Being a UX designer can sometimes feel more like following a formula than making something groundbreaking. The UX Designer’s Guide to Creativity is a 34-page hardcover book I wrote, designed, and printed. It serves as my little source of inspiration in a sea of formulas and rules.

Part playful how-to and part pocket-sized pep talk, the guide is packed with inspiration written in a problem/solution format to help UXers break out of creative ruts. Sprinkled with quotes from one of my design heroes, Bruce Mau, it’s both personal and practical. Creating it gave me the hands-on creative spark I was missing, and as Bruce would say, “Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it. Creativity is not device-dependent.”