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.