I recently came across an article at PSDTuts titled “50 Totally Free Lessons in Graphic Design Theory” which was interesting because it got me thinking – can good design be learned? If everyone has the potential to design, what separates the good designers from the bad ones? Can those principles be learned?

I don’t see myself as an incredibly creative person, nor a good designer. If design can be learned, can creativity? Is creativity essential to being a good designer?

I’ve decided to test this idea on myself.

I recently purchased Elliot Jay Stock’s new book, “Sexy Web Design.” The book is fantastic, and covers the steps one should take when designing a web site. I must admit – in most of my design attempts, I’ve skipped a lot of important steps (researching, wireframing, and sitemapping to name a few) and gone straight to the Photoshop design. I’m now wondering… if I take these pre-design steps, will my designs improve? By learning a few tricks and techniques, will someone look at my web site and think, “Wow, that’s hot!”?

My friend Steve has graciously (or stupidly) allowed me to redesign his portfolio web site. My experiment will take me through all the steps outlined in Elliot’s book, which I will be documenting here (not the actual content of the book – go buy it yourself if you want to know!).

Stay turned for Step 1: Research.