Universal Principles of Design: 100 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach Through Design by William Lidwell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While this book may seem like a motley alphabetical list (because it is) of design “principles” what this book is really about is about how people chunk information. Each of the monikers isolates a “principle” according to the metaphor that logically independent relationships are separate axioms of organization. The book isn’t meant to be deep, or tell you why something is, it’s simply meant to be an inspiration, a guide to help one organize how to approach a project. The key to this book is that it tries to explain how best to approach each of axiom of organization, how it leads people to digest the presented information.
It’s of particular interest that many of these design principles aren’t so much about even presentation of design, but also include how to design (what processes, kinds of procedures). Design is one of those areas where everyone thinks that they are a designer, that what intuitively makes sense to oneself should make sense to everyone else. That if it’s obvious to “me” then it is obvious to everyone else. This is not true. Good design requires a channel to unpack potentially complex bundles of information, find out what message one wants to impart, and then present that message through the organization of those bundles of information in such a way that the message comes across as the immanent sense of that organization, that most people will select for the criteria presented as being what that information is rather than understanding it in a different way.
In this sense, the optimal organization of a specific complexity for a particular deployment is what design is. This book doesn’t talk about that though, it assumes we understand this already, and goes ahead to present the “meat and potatos” of design through a list of design principles. The authors were keen to also point out that the rise of design as a profession requires the vast accumulation of different areas including “art, science, and religion…the basic workings of nature” to solve a particular problem. I’m not sure that this is exactly what design is (in this sense, anyone who solves problems creatively is a designer…a little too vague) but I think design has to be understood as “cross-disciplinary” simply because what is necessary for a successful designer is the ability to unpack complexity and then select the best presentation for the most optimal deployment of that complexity to serve a purpose. Design in this way is related to philosophy via the organization of information — the unpacking and realigning of complexity — not the academic jargon that philosophy is so often wrapped in. The selection of various “principles” then bridges the desired message and the nature of the material to be presented. Really, quite a complex procedure which needs one to also understand the target audience’s framework intimately. Doubtlessly there can be no simple book about such a procedure.
This book could be better explained through what I just said, the meta-aesthetics of design. But in lieu of that, the authors don’t go much deeper. Instead, I think, they aim to be more practical and throw a bunch of stuff at you, to get you to think… which is misleading because they claim this book is good for teaching. And while throwing a bunch of junk just be what a designer needs to get his juices flowing, it may not be appropriate for a teacher!
