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The Non-Designer's Design Book was clearly written by a non-writer. I'm not a designer so I won't dispute the validity of what the author, Robin P. Williams, teaches. But getting through this book is just so excruciating because her writing is so amateur. She's a writer in the most basic sense of the word: she knows words and knows that sentences usually need a subject and predicate. That's about as far as her skill extends.

One of my biggest critiques is that Williams writes in a vacuum. She writes about these ideas as if they are her own unique ideas. She even goes so far as to refer to herself in the third person, telling us to remember "Robin's Four Principles of Design." As if she's seriously the first person in the world ever to think, "Yeah, adding contrast to this flyer is probably a good idea."

But besides just being arrogant and dumb, this raises the issue of credibility. How much can you trust things she says? She's included little-to-no research and cites no outside sources. There's no corroboration, no sense that there's a broader world of designers who also agree with her principles. For all we know, she could just be some mom who lost her job and decided to pull stuff out of her ass to make some money. And she pretty much sounds like that type of person.

My other main issue with this book is that, while it's designed well from a visual standpoint, the design is really stupid from an information standpoint. Often, she'll present an example of something poorly designed and then ask you what you'd change to improve the design. That's a good idea...except that she also includes her own improved design on the same page. It's something like if you were doing exercises out of a math book and the answer key is right next to the math problem. How idiotic is that?

Finally, there's the issue of up-selling that just completely cheapens this book. Within the actual content of the book--not on the book jacket, not on a separate page in the back of the book, but within the space that she's purporting to teach you basic design principles--she is so bold/tacky as to advertise her other books. She really just comes off as one of those self-help douches who get rich by telling others that she got rich off her talents when really she got rich by capitalizing on others' insecurities.