Dominic Flask, Editor of The Designer’s Review of Books, recently reviewed Involution’s Design Axioms deck, created by Juhan Sonin, along with Luke Wroblewski, Andrei Herasimchuk, and Dirk Knemeyer. The deck features striking graphics, detailing sixteen foundational principles that outline the essential rules of interface design.
The Design Axioms deck serves as a recommended pathway for UI designers, telling you where to spend your energy and where not to, when it comes to interface design.
Flask writes, “Overall, Design Axioms is an excellent reference deck for the beginning interface designer and provides a good set of principles to start building an educational foundation upon.” The deck is organized into four sections: "Let Data Scream", "Prototype Like Crazy", "What Interface?", and "Know Thy Code". To complement the bold imagery, the writing is direct and commanding. For example, take this excerpt from Real Data is Truth:
Shortcuts make design more efficient. Sometimes, they also make it worse. Injecting Lorem Ipsum and other dummy data into design during the creation process sucks. Dummy data leads to dummy design. […] Great design surfaces Truth, and real data is Truth.
As Flask notes Design Axioms won’t make you a master of interface design in a single day — after all, the Design Axioms are not about cutting corners — but you “would be in pretty good shape if you started that day by flipping through the Design Axioms deck.” If you’re serious about design and coding, the Design Axioms deck is a great weapon to have in your arsenal. If nothing more, it will provide you with an assertive, creative guide toward becoming the best software designer you can be. And for UX teams, the Design Axioms are a great resource for inspiration, brainstorming, and critique sessions.