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Design

Get design ready

From what design is to shipping real products. How people, form and decisions fit together, one level at a time.

5 levels · 104 modules · about 15 hours

  1. 1
    1. 1What Is Design?Design is the deliberate act of shaping something - an object, image, space, or experience - to solve a problem for someone, within real constraints.8 min
    2. 2Why Humans DesignHumans design because our bodies are unspecialized but our minds can plan - so we shape tools, clothing, shelter and systems to close the gap between ourselves and the world.8 min
    3. 3Design vs ArtDesign and art share methods and materials, but design is accountable to a problem and an audience, while art answers primarily to the artist's own intent.8 min
    4. 4Design vs DecorationDecoration embellishes a surface; design determines whether the thing works at all. The two can coexist happily, but mistaking one for the other produces objects that impress and fail.8 min
    5. 5Function and FormFunction is what a thing does; form is what it looks and feels like. The long argument between them is really an argument about which one should be decided first.8 min
    6. 6Understanding ProblemsBefore designing any solution a designer must understand the problem - who has it, why it exists, what has been tried. Solving the wrong problem well is still a failure.8 min
    7. 7Constraints in DesignConstraints - material, budget, time, technology, regulation - are not obstacles standing in the way of design. They are the conditions that make design necessary and often make it better.8 min
    8. 8Users and ContextA design is only good or bad relative to a particular person in a particular situation - the same object can succeed completely for one user and fail completely for another.8 min
    9. 9Introduction to Visual DesignVisual design is the deliberate arrangement of shape, color, type and space to communicate meaning and direct attention before a single word has been read.8 min
    10. 10Introduction to Design HistoryDesign history traces how objects, images and systems evolved in response to technology, materials and society - showing that today's choices sit inside a long chain of cause and effect.8 min
    11. 11ShapeA shape is any area a viewer perceives as enclosed and separate from its surroundings, and it is the first thing the eye resolves before detail, color or meaning arrive.7 min
    12. 12FormForm is shape with the third dimension added - real or implied - and it is created almost entirely by how light falls across a surface and what shadow it leaves behind.7 min
    13. 13LineLine is the most economical element in design: it divides, connects, encloses and directs attention, and it works just as powerfully when it is implied rather than drawn.7 min
    14. 14SpaceSpace is the empty area around and between elements, and it is an active design material: it groups, separates, creates emphasis and determines how much effort reading requires.7 min
    15. 15ColorColor is the least stable element in design: it is produced by the eye rather than the object, it shifts with its surroundings, and it means different things to different people.8 min
    16. 16ContrastContrast is measurable difference between elements, and it is the mechanism behind almost everything else in visual design: visibility, hierarchy, emphasis and legibility all depend on it.7 min
    17. 17ScaleScale is relative size, and because size is the first signal of importance the eye registers, deciding how large things are is inseparable from deciding what matters.8 min
    18. 18Visual HierarchyVisual hierarchy is the deliberate ranking of elements so a viewer takes them in a chosen order, built from contrast, scale, position, space and grouping working together.8 min
    19. 19BalanceBalance is the distribution of visual weight across a composition, and because viewers feel imbalance as discomfort rather than notice it as an error, it operates almost entirely below conscious attention.7 min
    20. 20RhythmRhythm is pattern in time or space: the repetition and variation of elements and intervals that sets the pace at which a viewer moves through a design.7 min
    21. 21CompositionComposition is the arrangement of every other visual element into a single working whole, where the relationships between parts matter more than the quality of any individual part.8 min

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