The Best Articles in Design
The most useful articles in Design from around the web—beginners to advanced—curated by thought leaders and our community. We focus on timeless pieces and update the list whenever we discover new, must-read articles or videos—make sure to bookmark and revisit this page.
Top 5 Design Articles
At a glance: these are the articles that have been most read, shared, and saved in Design by Refind users in 2023 so far.
What is ...?
New to Design? These articles make an excellent introduction.
What is a picture?
If we want to understand what a picture is, then we must look at the difference between perception and imagination.
A gentle introduction to Domain Driven Design
Starting into DDD is hard, even though it’s heavily praised by their practitioners. This article introduces the topic, gently.
A beginner’s guide to Design Tokens
Learn the basics of what design tokens are, how they’re used, their benefits, and some tools and resources to get you started.
The Woman Who Theorized Color: An Introduction to Mary Gartside’s New Theory of Colours (1808)
Shared by 1142, including Marcos, Jennifer Ouellette, Tamsen Webster, Message Strategist (she/her), Gabriele
How to ...?
How to create a perfect home-office desk
Gretchen Hansen, founder and CEO of the online interior design company Decorist offers advice for getting your best work done at home.
How to get started with hand-lettering
Earlier this year, I pushed out a tweet about my desire to be a beginner again, learn something new and took a particular interest in hand…
Trending
These links are currently making the rounds in Design on Refind.
The Rhythm of Your Screen
It’s 2023 and I’m still frequently asked by clients about scrolling. I understand why. Every design comes with assumptions about how much content
Why Chatbots Are Not the Future
Last night, over wine and seafood, the inevitable happened...
How Figma draws inspiration from the gaming world
The parallels between Figma's technical challenges and those in the gaming world
Don't design for your users
Guiding principles for designing and building products with intention
Short Articles
Short on time? Check out these useful short articles in Design—all under 10 minutes.
Brainstorm Questions Not Ideas
Taking time to talk through your questions will create a collaborative culture of learning
«extremely popular activity because it feels collaborative and creativity-enhancing even when it’s really not. Research has shown group brainstorming to be a waste of time.»
The Museum of Failure Celebrates Some of the World's Biggest Flops
Now on view in New York City, the traveling exhibition presents failure as a critical learning opportunity
Design-by-wire
There’s a lot of fear in the air. As AI gets better at design, it’s natural for designers to be worried about their jobs. But I think the question — will AI replace designers? — is a waste of time.…
Design Psychology: 4 Principles That Empower Designers
You might not know it yet, but you beautiful designer, have an almighty power in your hands: the power of Design Psychology
Long Articles
These are some of the most-read long-form articles in Design.
Typographic Hierarchy in Print, Web & App Design
Visual hierarchy makes or breaks your design. Learn how to guide the eye by intentionally using contrast and spacing in typography.
Design thinking was supposed to fix the world. Where did it go wrong?
An approach that promised to democratize design may have done the opposite.
How AI Technology Will Transform Design — Smashing Magazine
In this article, Nick and Gleb cover the current state of design, answer common questions designers have about AI tools, and share practical tips on how designers can make the most of using AI tools.
Starting design work in a spreadsheet
In the early phases of a project a spreadsheet can be a more useful design tool than Figma.
Design for AI: What should people who design AI know?
It’s 2022 and we are in the early days of artificial intelligence design.
Thought Leaders
We monitor hundreds of thought leaders, influencers, and newsletters in Design, including:
swissmiss
Here to defend the bright corners of the world with @creativemorning, @tattly, @teuxdeux, @friendsworkhere. My story in 5 mins: http://youtu.be/rUtABHdlAzg
Cory LaViska
Just a guy with a laptop and a dream. Building @shoelace_style at @fontawesome.
Meng To
Founder at @designcodeio. I teach designers code and developers design.
zeldman
Author. Designer. Web Standards Godfather. Employer Brand at @Automattic. Publisher @AListApart + @ABookApart. Ava’s dad. Pete’s brother. He/him.
Publications
We monitor hundreds of publications, blogs, newsletters, and news sources in Design, including:
UX Collective
Curated stories on user experience, usability, and product design. By @fabriciot and @caioab.
Smashing Magazine 🇺🇦 🏳️🌈
An online magazine for designers and web developers. Questions? We've got your back: @SmashingSupport, @SmashingConf. Curated by Iris, Vitaly and the team.
Brad Frost
Design system consultant, web designer, speaker, writer, musician, & artist. Author of Atomic Design. Mastadon: http://mastodon.social/@brad_frost
Print magazine
PRINT IS ALIVE. http://bit.ly/2qJ9fw2
Dribbble
The world’s best community where designers share, grow, & get hired. Need help with your account? 👉 @dribbblesupport http://bit.ly/3kG31ok — Art by @tranmautritam
What is Refind?
Every day Refind picks the most relevant links from around the web for you. Picking only a handful of links means focusing on what’s relevant and useful. We favor timeless pieces—links with long shelf-lives, articles that are still relevant one month, one year, or even ten years from now. These lists of the best resources on any topic are the result of years of careful curation.
How does Refind curate?
It’s a mix of human and algorithmic curation, following a number of steps:
- We monitor 10k+ sources and 1k+ thought leaders on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
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The result: lists of the best and most useful articles on hundreds of topics.
How does Refind detect «timeless» pieces?
We focus on pieces with long shelf-lives—not news. We determine «timelessness» via a number of metrics, for example, the consumption pattern of links over time.
How many sources does Refind monitor?
We monitor 10k+ content sources on hundreds of topics—publications, blogs, news sites, newsletters, Substack, Medium, Twitter, etc.
Which sources does Refind monitor in Design?
We monitor hundreds of sources in Design, including UX Collective, Smashing Magazine 🇺🇦 🏳️🌈, Brad Frost, Print magazine, Dribbble, and many more.
Who are the thought leaders in Design?
We follow dozens of thought leaders in Design, including Oliver Reichenstein, swissmiss, Cory LaViska, Meng To, zeldman.
Missing a thought leader? Submit them here
Can I submit a link?
Indirectly, by using Refind and saving links from outside (e.g., via our extensions).
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When you’re logged-in, you can flag any link via the «More» (...) menu. You can also report problems via email to hello@refind.com
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