You don’t have to read it all

Why am I not worried about putting a vast, truly ‘encyclopaedic’ book in front of designers? Cos I know how they’re gonna use it.

The new Design manual is 647 pages of design goodness. 230,000 words. That’s a lot of text. It also has 345 illustrations, not counting 72 font samples. And more than 150 checklists.

If you wanted to, you could sit down and read it from front cover to back cover. (Incidentally, it took me about 15 hours over a week.)

But most people will never read the whole book.

Virtually all users will read bits of the book. When they need them. 10 minutes. To address that emergency. To settle that argument. To satisfy that query.

If you just want a reminder of client expectations of your project. Or a reminder about a technique or process. Or just to get the order of your book contents right. Or not to forget legal requirements of a website or app.

Maybe you need a definition of an unfamiliar word. It might be terminology used elsewhere in the world that is known as something different here.

Maybe you want to know how most designers would approach a particular design. But also want to know why some designers don’t use that process or technique.

But why have The design manual on your desk – instead of just Googling? Because you will get so many results and conflicting advice. The design manual is curated and mediated content. Using the very best sources. Using diverse input from blogs, search engines, articles online and in print, books, journals, podcasts, conferences, talks and workshops. Using current thinking as well as historic sources.

It is mediated by an Australian experience. So neither US nor English nor Japanese nor Swiss. But a bit of each – and a dash of Asian, European, African, middle Eastern … you get it. It’s a melting pot, like Australian cuisine. Enjoy.