Design products people love
These books offer you a tour through an emerging cultural landscape of design ideas, ideals, and approaches.
Designing Connected Content
Plan and Model Digital Products for Today and Tomorrow
by Carrie Hane & Mike Atherton
What you will learn
An end-to-end process for building a structured content framework and how to plan and design interfaces for mobile, desktop, voice, and beyond.
240 pages, New Riders 2017
The Design of Everyday Things
Revised and Expanded Edition
by Don Norman
Why read?
The Design of Everyday Things is a powerful primer on how — and why — some products satisfy customers while others only frustrate them.
368 pages, Basic Book 2013
Make It So
Interaction Design Lessons from Science Fiction
by Nathan Shedroff & Christopher Noessel
Love science fiction?
Readers who love science fiction (and don’t we all?) will go bananas over this informative book on how interaction design in sci-fi movies informs interaction design in the real world.
347 pages, Rosenfeld Media 2012
Microinteractions
Designing with Details
by Dan Saffer
Why read?
This book teaches you how to design effective micro interactions: the small details that exist inside and around features.
170 pages, O’Reilly Media 2013
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
by IDEO.org
Why read?
The Field Guide is the latest in IDEO.org’s suite of teaching tools and a step forward in sharing the practice and promise of human-centered design with the social sector.
192 pages, IDEO.org / Design Kit 2015
Book of Ideas
A Journal of Creative Direction and Graphic Design
by Radim Malinic
What’s inside?
It’s about how the world outside influences the creativity inside; and how it inspires us, teaches us and makes us create better work.
254 pages, Brand Nu Limited 2016
Build Better Products
A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products
by Laura Klein & Kate Rutter
Why read?
This book is a hands-on, step-by-step guide that helps teams incorporate strategy, empathy, design, and analytics into their development process.
368 pages, Rosenfeld Media 2016
UX for Lean Startups
Faster, Smarter User Experience Research and Design
by Laura Klein
What the author says
I hope that everybody who reads the book will be able to learn from their customers and turn that information into products that people will actually buy. I want startups to stop building things people don’t want and can’t use.
240 pages, O’Reilly Media 2013
Usability Matters
Practical UX for Developers and other Accidental Designers
by Matt Lacey
Interesting for app developers
Often, developers find UX intimidating and don’t know where to begin. This book gives practical advice and guidance on how to improve the UX of mobile apps on any platform.
325 pages, Manning Publications 2018
Never Use Futura
by Douglas Thomas & Ellen Lupton
Why read?
This fascinating book explores the cultural history and uses of a face that’s so common you might not notice until you start looking, and then you can’t escape it.
208 pages, Princeton Architectural Press 2017
The Shape of Design
by Frank Chimero
Why read?
You’ll learn about the creative process and the intersection of storytelling, craft and improvisation.
131 pages, Frank Chimero 2012
Inspired
How To Create Products Customers Love
by Marty Cagan
Why read?
Why do some products make the leap to greatness while others do not? Creating inspiring products begins with discovering a product that is valuable, usable, and feasible. If you can not do this, then it’s not worth building anything.
242 pages, SVPG Press 2008
Designing Products People Love
How Great Designers Create Successful Products
by Scott Hurff
Why read?
Written for designers, product managers, and others who want to communicate better with designers, this book is essential reading for anyone who contributes to the product creation process.
324 pages, O’Reilly Media 2016
The Brand Gap
How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design
by Marty Neumeier
Why read?
This book shows how the creative and strategic ways of thinking can unite to produce a “charismatic brand” — a brand that customers feel is essential to their lives.
208 pages, New Riders 2005
Emotional Design
Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
by Don Norman
Read this book when…
you ever wondered why cheap wine tastes better in fancy glasses?
272 pages, Basic Books 2005
The Non-Designer’s Design Book
by Robin Williams
Why read?
Whether you’re a Mac user or a Windows user, a type novice, or an aspiring graphic designer, you will find the instruction and inspiration to approach any design project with confidence.
240 pages, Peachpit Press 2014
Sense and Respond
How Successful Organizations Listen to Customers and Create New Products Continuously
by Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden
Why read?
This engaging and practical book provides the crucial new operational and management model to help you and your organization win in a world of continuous change.
272 pages, Harvard Business Review Press 2017
Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited
A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
by Steve Krug
What you will learn
Witty, commonsensical, and eminently practical, it’s one of the best-loved and most recommended books on Web design and usability.
216 pages, New Riders 2014
Speculative Everything
Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming
by Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby
Why read?
This book offers you a tour through an emerging cultural landscape of design ideas, ideals, and approaches.
240 pages, The MIT Press 2013
The Laws of Simplicity
Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life
by John Maeda
Why read?
Ten laws of simplicity for business, technology, and design that teach us how to need less but get more.
117 pages, The MIT Press 2006
About Face
The Essentials of Interaction Design
by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann & Christopher Noessel
Why read?
This book that brought interaction design out of the research labs and into the everyday lexicon and the updated Fourth Edition continues to lead the way with ideas and methods relevant to today’s design practitioners and developers.
720 pages, Wiley 2014
Lean UX
Designing Great Products with Agile Teams
by Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden
Why read?
You’ll learn how to drive the design in short, iterative cycles to assess what works best for the business and the user.
208 pages, O’Reilly Media 2016
This Is Service Design Thinking
Basics, Tools, Cases
by Mark Stickdorn
Unveil the buzzwords
This interdisciplinary textbook features 23 international authors to unveil the practical meaning behind Service design and design thinking.
380 pages, Bis Publishers 2012
100 Things
Every Designer Needs to Know About People
Susan Weinschenk
Why read?
This book combines real science and research with practical examples to deliver a guide every designer needs. With it, you’ll be able to design more intuitive and engaging work for print, websites, applications, and products that match the way people think, work, and play.
256 pages, New Riders 2011
Design Is Storytelling
by Ellen Lupton
Why read?
This is a playbook for creative thinking, showing designers how to use storytelling techniques to create satisfying graphics, products, services and experiences.
160 pages, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum 2017
The User Experience Team of One
A Research and Design Survival Guide
by Leah Buley
Why read?
The User Experience Team of One prescribes a range of approaches that have big impact and take less time and fewer resources than the standard lineup of UX deliverables.
264 pages, Rosenfeld Media 2013
User Research
A Practical Guide to Designing Better Products and Services
by Stephanie Marsh
Why read?
This book shows how to use the vast array of user research methods available. Covering all the key research methods including face-to-face user testing, card sorting, surveys, A/B testing and many more.
288 pages, Kogan Page 2018
