Every resource founders actually use, in one library.

What founders use most, ranked by how many answers lean on it.

1. Norman's own short essay on the idea that decides whether a control looks usable: affordances and signifiers. It is the crisp,... Don Norman (jnd.org) Essay · ~10 min read · Starting Up Affordances and Design Don Norman
2. Concrete evidence for what originality in the wrong place actually costs. It shows how novel patterns confuse users and slow... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 8 min read · Starting Up Breaking Web Design Conventions = Breaking the User Experience Katie Sherwin
3. This separates internal consistency (within your product) from external consistency (matching the wider world of apps your... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 7 min read · Starting Up Maintain Consistency and Adhere to Standards (Usability Heuristic #4) Nielsen Norman Group
4. Argues for stripping the interface down to essentials, which pairs neatly with copying conventions: keep the common parts quiet... Nielsen Norman Group Article · 7 min read · Starting Up Aesthetic and Minimalist Design (Usability Heuristic #8) Therese Fessenden
5. Alex Russell, a Chrome engineer, puts hard numbers on what most of the world's phones can actually do, and the gap between them... Infrequently Noted (Alex Russell) Essay · Long read · Starting Up The Performance Inequality Gap, 2024 Alex Russell
6. Every kilobyte of JavaScript costs far more on a cheap phone than on your machine, because the phone has to download it and... Addy Osmani (Dev Channel, Medium) Article · 20 min read · Starting Up The Cost Of JavaScript Addy Osmani
7. A small download is the first thing a data conscious user notices, and the official guide is the practical how to: app bundles,... Android Developers Article · Reference · Starting Up Reduce your app size Android Developers
8. This is the developer side of the entry level phone: an OS tuned for 4GB RAM and under, with guidance on optimizing your app to... Android Developers Article · Guide hub · Starting Up Android (Go edition) and Build for Billions Android Developers
9. Facebook made its engineers spend an hour every Tuesday on a simulated 2G connection so they would feel what most of their... Engineering at Meta Article · Short read · Starting Up Building for emerging markets: the story behind 2G Tuesdays Meta Engineering
10. Instead of shipping the same heavy page to everyone, you can detect the connection and serve lighter images or defer non... web.dev (Google) Article · 15 min read · Starting Up Adaptive serving based on network quality Google Chrome team
11. A focused, code first companion on reading the user's connection (and even their data saver preference) and adjusting what you... AddyOsmani.com Article · 12 min read · Starting Up Adaptive Serving using JavaScript and the Network Information API Addy Osmani
12. Mismatched and default fonts are one of the loudest amateur tells, and this fixes them in ten minutes. Butterick gives you... Butterick's Practical Typography Article · ~10 min read · Starting Up Typography in ten minutes Matthew Butterick
13. The most common amateur tell is inconsistent, random spacing, and a spacing scale is the cure. This explains how sizing every... Built to Adapt (Medium) Article · ~8 min read · Starting Up Intro to the 8-Point Grid System Elliot Dahl
14. Generous whitespace is half of the short answer, and this explains both macro and micro space clearly. You learn why breathing... Interaction Design Foundation Article · Starting Up The Power of White Space in Design Interaction Design Foundation
15. Obvious is one of India's most respected product design studios, and their blog distills over a decade of building simple, well... Obvious (India product design studio) Article · Starting Up Obvious blog Obvious (India product design studio)
16. Polish is mostly restraint, and this lays out practical ways to strip a design down. It helps you resist the urge to add more... Interaction Design Foundation Article · Starting Up Simplicity in Design: 4 Ways to Achieve Simplicity Interaction Design Foundation
17. This is the single most practical book written entirely about the tiny words in your product (buttons, error messages, empty... microcopybook.com (Nemala) Book · ~350 pages · Starting Up Microcopy: The Complete Guide Kinneret Yifrah
18. Kate Kiefer Lee shaped Mailchimp's famous voice, and this book teaches you to write clear, human interface and product copy and... nicelysaid.co Book · ~272 pages · Starting Up Nicely Said: Writing for the Web with Style and Purpose Nicole Fenton and Kate Kiefer Lee
19. Most error copy is written for the calm, ideal user, and this short book forces you to design for the stressed, distracted,... A Book Apart Book · ~132 pages · Starting Up Design for Real Life Eric Meyer and Sara Wachter-Boettcher
20. Sign-up and checkout forms are where founders lose users, and this piece is a focused rulebook for the error text on exactly... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~14 min read · Starting Up How to Report Errors in Forms: 10 Design Guidelines Rachel Krause (Nielsen Norman Group)
21. A button or link label makes a promise, and this article gives you a simple test for whether it will be kept: specific,... Nielsen Norman Group Article · ~8 min read · Starting Up Better Link Labels: 4 Ss for Encouraging Clicks Kate Moran (Nielsen Norman Group)
22. The UK government writes for millions of people in hard moments, and their public guidance is one of the best free sources on... GOV.UK Service Manual Article · ~10 min read · Starting Up Writing for user interfaces GOV.UK / Government Digital Service
23. Apple's writing foundation is short, opinionated, and free, and it states the button rule plainly: almost always use a verb,... Apple Human Interface Guidelines Article · ~10 min read · Starting Up Writing Apple
24. Shopify's design system spells out how to phrase actions for merchants running a business, which is close to what many founders... Shopify Polaris Article · ~6 min read · Starting Up Content design: Actionable language Shopify

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