I should first acknowledge that the word “cool” is, itself, not all that cool anymore—it does tend to get used a lot by advertisers and soccer moms these days. Also, it can be a synonym for “trendy,” and I don’t mean to suggest that design principles are just a passing fancy. So let me first define what I mean by cool: A quality that makes something feel fresh and au courant, but also marks a thing as special, admirable, intriguing, maybe even a little sexy. You tend to want to be associated with, be around, be part of, that which is cool. To put it in anthropomorphic terms, think Paul Newman: always cool, through his whole life and even into the great beyond.

 

So why are design principles cool, especially right now? Well, you could say they’re “of the moment” because the times we’re living in now are causing us to reconsider, to look around for new approaches and better ways of doing things. But we need some basic tools to help us do all of that. Design principles can serve as the Swiss Army knife of the “let’s-make-a-smarter-world” movement. (And by the way, even in this age of gee-whiz gadgetry, Swiss Army knives have never lost their coolness).

Design principles are also cool because they’re deeply interesting, or to pick up on a term from author Sally Hogshead’s new book, they’re fascinating. Something becomes fascinating when it has the ability not just to capture the imagination but then to hold onto it. A good design principle isn’t like one of those quickly-forgotten “quotes of the day” on your home page. It gets in your head and takes up residence. And it becomes more interesting over time. The first time you encounter a good design principle, you may think, “Hmm, that’s interesting.” But over time and experience, you begin to think: “Wow: That’s not just interesting—it’s true.” And the more that principle proves itself to be true, in a range of situations and challenges, the more you appreciate it over time—for its depth, its breadth, its universality and specificity, its smartness, and its coolness.

 

The coolest thing about design principles? They give us the freedom to get lost. True innovators must be willing to drift and experiment and occasionally roam around in the dark. And when they do this, it is their most trusted design principles that serve as the guiding lights. So even if we don’t know what we’re doing, we still know what to do—we just follow our principles.

 

If you want to quickly immerse yourself in some cool design principles, here are a few places to start. For a good, solid technical base, check out the book Universal Principles of Design, by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler, a keystone of my design thinker’s library. It breaks down 100 fascinating design terms and laws—great stuff like “chunking,” “forgiveness,” “hierarchy of needs,” and that old classic “form follows function”—in concise and very accessible language.

 

Moving to more inspirational stuff, if you have not yet checked out Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, do so immediately. Some of the manifesto’s original principles—“ask stupid questions,” “work the metaphor,” “begin anywhere”—were adapted and expanded upon in Glimmer. (And yes, I know, some in the design world are sick of the manifesto, and have even taken to parodying it. But there’s a reason why Mau’s list has been passed around non-stop, among designers and non-designers alike, for more than a decade.)

 

I also like this list of principles from Diego Rodriguez of IDEO on his Metacool site homepage. My personal favorites are: “Experience the world instead of talking about experiencing the world” (a more expansive, forceful variation on Mau’s “Go deep”); “Prototype as if you are right. Listen as if you are wrong;” and “Live life at the intersection.” Some very cool ideas, indeed—so cool, in fact, they’re metacool.