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Bootstrapping Design
An eBook teaching design principles to bootstrappers, startup founders, and hackers. Learn easy design strategies to attract more users and help your business succeed. Become the designer your startup needs.
141 pages, ebook
First published December 1, 2011
89 people want to read
About the author
Jarrod Drysdale
3 books5 followersI’m a web designer and bootstrapper. I believe in bootstrappers and the businesses they are building, and I know design can help them succeed. I’ve completed work for such diverse clients as funded tech startups, financial companies, movie studios, and consumer brands working at agencies and as a freelancer. I write code. I prefer getting things done to just talking about it. I want to help your startup succeed with practical but effective design.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
August 17, 2018
Not bad, good overview. But do not see many new things, it more or less just copy of parts of the essential design classics.
August 24, 2012
A quick read that teaches good design fundamentals and heuristics that non-designers can use. As a technical person with decent design aesthetics, I found that this book mainly put into words what I already knew unconsciously as I designed. If I were starting from scratch however and didn't really have any sense of design, then this would be really valuable. Particularly, the additional resources listed throughout the book are useful.
Maybe I'm not the target, but I was hoping that there would me more details on techniques I could use to take my designs from merely competent and pedestrian to something with a little more polish. The chapters on Visual Design Tips and Evaluating Design were helpful. I just wish there was more of it.
Overall, I appreciate what the author is trying to do with this book; it is a great introduction for someone who has never thought about design and doesn't have enough time to learn it. However, my rating takes into account the price of this ebook and I don't feel there was enough value to justify the higher cost relative to other ebooks.
Maybe I'm not the target, but I was hoping that there would me more details on techniques I could use to take my designs from merely competent and pedestrian to something with a little more polish. The chapters on Visual Design Tips and Evaluating Design were helpful. I just wish there was more of it.
Overall, I appreciate what the author is trying to do with this book; it is a great introduction for someone who has never thought about design and doesn't have enough time to learn it. However, my rating takes into account the price of this ebook and I don't feel there was enough value to justify the higher cost relative to other ebooks.
April 1, 2014
Jarrod Drysdale is an awesome marketer, and in some ways Bootstrapping Design is a victim of that. He has done a wonderful job to promote his book--first and foremost on the book's own website. In the end, however, the book promises a lot but delivers little. Reading this book left me feeling let down.
The book is too short to turn you into a great designer. Essentially, it feels like a collection of blog posts on important principles of design, such as colour, typography, whitespace, and a few more. It is a curated collection of design fundamentals that good designers should follow. There is no original or ground breaking content here.
And that's fine because the book does a good job of this, and it's well written. But it is geared towards readers with absolutely no design experience, and it fails to mention this. I would give it four stars if it were marketed for what it really is.
The book is too short to turn you into a great designer. Essentially, it feels like a collection of blog posts on important principles of design, such as colour, typography, whitespace, and a few more. It is a curated collection of design fundamentals that good designers should follow. There is no original or ground breaking content here.
And that's fine because the book does a good job of this, and it's well written. But it is geared towards readers with absolutely no design experience, and it fails to mention this. I would give it four stars if it were marketed for what it really is.
November 20, 2012
Excellent read! Jarrod's ruthless pragmatism is exactly what I was looking for in a design book. This book can easily be finished in a day or two, but I suspect it will remain useful as a reference when working on designs. Plenty of cheat sheets are present to condense the information even further. I feel like I now have an excellent knowledge from which to practice!
August 21, 2013
Great book for non-designers like me.
When doing dialog boxes, I've told clients that "I don't do pretty" as a way of avoiding design concerns. Now I have some tools to help make my work look more presentable.
Quick and easy to read through. I'm considering printing a copy for off-screen reference.
When doing dialog boxes, I've told clients that "I don't do pretty" as a way of avoiding design concerns. Now I have some tools to help make my work look more presentable.
Quick and easy to read through. I'm considering printing a copy for off-screen reference.
April 17, 2012
Before reading this book, I knew nothing about graphic design. My favorite chapter was the one on typography. Now, I know I could pick out fonts for a design, and they would look professional because there are easy guidelines in the book to follow.
December 13, 2015
This was an outstanding introduction to the basics of web design for me as a developer!
March 26, 2016
Quite useful introduction to web design principles. With practical advices and examples. Better to read 2nd edition.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews