Charles Leadbeater on innovation

"In this deceptively casual talk, Charles Leadbeater weaves a tight argument that innovation isn't just for professionals anymore. Passionate amateurs, using new tools, are creating products and paradigms that companies can't."

Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice

"Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied."