Donald Norman
Donald Norman’s Book List
Whenever I put together a list of recommended books, I invariably fall prey to the problem described by Barry Schwartz in his book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less—I include too many books, providing too many choices. Here is a simplified list of titles focusing on interaction and experience design, with apologies to my many friends whose important and useful works I still value but in the interest of less is more had to be trimmed.
all genres
- filter by:
- all genres (0)
Vijay Kumar's book 101 Design Methods an excellent compendium and structured guide to the use of the many methods of design research.
Modern designers like to characterize their work as providing deep insight into the fundamentals of problems, going far beyond the popular conception of design as making things pretty. Designers emphasize this aspect of their profession by discussing the special way in which they approach problems, a method they have characterized as “Design Thinking.” This book is a good introduction to that concept. Brown is CEO of IDEO and Katz an IDEO Fellow.
The work of Hugh Beyer and Karen Holtzblatt presents a powerful method of analyzing behavior. A workbook (by (Holtzblatt, Wendell, & Wood) was added in 2004.
An excellent, extremely comprehensive history of the field of product design. Originally published in German but with an excellent English translation, this is the most comprehensive history of product design I have been able to find. I highly recommend it to those who want to understand the historical foundations of the discipline.
Moggridge was extremely influential in establishing interaction within the design community. He played a major role in the design of the first portable computer. He was one of the three founders of IDEO, one of the world’s most influential design firms. He wrote two books of interviews with key people in the early development of the discipline—this one and Designing Media. As is typical of work from the discipline of design, his works focus almost entirely upon the practice of design, with little attention to the science. The focus on the history of design, as practiced through interviews with the practitioners, is what makes this book, and its companion, so valuable.
An excellent introduction to design research. The book chronicles the life of a design researcher who studies people by observing them in their homes, barbershops, and living quarters around the world. Chipchase is Executive Creative Director of Global Insights at frog design, working out of the Shanghai office. Steinhardt is Associate Creative Director of Editorial at the digital agency JESS3.
Announcements
Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture by Robert A.M. Stern
Between Memory and Invention: My Journey in Architecture
By Robert A.M. Stern
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2022
Architect, historian, and educator Robert A. M. Stern presents a personal and candid assessment of contemporary architecture and his fifty years of practice.
Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Design Emergency: Building a Better Future
By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022
Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.
.png)
Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World’s Most Creative People by Debbie Millman
Why Design Matters: Conversations with the World's Most Creative People
By Debbie Millman
Publisher: Harper Design
Published: February 22, 2022
Debbie Millman—author, educator, brand consultant, and host of the widely successful and award-winning podcast “Design Matters”—showcases dozens of her most exciting interviews, bringing together insights and reflections from today’s leading creative minds from across diverse fields.
Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York by Steven Heller
Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York
By Steven Heller
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: October 2022
An entertaining coming-of-age memoir from Steven Heller, award-winning designer, writer, and former senior art director at the New York Times, that takes readers on a visually inspired look back at being at the center of New York’s youth culture in the 1960s and ’70s.
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall
By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022
Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”
Buildings in Print: 100 Influential and Inspiring Illustrated Architecture Books by John Hill
Buildings in Print: 100 Influential and Inspiring Illustrated Architecture Books
By John Hill
Publisher: Prestel Publishing
Published: June 2021
This unique volume by the founder of the hugely influential architecture blog A Daily Dose of Architecture showcases the best illustrated architecture books ever published with an informed, personal, and engaging take on what makes the title unique and indispensable.
Popular NowWeekMonth
- The Creative Interviewer: Debbie Millman on Why Design Matters
- Le Corbusier: A Legacy in Books
- Eugene Feldman, Co-Editor, and Co-Designer of The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn
- The Illustrated Book in Italy, 1918–1945
- Louis Kahn: A Memoir
Recent Articles
