Design 101

This page is a collection of my recommendations to design related resources that can help you get started as a designer.

Learn design

I've been working on curating a useful list for designers & design enthusiasts.

Make sure to check out my other collections on Notion as well.

Books
Courses
Niki's toolkit
Online resources
Don't make me think by Steve Krug *
Lead the field by Earl Nightingale*
The design of everyday things by Don Norman *
100 things every designer needs to know about people by Susan M. Weinschenk, Ph.D. *
The user experience team of one by Leah Buley *
Writing without bullshit by Josh Bernoff *
Sprint: How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days by Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky *
Hooked by Nir Eyal *
The Practice: Shipping creative work by Seth Godin *
Lean UX: Designing great products with agile teams by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden *
Crucial conversations - tools for talking when stakes are high by K. Patterson, J. Grenny, R. McMillan, A. Switzler *
Universal principles of design: Ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design by W. Lidwell, K. Holden, J. Butler *
UX for dummies by D. Chestnut, K. P. Nichols *
Drawing on the right side of the brain by Betty Edwards *
Visual thinking by Willemien Brand *
Presto sketching by Ben Crothers *
The making of a manager: What to do when everyone looks to you by Julie Zhuo *
LinkedIn Learning is free with your library card
Interaction Design Foundation get 2 free months of membership
CareerFoundry free UX design short course
UX design course from Accenture
Introduction to UX design on Coursera
Uxcel introduction to UX and UI design foundation
Codecademy learn HTML and CSS for free
List of bootcamps by UX Planet
Product design course on Udacity by Google
Software
Figma industry standard design tool
Miro whiteboard and collaboration tool
Sketch Mac OS only design tool
Canva fast, easy & free graphic design tool
Hypefury Twitter automation tool for Creators *
Procreate digital illustration app
Hardware
Apple iPad
Apple iPhone 13 Pro
Apple Macbook Pro M1 14inch
Canon G7 X camera *
Microphone Blue Yeti Nano *
Shure MV88+ microphone *
Seagate One Touch 2TB hard drive *
Vanguard tripod *
Wacom PTH660 Intuos Pro (Medium) digital graphic tablet *
Sennheiser Momentum 2.0 Wireless headphone *
Powerbeat Pro Wireless earbuds *
Rain Design silver laptop stand *
Figma tutorial on Coursetro
Figma essential training on LinkedIn Learning
Apple’s human interface guidelines
Google's Material icons (free to use)
Google's guide to mobile Android Material design
Microsoft Fluent design interface guide
Learn touch typing on Typingstudy
Search for UX product design jobs on Glassdoor
Create a professional profile on LinkedIn
Learn to sketch simple objects using Quick, draw! by Google
Checklist design to learn mobile patterns
Mobbin iOS and Android mobile design resources
Curated resources of mobile designs on Learnmobile

Affiliate disclaimer: please note, items marked with * are affiliate links, which means I make a small commission when you purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products, books, courses that I believe will be valuable to you; and I have purchased or used in the past.