Books
- Don't Make Me Think - Steve Krug - Practical guide to web usability
- Graphic Design: The New Basics - Ellen Lupton & Jennifer Cole Phillips - Fundamental principles of graphic design
- Steal like an Artist - Austin Kleon - Creativity framework for finding inspiration
- The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman - Principles of intuitive design and usability
- Thinking with Type - Ellen Lupton - Essential guide to typography fundamentals
Readings
- Designing a Comprehensive Color System - Linda Dong - Structured approach to creating cohesive color palettes
- Dieter Rams: 10 Principles for Good Design - Dieter Rams - Fundamental design principles from the legendary industrial designer
- Finding Ideas - Julie Zhou - Practical methods for creative ideation
- Good things don't have to take time - Adam Wathan - On efficiency in design and development
- Invisible Details of Interaction Design - Rauno Freiberg - Subtle aspects that improve user interactions
- It's Easier to Revise Than Create - Dan Mall - How starting with something imperfect leads to better results
- Short design books I recommend - Anthony Hobday - Curated recommendations for design reading
- The Dribbblisation of Design - Intercom - Critique of aesthetic-focused design at the expense of usability
- UI Detail Breakdowns: Switch · Shadow Borders - Derek Briggs - Analysis of subtle UI component details
- Visual Design Techniques - Anthony Hobday - Practical methods for improving visual designs
- Why I love ugly, messy interfaces — and you probably do too - Jonas Downey - Defense of function over aesthetic polish
- Why is dark mode so hard to get right? - Dan Hollick - Technical and design challenges of dark mode implementations
Design Systems
- Accessible Color Systems - Stripe - Methodology for designing inclusive color systems
- Adobe Spectrum - Adobe - Comprehensive design system with detailed documentation
- Building a Design Systems Library with Figma Scripter - Lyft - Automating design system components
- Carbon Design System - IBM - Open source design system with extensive components
- Color in Design Systems - EightShapes - Systematic approach to color in design systems
- Colorbox by Lyft Design - Lyft - Interactive tool for creating accessible color palettes
- Defining Colors in Your Design System - UX Collective - Structured approach to color definition
- Design Systems - InVision - Comprehensive guide to design systems principles
- designsystems.com - InVision - Step-by-step resources for building design systems
- More Design Systems - Design Systems Database - Directory of design systems across industries
- Space in Design Systems - EightShapes - Systematic approaches to spacing in interfaces
- the components gallery - Component Gallery - Reference library of UI components across systems
- What are Design Tokens? - CSS-Tricks - Explanation of design tokens as building blocks
Critique
- Design Critiques at Figma - Figma - Framework for effective design feedback sessions
- Open Design Critiques - Brian Lovin - Platform for community design feedback
- UI Design Critiques - Brian Lovin - In-depth analysis of popular app interfaces
Typefaces
- Displaay - Type foundry specializing in contemporary typefaces
- Inter - Rasmus Andersson - Versatile, open-source font family for interfaces
- PangramPangram - Type foundry creating expressive contemporary typefaces
- Recursive - Arrow Type - Variable font designed for code and interface design
- Typeface - MacOS font manager with intuitive organization features
Icons & Assets
- Font Awesome - Popular icon library with extensive collection
- Lucide - Open source icon library with minimal, consistent design
- SVG Repo - Collection of freely usable SVG vectors and icons
Example Portfolios
- Andy Chung - Design leader and investor portfolio
- Brian Lovin - Product designer and engineer portfolio
- Cristian Rus - Product designer portfolio
- Effy Zhang - Product designer portfolio
- Janette Council - Digital designer portfolio
- Meagan Fisher Couldwell - Designer and illustrator portfolio
- Molly Mielke - Design-focused founder portfolio
Career & Culture
- 5 Tips for an Outcome Driven Design Portfolio - Design Docs - Creating portfolios that demonstrate impact
- Good Challenges vs Bad Challenges - Jessica Harllee - Framework for evaluating workplace challenges
- How to Give a Great Product Design Portfolio Presentation - Brian Lovin - Techniques for effective portfolio presentations
- Staff Design - Bobby Goodlatte - Stories of designers choosing IC career paths over management
- What do you want to be when you grow up? - Shopify - Overview of design career paths
More Resources
- Book List - Write the Docs - Curated books on writing and information architecture
- Design Questions Library - Stanford d.school - Frameworks for design thinking
- Levels.fyi - Industry comparison of design salary levels
- The Year of the Looking Glass - Julie Zhou - Essays on design leadership and management
- UX Design Resources & Recommendations - Noah Levin - Comprehensive collection of UX resources
Note: I maintain the content of these lists by hand but generally will use a language model to tidy them up/make things consistent, in case the descriptions seem a bit, er, mechanical.