Our list of some of the best Design books & series in recent years. Get inspired by one or more of the following books.
- The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition (2013)
- The Non-Designer’s Design Book (4th Edition) (2014)
- The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design (2015)
- Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design (2010)
- Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (2018)
- Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It (2019)
- Design Thinking Process & Methods 5th Edition (2019)
- Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want (Strategyzer) (2014)
- Design Is Storytelling (2017)
- The Design (2015)
The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition (2013)
Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious — even liberating — book, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology.
The Non-Designer’s Design Book (4th Edition) (2014)
For nearly 20 years, designers and non-designers alike have been introduced to the fundamental principles of great design by author Robin Williams. Through her straightforward and light-hearted style, Robin has taught hundreds of thousands of people how to make their designs look professional using four surprisingly simple principles.
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design (2015)
The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design is your textbook to practicing human-centered design for social innovation. Written for both new and experienced practitioners, the Field Guide reveals IDEO.org’s process with the key mindsets that underpin how we think about design for the social sector, 57 clear-to-use design methods, worksheets and case studies of human-centered design in action.
Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design (2010)
Whether a marketing campaign or a museum exhibit, a video game or a complex control system, the design we see is the culmination of many concepts and practices brought together from a variety of disciplines.
Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (2018)
This bestselling text pioneered the comparison of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research design. For all three approaches, John W. Creswell and new co author J. David Creswell include a preliminary consideration of philosophical assumptions; key elements of the research process; a review of the literature; an assessment of the use of theory in research applications, and reflections about the importance of writing and ethics in scholarly inquiry.
Ruined by Design: How Designers Destroyed the World, and What We Can Do to Fix It (2019)
The world is working exactly as designed. The combustion engine which is destroying our planet’s atmosphere and rapidly making it inhospitable is working exactly as we designed it. Guns, which lead to so much death, work exactly as they’re designed to work. And every time we “improve” their design, they get better at killing. Facebook’s privacy settings, which have outed gay teens to their conservative parents, are working exactly as designed.
Design Thinking Process & Methods 5th Edition (2019)
Design thinking has become the new design doing that is sweeping the globe. Design thinking’s impact on how organizations go about solving problems has been profound. Design Thinking has the power to transform nearly everything. It is a human-centered approach for finding innovative real solutions to tough problems. Design thinking combines the approaches of design, management, and science to solve a wide range of difficult challenges.
Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want (Strategyzer) (2014)
Value Proposition Design helps you tackle the core challenge of every business — creating compelling products and services customers want to buy.
Design Is Storytelling (2017)
Ellen Lupton, award-winning author of Thinking with Type and How Posters Work, demonstrates how storytelling shapes great designGood design, like good storytelling, brings ideas to life. The latest book from award-winning writer Ellen Lupton is a playbook for creative thinking, showing designers how to use storytelling techniques to create satisfying graphics, products, services and experiences.
The Design (2015)
This book is a STANDALONE. It follows two side characters from The Duet, but every detail you need to know will be included. Five minutes until the interview begins. Fresh on the heels of her college graduation, Cameron Heart has landed an interview at a prestigious architecture firm. Four minutes until the interview. She knows she’s only there because the owner, Grayson Cole, is her older sister’s friend.
Best Design Books Worth Your Attention
We highly recommend you to buy all paper or e-books in a legal way, for example, on Amazon. But sometimes it might be a need to dig deeper beyond the shiny book cover. Before making a purchase, you can visit resources like Library Genesis and download some design books mentioned below at your own risk. Once again, we do not host any illegal or copyrighted files, but simply give our visitors a choice and hope they will make a wise decision.
Petroleum Rock Mechanics. Drilling Operations and Well Design
Author(s): Bernt Aadnoy and Reza Looyeh (Auth.)
ID: 1016946, Publisher: Gulf Professional Pub, Year: [2011], Size: 9 Mb, Format: pdf
XML : problem, design, solution
Author(s): Mitch Amiano; et al
ID: 1175430, Publisher: Books24x7.com, Year: [2005?], Size: 7 Mb, Format: pdf
Universal Design for Learning in Action: 100 Ways to Teach All Learners
Author(s): Whitney H. Rapp
ID: 2296087, Publisher: Brookes Publishing, Year: May 5, 2014, Size: 25 Mb, Format: pdf
Please note that this booklist is not definite. Some books are absolutely chart-busters according to The New York Times, others are written by unknown authors. On top of that, you can always find additional tutorials and courses on Coursera, Udemy or edX, for example. Are there any other relevant resources you could recommend? Leave a comment if you have any feedback on the list.