A Designer’s Non-obvious Reading List

I picked the best of the books I read last year to make a reading list of “sort of” design books. While many of these books are only tangentially related to design, they make for good influence on your work.

“Dataclysm: Who We Are When We Think No One Is Looking” by Christian Rudder

Written by a founder and data scientist at OkCupid. I love how comfortably he can speak to the data in their platform and how design iterations have influenced behavior.

“The Signal and the Noise: Why so many predictions fail — but some don’t” by Nate Silver

Nate Silver is a legendary statistician and his explanation of prediction models across multiple fields (from baseball to earthquakes) is a great introduction to the pitfalls of being overly confident in data.

“Alone Together” by Sherry Turkle

A skeptical look at how technology impacts our behavior from an MIT roboticist. Many deep thoughts from this one.

“Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman

So much of our design work relies on maximizing a moment in people’s 6-second attention spans. Kahneman’s exhaustive work on heuristic biases is a great foundation for designers in the field of design and cognitive psychology.

“Travels in Hyperreality” by Umberto Eco

More philosophy than design technique, Eco’s essay on the American obsession with both authenticity and reproductions are an interesting reflection for a designer building virtual tools.

“Finite and Infinite Games” by James P. Carse

Another philosophy book that may just change your life. Carse is excellent at reducing large ideas into simple juxtapositions that have helped me reframe many a design problem. I will re-read this book regularly.