I am a trained Graphic Designer turned Instructional Designer. I am very fortunate that I learned on the job how to create training content that improves work performance, while applying my visual design skills to make training more beautiful. Here are some resources that I’ve used over my career for inspiration, knowledge, and guidance.

Books

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. I was trained to find inspiration everywhere I go. This book does a wonderful job detailing how an artist “steals” from all his or her surroundings and applies these ideas in their own work.
The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. Every little thing in this world was designed by a human for humans as a way to make our life more easy. I found this book so fascinating!
Design for How People Think by John Whalen PhD. The first line says it all: “User experience doesn’t happen on a screen; it happens in the mind, and the experience is multidimensional and multisensory.”
Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen. I was introduced to this book when I first entered the instructional design field. This is a must have!
Map It: The hands-on guide to strategic training design. Consistenly recommended by my mentors. Her blog is very helpful too.

Online Resources

Interaction Design Foundation - Literature to learn more about general design knowledge.
Dribbble for visual design inspiration from the world’s most striking portfolios.
Bloom’s Taxonomy for writing objectives. In 1956, American Educational Psychologist Benjamin Bloom and his collaborators created a framework for categorizing educational goals. His framework is still used today and has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers and college instructors in their teaching.
Action Mapping is a streamlined process developed by Cathy Moore to design training in the business world. It’s a way to design by way of actions and less of an information dump.