Read Any Good Books Lately?
What if books were created to be accessible, easy-to-use resources for busy designers, researchers, and developers? What would you do if you wanted to make books both useful and usable? We all know how satisfying it can be to read an attractive, well designed, clearly written book.
During the past year, information architect Lou Rosenfeld has been meeting with experts in a variety of technical fields to find out about books that inspire, books that help on the job, and books that are exceptionally well designed. He found that many books offer at least two of these three, and even books that rely on old technology are not always outmoded.
Recently, Mr. Rosenfeld joined seven Tec-Ed consultants to discuss their favorite user experience and user research books. Attendees arrived with literally sacks and stacks of books. After an hour, participants had mentioned (and championed) at least 20 books, including old favorites like The Design of Everyday Things, Web Pages That Suck, and A Practical Handbook of Usability Testing. Tec-Ed’s list includes the following books.
For Inspiration
BOOK |
AUTHOR |
The Design of Everyday Things |
Donald A. Norman |
The Soul of a New Machine and House |
Tracy Kidder |
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum |
Alan Cooper |
The Trouble with Computers |
Thomas K. Landaur |
The Invisible Computer |
Donald A. Norman |
The Humane Interface |
Jef Raskin |
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web |
Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville |
Web Pages That Suck |
Vincent Flanders and Michael Willis |
The Dog Exercising Machine |
Edward de Bono |
For Working More Effectively
BOOK |
AUTHOR |
The Non-Designer’s Design Book, |
Robin William |
Paper Prototyping |
Carolyn Snyder |
The Usability Engineering Lifecycle |
Deborah J. Mayhew |
Access by Design |
Sarah Horton |
Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life |
Marshall B. Rosenberg |
A Practical Guide to Usability Testing |
Janice C. Redish and Joseph S.Dumas |
Don’t Make Me Think |
Steve Krug |
Handbook of Usability Testing |
Jeffrey Rubin |
Usability Engineering |
Jakob Nielsen |
Field Methods Casebook for Software Design |
Edited by Dennis Wixon and Judith Ramey |
Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction |
Edited by Martin Helander, Thomas K. Landauer, and Prasad V. Prabhu |
Defensive Design for the Web |
37 Signals |
The Essential Guide to User Interface Design |
Wilbert O. Galitz |
Designing Easy-to-use Websites |
Vanessa Donnelly |
GUI Bloopers |
Jeff Johnson |
Elements of Graph Design |
Stephen M. Kosslyn |
Well-Designed Books
BOOK |
AUTHOR |
Research-Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines |
Sanjay J. Koyani, Robert W. Baily Ph.D., and Janice R. Nall |
Teen Knitting Club |
Jennifer Wenger, Carol Abrams, and Maureen Lasher |
Design Basics for Creative Results |
Bryan L. Peterson |
Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed |
Jakob Nielsen & Marie Tahir |
Caring for Perennials |
Janet Macunovich |
Zingerman’s Guide to Giving Great Service |
Ari Weinzweig |
How Cooking Works |
Amy Rosenthal |
“...for Dummies“ books in general |
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“Idiot’s Guide to...“ books in general |
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Reader’s Digest home improvement books |
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