Recommended Reading | The Wisdom of Others.
Whether inspiring curiosity, informing methodology, or analyzing the broader social implications of design, this sampling of publications serves designers of all backgrounds well.
Context for Design
Technopoly
A cautionary tale years ahead of its time, Neil Postman's Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology is a powerful reminder of the need to balance enthusiasm for technology with a healthy degree of skepticism and a must-read for anyone working in innovation or the tech sector.
Amusing Ourselves to Death
Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Television explores how the media shapes our world. Proving more relevant with each passing decade, this should be required reading for anyone shaping multi-channel user experiences.
Being Digital
Nicholas Negroponte’s seminal work, Being Digital, outlines what it means to live in and design for a digital world. Negroponte co-founded the MIT Media Lab, which he directed for its first 20 years. A graduate of MIT, Negroponte is considered a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design.
The Timeless Way of Building
In his book The Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander presents principles that have influenced noteworthy architecture and can be applied to various design fields.
Teaching Design
Anyone teaching design would be well-served to read Meredith Davis’s extensive recounting of how our design schools came to be and how to maximize teaching design at all educational levels today.
Change By Design
It is a must-read for anyone interested in the power of design thinking and how to apply it within their creative process. In Change By Design, Tim Brown, Chair at IDEO, outlines how design thinking can transform companies and lead to new capabilities in creating compelling new offerings.
Anyone Can Design…Even a Kitten
The world needs more designers, or people who think and do things like designers. But "designers" have made up complicated, often nonsensical, terms to explain design to others. This is a distorted image of design that scares people away. We need a more straightforward, more human way to talk about design and how to apply it. This book is about a designer's mindset — and a kitten that wants to go to Mars.
Design Resources
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Edward Tufte's timeless classic The Visual Display of Quantitative Information celebrates the economy of form and clarity of design.
Envisioning Information
Using memorable examples, Edward Tufte illustrates how to display complex information best. This book is more relevant than ever in an age of big data.
Visible Explanations
This Tufte publication focuses on pictures of verbs, motion representation, process and dynamics, causes and effects, explanation, and narrative. Visual evidence used in deciding to launch the space shuttle Challenger is detailed.
Grid Systems
A seminal work outlining the power of applying grids to structure visual communications, Josef Müller-Brockmann's Grid Systems is a great foundation for design.
Universal Principles of Design
William Lidwell’s Universal Principles of Design catalogs design principles that serve all designers well as they move through the creative process.
Universal Methods of Design
Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington compile and explain 125 ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions.
Universal Principles of UX
This book is not a technical how-to book that will show you how to become a perfect user experience designer one step at a time. It will teach you how to think rather than tell you what to do.
Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks
Packed with helpful guidance on how to best design web forms, Luke Wroblewski has created a strong guide for designers creating what is often the most essential part of a user experience.
UX Magic
Daniel Rosenberg presents various methods to make designing for user experiences more repeatable and accessible to a broader audience of designers.
Design and Innovation
Playing To Win
Anyone setting strategic goals will appreciate A.G. Lafley’s and Roger Martin’s approach toward shaping strategy to maintain competitive advantages, as presented in Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works.
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
Interested in learning what it took to build products like the first iPod, iPhone, or Nest smart thermostat and other lessons learned by Tony Fadell? Read his new book Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making.
Visual Inspiration
Dieter Rams
In this book, author Klaus Klemp catalogs every product that Rams has designed in his lifetime. It is a celebratory record of his contribution to industrial design and, indeed, design as a whole. Including 300 color illustrations, the book is organized chronologically. A detailed description and specification breakdown accompanies each product.
Things Come Apart
For a look at all that goes into the products we use every day, check out Todd McLellan's intricate and inspirational photography in Things Come Apart. Beyond its aesthetic appeal, the book also encourages contemplation about the evolution of technology and design, offering a thought-provoking exploration of how things come together and, inevitably, how they come apart. It's a visual celebration of the artistry that underpins our material world, encouraging us to see the beauty in the details that often go unnoticed.
Process; A Tomato Project
An intimate look into the creative process from one of the most creative firms designing in London in the late 1990s, Process; A Tomato Project serves as a compelling visual design reference and a great exemplar that captures the strife, dynamism and joy of the visualization process. Visuals sequence across pages as if moving and you can feel the design process unfolding across each spread.
Made You Look
Sagmeister's book Made You Look is a captivating exploration of the intersection between design and visual communication. Stefan Sagmeister, a renowned graphic designer, delves into the creative processes and thought-provoking projects that have defined his career. Filled with stunning visuals and thought-provoking insights, the book takes readers on a journey through Sagmeister's unique approach to design, which often blurs the lines between art and graphic communication.
Eames Beautiful Details
"Eames: Beautiful Details” celebrates the seamlessness and fluidity in which Charles and Ray Eames operated as both a husband and wife team and as designers unrestricted by traditionally professional boundaries. Select details of their life and work, from their refined designs to their innovative experiments, and even including images depicting the everyday poetic moments of their lives, and are shared here in this exhibit within a book.
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