All Resources
A small, curated library that follows the arc of the practice: making sense of an idea, making it tangible enough to discuss, and the wider view of where this work sits.
Organized into three short sections. Each is representative rather than exhaustive — the aim is a clear through-line, not breadth.
Framing: understanding what an idea is
How practitioners actually work through unclear, still-forming problems — reflecting, sketching, and externalizing thought before anything is finished.
Article · Erika Hall · Mule Design
The 9 Rules of Design Research
A short, plain-spoken corrective from a respected practitioner: research isn't a separate phase you outsource, it's the discipline of asking better questions before committing to answers. The first move in clarifying what an idea actually is — and the discipline that matters more, not less, now that AI can generate the artifact long before anyone has decided what's worth building.
Article · Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky · Character Capital · from Click
Knapp and Zeratsky's method for the moment before you start building — when the question is what to build, not how. The free guide stands on its own; the book Click goes deeper. Their argument fits this site directly: in an era when AI can build almost anything fast, the harder discipline is naming a clear, testable hypothesis about what's worth building at all — name the hypothesis before you make the artifact.
Article · Nielsen Norman Group
How to Get Stakeholders to Sketch: A Magic Formula
A simple technique for moving an idea out of conversation and into shared form. Useful because early alignment often depends on non-designers being able to make possibilities visible, not just describe them.
Making: the prototype as a thinking tool
Concrete ways to move an idea from talk into a form that can be examined and discussed. The emphasis is on simple, lower-fidelity digital prototypes — enough shape to learn from, without pretending to be a finished product.
Article · Nielsen Norman Group
UX Prototypes: Low Fidelity vs. High Fidelity
A practical breakdown of how much polish a prototype actually needs, and why. Especially relevant here because this practice typically produces low-to-mid-fidelity, click-through prototypes — enough shape to examine and discuss, without pretending to be a finished product.
Article · IDEO
3 tips to help you prototype a service
A short, pragmatic bridge from abstract concept to tangible experience — especially useful when the thing being prototyped is not a single screen but a sequence of small interactions over time.
The broader view: where this work sits
A small set of texts on decision clarity, learning through small experiments, and the present shift around generated content — the backdrop that keeps early-stage work honest.
Book · Chip Heath & Dan Heath · Crown
A practical book on making better calls when the idea is still fuzzy — how to widen options, reality-test assumptions, and decide without pretending you have more certainty than you do. Structural support for the decision part of early idea work, in plain language.
Book · Peter Sims · Simon & Schuster
How meaningful ideas often surface through small, low-risk experiments rather than big upfront plans. A short click-through prototype fits that spirit — enough to learn from and discuss, not a commitment to build the whole thing. Useful for anyone tempted to over-plan before they have something concrete to react to.
Article · Maggie Appleton
The Dark Forest and Generative AI
A clear, sober essay on what generative AI is doing to the open web and to our ability to trust what we read. Sits in the broader band because the underlying question — what kind of work deserves to be made and shared — belongs next to long-view framing about decisions and experiments. A useful reminder that deciding what to build matters more, not less, as building gets cheaper.