What a domain name. Just a few weeks ago Wells Riley, an interaction designer from Boston, built a website lecturing startup companies and newbie designers on how design as a medium, is an important matter in what makes and defines a product — and how it works.

With the rise of the ever-growing trade that is “startups,” companies like Path, Instagram, Square and the like are making the gist that is design, an impossibility to ignore. With Riley’s beautifully-formatted and well-designed webpage on the focus of design, its principles, and how companies use it, this lecture is well-worth a long read for many.

Riley’s article, or much rather, a well-presented thesis, links to Dieter Rams‘ (a renowned German industrial designer, influencing Apple’s current product designs) Ten Principles of “Good Design.” The website also references Objectified, a highly informative documentary by Gary Hustwit on the process of designing manufactured objects.

Riley also includes the profiles of five of the industry’s most influential designer-founders as examples on how startups could achieve the same, if they were to include designers into the mix of their founding team. And to add, the webpage also includes references on how to acquire “great talent” or find designers from sites like Dribbble, Zerply, and Bēhance.

To contribute to the fact that “design” is one that is a serious matter, Wells Riley’s webpage is, as mentioned before, beautifully set out. Reading through it feels like reading through a beautiful article-spread of a magazine. Go check it out, it’s well worth a read!