Universal Principles of Design

A cross-disciplinary encyclopedia, the reference by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler defines 125 design concepts and pairs each explanation with visual examples of the idea in practice. Its entries range from Occam's razor and the 80/20 rule to storytelling, chunking, baby-face bias and self-similarity. The authors start from the view that any design, whether a video game, a museum exhibit, a marketing campaign or a control system, brings together concepts from many disciplines, and that no one can be an expert in all of them. Designers, engineers, architects and students who want to broaden their design knowledge are the intended readers.

Benjamin Humphrey, CEO and co-founder of Dovetail, described it as a reference for product designers: a well-curated guide to the key terms of the field, with examples and diagrams.