Universal Principles of Design, Updated and Expanded Third Edition: 200 Ways to Increase Appeal, Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, and Make Better Design Decisions

by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler

Universal Principles of Design, Completely Updated and Expanded Third Edition is a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary encyclopedia, now with fully updated references for existing entries and expanded with 75 new entries to present a total of 200 laws, guidelines, and considerations that are important to successful design.

Richly illustrated and easy to navigate, this essential design guide pairs clear explanations of every design concept with visual examples of the ideas applied in practice.

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.

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

The book is organized alphabetically so that principles can be easily and quickly referenced by name. From 3D Projection to the Zeigarnick Effect, every major design concept is defined and illustrated, including these new

Feature creep Gamification Root cause Social trap Supernormal stimulus
A landmark reference for designers, engineers, architects, and students, Universal Principles of Design has become the standard for anyone seeking to broaden and improve their design expertise, explore brainstorming ideas, and improve the quality of their design work.

The titles in the Rockport Universal series offer comprehensive and authoritative information and edifying and inspiring visual examples on multidisciplinary subjects for designers, architects, engineers, students, and anyone who is interested in expanding and enriching their design knowledge.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction

843 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 9, 2023

Reviews

[Nilendu Misra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not recall to progressively purchase ALL 3 editions of ANY book but this one. In the past, I have even purchased copies for colleagues who always appreciated the quick education. Benefitting from a supremely curated catalog of 125 "universal principles", I was thus eagerly waiting for the 3rd edition that now has 200 of these entries. This is even more of a masterpiece than the past editions.

The "universal" part is the whole book. This book is far more than design as we understand it. It ventures into decision making, problem solving, innovation, human psychology, science of color and many more things.

First, some of the new entries are immediately accretive. "Don't eat the Daisies", for example, underlines the futility of "checklists" for randomly variable workspace with chaotic actors. e.g., trying to discipline kids with a checklists of "don't". 'Don't leave bike unlocked'. They would. But then you might see them eating Daisies on the dining table! It also says, in the preface - "best designers disregard these principles but only after knowing what they are". Checklists, on the other hand, are very useful in highly repetitive environments acted on by well-trained operators who, if wrong, could cause irreparable damage. Checklists rule in aviation and medicine where they are so universal it is almost "meta principle".

Second, even a surface level understanding of this catalog will tool one with BOTH a very useful vocabulary ("horror vacui") and a set of frameworks (MAYA, Causal Reductionism) to think about complex problems. Think of this book as a high-end Stanley toolbox for intellectual analysis - you can and likely will go back even to the content to categorize, frame-set and capture the essential heuristics of a large-scope decision time and again.

Third, a very handful - fewer than 10 - principles do not pass my own "universality" filter. They appear force fed. e.g., Test Pyramid. Not only is this a concept in a narrow field - software engineering, but even there it is not nearly as universal as, say, "Swiss Cheese Model" is to analyze catastrophic incidents. Test Pyramid is a mere pattern, not a principle, and one can use contextual alternatives like Canary Release, Rapid Anomaly Detection and Hotfix, Test Driven Development (where the pyramid is inverted - tests are written BEFORE code), or just simply MVP (Minimum Viable Product - essentially be OK without tests where rapid real-life feedback trumps internal quality feedback) etc. A few other entries perhaps lost its significant as they have become ubiquitous since the first edition of the book. Examples - Alignment, Storytelling, Prototyping etc.

All inclusive, this hits the jackpot with higher than 90%+ entries - one of the 100 books I will NEVER part with. Or, at least till the 4th edition is out!

[Diane Hernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Universal Principles of Design is not what I expected. And that may be totally my fault. I expected a textbook on design. However, it reads like a dictionary with no connection between different ideas.

Universal Principles of Design may find a place in library reference sections but is really not easy, or useful, to read cover-to-cover. The text is dry, but it may help a designer with a project outside their comfort zone. 3 stars.

Thanks to Rockport Publishing and NetGalley for a digital review copy of the book.

[Palash Kulshrestha · Rating 5 out of 5]

amazing book . Patterns help us navigate any area with heuristics. and this book provides such good patterns in design and all in 1 place.