Designing hostas in the shade

Hosta like shade. I don't know what you mean by "designing". I have one on east side of house that gets more sun than I want, so I built a shade over it to keep off the noon sun.

The north side of my house gets no sunlight at all and my hosta thrives there.

If you are planning one many Hostas, put the larger ones to the back if it is to be against the house or fence and go down in size to the edge. If it is an open garden all around, put larger in the middle and go down in size to the outer edge. You can use many different looking Hostas that way and sizes to make it interesting to look at as well as a good looking garden once they are established and spread and grow larger. Be patient, it does take a while for them to start filling in, but they still look good, it just won't cover as much for the first few years. The plants do say how far apart to plant them, but I think they are a bit generous with the spread. Make sure you don't get iffy looking plants, they take a lot longer to get healthy compared to the rest.