Category Archives: Great Books on Design

Emotional Design – Why we love (or hate) everyday things

19 April, 2011

When I began exploring the field of human-centered design, I was told to start with reading Donald Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things – and I have to confess that all those who recommended this book were right. For me it was a breaking point, a milestone in my career.

After I finished reading The DOET, I started looking elsewhere – on books by Alan Cooper, Jeff Raskin and Dan Saffer, but soon I came across a nice review of another book by Donald Norman, Emotional Design – Why we love (or hate) everyday things.

Psychology in design is a huge theme today and while you can find tens of interesting articles advocating the emotion and user experience in design on the web, Norman’s Emotional Design was the most complete and enlightening summary I have read on the theme. It was also interesting to compare Norman’s and Cooper’s approach and I think the Emotional Design perfectly compliments what Cooper says about dancing bearware in his books.

Although the book is not such an eye-opener as The Design of Everyday Things, it’s still excellent and I believe every designer should have it on a shelf. Norman writes in plain language, uses lots of examples and refers to some quite enlightening researches.

If you are a designer and you haven’t read Emotional Design yet, please do yourself and your users a favour – get it and read it. Continue reading →

The Design of Everyday Things

3 January, 2011

Some people, and even some ‘designers’ and ‘marketers’ use the word ‘design’ for the visual eye-candy.

In my UI / web design career, I have always thought about design as a way through which the sender (ie company) can communicate a message to the receiver (ie customer). And, having the background in graphic design, I often concentrated on bringing a creative idea into the project, as well as on finding a new and clever design solution. Continue reading →

Don’t Make Me Think

2 January, 2011

This is the book that will certainly make you think – a real classic piece on web usability for beginners! I found many designers and usability experts who got into the field after reading Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think.

I read this book back in 2006 and since that time it has its special place in my bookcase. Continue reading →