It's amazing what you can learn about great web design by asking questions. Award-winning designer David Kadavy uses this "reverse-engineering" process in Design for Hackers to deconstruct classical design principles and techniques from web designers. Using an eclectic array of reverse-engineered examples, ranging from Twitter's latest redesign, to Target's red shopping carts, and ancient graffiti from the walls of Pompeii, he explains:

• Color theory
• Proportion and geometry
• Size and scale
• White space
• Composition and design
• Typographic etiquette