6 Books I’d gift myself if I were starting out as a designer today.
1. Notes on The Synthesis of Form by Christopher Alexander — Read this if you want to understand design theory, or why we bother to design things. I love how Christopher Alexander draws lessons on designing adaptive systems from architecture.
2. User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton — A simple way to map your user’s life, step by step, down to the most granular task and behavior. Your team will love you for this!
3. Nudge by Richard Thaler, et al. — On the reasons why people make irrational decisions, and how to design solutions that nudge them towards making better decisions. Although “better” is relative. It could also mean manipulating users to behave in a certain way. Pair it with The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis.
4. Pitch Anything by Oren Klaff — If you want to capture attention when you present your ideas. If you want people to value what you say. Pair this with Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.
5. The Humane Interface by Jef Raskin — UX Design distances itself from UI design as this woo-woo thing that requires great intuition, bound by endless, aptly-named rules. Read this book, and you will see it’s not as complicated as they make it seem.
6. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt — You’re designing for a business right? If you don’t want to just be a pixel-pusher; if you want to earn your seat at the table and get to decide what gets built, this is the book.
Here’s the seventh one — I can’t help myself. I’m reading it at the moment: The Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms. A multisided platform creates value by satisfying more than one demographic of users, who mutually depend on each other. E.g Uber (drivers, passengers), AirBnB (Homeowners and tourists/visitors), Shopify (Buyers, and Sellers)…
Have you read any of these? What would you recommend?
