Design Better | The Curiosity Department | Substack

Design Better Summer Reading

Essential reads from our favorite podcast guests to fuel your creativity this season

5 hrs ago •

and

AMA: Noah Levin on Figma's latest release

Thursday July 10 9AM PT/12PM ET/5PM GMT. Figma is central to most designers' workflow these days (certainly is here at Design Better). So it's important…

Jun 12 •

13:03

The Brief: Stop specializing—live a multidisciplinary creative life

The monthly dispatch from Design Better.

Jun 11 •

43:03

Christopher Lyons: From producing music to venture capital, and why EQ beats IQ in building the future

Episode 139 of the Design Better Podcast

Jun 10 •

and

The books all designers need to succeed

Lunch break learning that will make you better at your job!

Jun 6 •

Go deeper into design, technology, and the creative process.

Books

Design Leadership Handbook

By Elijah Woolery and Aarron Walter. The Design Leadership Handbook is a practical guide for designers stepping into leadership roles, offering a clear…

Jun 12 •

The Curiosity Department

and

Designing for Emotion

By Aarron Walter, Designing for Emotion teaches UX and product designers how to create emotionally engaging digital experiences. Learn to build trust…

Jun 4 •

The Curiosity Department

and

Design Systems Handbook

By Marco Suarez, Jina Anne, Katie Sylor-Miller, Diana Mounter, and Roy StanfieldThis book guides readers through best practices around planning…

Jun 4 •

The Curiosity Department

and

DesignOps Handbook

By By Dave Malouf, Meredith Black, Collin Whitehead, Kate Battles, and Gregg Bernstein (editor)Learn how creating centralized services and systems helps…

Jun 4 •

The Curiosity Department

and

Principles of Product Design

By Aarron Walter Principles of Product Design teaches essential design thinking skills for creating thoughtful, user-centered digital products. Learn…

Nov 26, 2024 •

The Curiosity Department

and

Design Thinking Handbook

Jul 10, 2024 •

The Curiosity Department

The Brief

13:03

The Brief: Stop specializing—live a multidisciplinary creative life

The monthly dispatch from Design Better.

Jun 11 •

The Brief: Brad Frost on the magic of design tokens

This is a free issue!

May 23 •

Your Real Competitor Isn’t Another Brand—It’s This.

What Lyft, One Medical, and Brazil’s Treasury learned about human behavior that you could steal.

Apr 9 •

and

The Curiosity Department

The Brief: Afraid of losing your job? Become irreplaceable

The monthly dispatch from Design Better.

Mar 20 •

7:14

The Brief: What designers can learn from writers and storytellers

The monthly dispatch from Design Better.

Feb 28 •

12:27

Events

AMA: Noah Levin on Figma's latest release

Thursday July 10 9AM PT/12PM ET/5PM GMT. Figma is central to most designers' workflow these days (certainly is here at Design Better). So it's important…

Jun 12 •

AMA: Grace Ling on building a design career and a community

May 22nd, 2025 3:30 PM EDT

May 16 •

New Storytelling + Design workshop, book giveaway, and more

Apr 1 •

and

AMA: Vicki Tan on better decision making

Vicki Tan's new book Ask This Book A Question is an exploration into better decision making, grounded in the science of cognitive bias and the wisdom of…

Mar 21 •

The Curiosity Department

Free AMA: Kevin Bethune on nonlinear thinking

Was held Tuesday March 11 12PMPT/3PMET/8PM GMT (free for all DB subscribers!)

Feb 27 •

Featured

Design Better Tea

A new collaboration with our friends at Methodical.

Apr 30 •

and

35:46

Jenny Blackburn: Google's VP of UX for Gemini on how generative AI can improve our workflows

Listen now (36 mins) | Episode 125 of the Design Better Podcast

Jan 22 •

and

35:56

Dan Mall: Scaling design systems

Episode 103 of the Design Better Podcast

Jul 9, 2024 •

,

, and

Design Better Coffee

Awaken your creativity with our special roast from Methodical.

Sep 28, 2023 •

The Curiosity Department

40:40

Dan Pink: Why collaboration is the key to being persuasive

Episode 51 of the Design Better Podcast

May 25, 2021 •

and

Netflix's Steve Johnson and Rochelle King: Making great stories accessible

Episode 50 of the Design Better Podcast

Feb 23, 2021 •

The Curiosity Department

34:11

John Cleese: A cheerful guide to creativity

Episode 48 of the Design Better Podcast

Jan 26, 2021 •

The Curiosity Department

46:09

Airbnb’s Brian Chesky: Designing for trust

It all started with a box of cereal.

Dec 15, 2020 •

and

36:56

Debbie Millman: Revealing what matters the most to designers and creatives

We’re not ashamed to admit that, when we booked Debbie Millman for our show, we were a little intimidated.

Nov 10, 2020 •

and

Go deeper into design, technology, and the creative process.

Start here

Design Foundations

New to Design Better? Start here.

Apr 1 •

The Curiosity Department

Get up to speed on artificial intelligence and the creative process with these episodes, articles, and videos.

Nov 5, 2024 •

Get your bearings on the history of design with these essential episodes.

Feb 29, 2024 •

The Curiosity Department

Essential Books

These books from guests on the show are must reads.

Aug 28, 2023 •

The Curiosity Department

Sponsors

It’s usually around the holidays as the year draws to an end that I start to reflect on my goals and how I want to grow in the coming year.

Apr 4 •

and

Advanced Reverse Osmosis Filtration

Mar 28 •

Modern furniture, Japanese joinery, timeless design.

Jan 31 •

Methodical Coffee

Craft coffee and tea for people of all kinds.

Jan 16 •

The Curiosity Department

Our favorite air purifier.

Jan 2 •

The intuitive way for agencies and enterprises to design exceptional sites

Nov 4, 2024 •

World-class wines curated by culinary icons.

Nov 4, 2024 •

In the Making, a podcast for and about the creator economy.

Hosted by Adobe community leader and advocate Teresa Au

Oct 15, 2024 •

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