Top 12 Medium Publications About Design

Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time on Medium, an online publisher and content hub, and I’ve developed a bit of an obsession with Medium publications – curated collections of stories from companies, brands, and individuals around the world.

It’s easy to see why Medium is a popular place for designers: it’s a beautiful, minimalist, blogging interface. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles or customization options of a self-hosted WordPress site, but it’s a great option for anyone who wants to publish content without (or, in addition to) building their own website. And with Medium’s audience of readers and sharing features, it’s almost like a grown-up version of Tumblr, or a more in-depth version of Twitter.

While researching to create Envato’s new Medium publication (p.s, check it out here!), I went on a following spree of well-designed, interesting publications relating to design, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Here are some of the ones I’m most excited about:

Curated by designer and UX manager Nicholas Tenhue, the UX blog is a collection of ideas about UX, design thinking, and more. They’ve also recently started sending letters via Medium letters, and highlight conversations from their podcast.

Best read: So, you want to be a design thinker, by Hila Mehr

If you use Sketch in your design process, you’ll definitely want to subscribe to .Sketch App, the Medium publication all about Sketch. From useful plugins to product updates, it’s a great way to make sure you’re making the most out of Sketch.

Best read: Discovering Sketch, by Jean-Marc Denis

Muzli is ‘like crack for designers’. With over 65,000 followers, their weekly inspiration series and UI interactions of the week are among their most popular series.

Best read: Redesign concepts for popular websites #6, by Muzli

The global learning organization General Assembly is the editor of several Medium publications: UX Design at GA, Education for the 21st Century, and Startup Stories. Sadly, none of their publications are very active, but the (small) selection of articles they’ve curated on these publications are worth checking out.

Best read: Full stack, deconstructed by Melissa Steffan

“Learn from the community, give back to the community” is the mission statement of UXDesign.cc, a Medium publication all about UX design. From weekly trends, MVPs to tips on how to design better, this popular publication has over 74,000 followers on Medium.

Best read: The Tyranny of the Minimum Viable Product, by Jon H. Pittman

The header for the IDEO Stories publication reads “it doesn’t occur to most people that everything is designed”, and that statement outlines the ethos of the IDEO Stories publication: that you can draw connections between design and, well – everything. And, they do: from techno music to dating to ping pong.

Best read: Chatbots: Your Ultimate Prototyping Tool, by David Boardman and Sera Koo

A branded publication from the Saleforce design team, Salesforce UX looks at case studies, ideas, and stories from the design process.

Best Read: Why Is My Fridge Tweeting Me?, from George Saines

Context is a Medium publication, created by Medium, about Medium. If you’re interested in creating a Medium publication for your company/blog/campaign/whatever, you’re going to want to send everyone on your team all of these articles.

Best read: What You Need To Know About Publications, from Mallory Farrugia

Startup Grind tells the stories of entrepreneurs around the world. It’s ‘powered by’ Google for Entrepreneurs, and it covers topics and challenges that are common in the startup scene. While I think the publication could do more to challenge the notoriously boys-club, ‘bro’ culture of Silicon Valley, there are interesting articles that make subscribing worthwhile. See also: the Google Design publication, which is an excellent design-oriented collection.

Best read: Beyond Silicon Valley: 6 Booming Startup Hubs Around the World, by Rohan Ayyar

Tobias van Schneider is the Former Lead Product Designer & Art Director at Spotify, and the founder of Semplice, a portfolio system for designers. His private e-mail newsletter has a dedicated following, and he publishes writing from his mailing list on his Medium publication, Desk of Van Schneider.

Best read: Can your product have a midlife crisis?

Airbnb Design highlights perspectives from Airbnb’s design team, new product launches, and lessons from their design projects. Airbnb is a famously forward-thinking company for design and creativity – they recently launched their own in-house design studio, Samara – and their Medium publication provides an inside look at their process.

Best read: The Way We Build, from Alex Schleifer

Invision’s Inside Design publication is a small collection of stories and interviews with innovative design teams at companies around the world. It’s a great resource for design teams to find ideas for design process and tools used by top designers.

Best read: Inside Design: WeWork, by InVision

And finally, a few other Medium publications that are worth a read (but aren’t on the topic of design):