How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World
Steven Johnson
4.6 on Amazon
1 HN comments
The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
Simon Winchester and HarperAudio
4.6 on Amazon
1 HN comments
Nothing Like It In the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-1869
Stephen E. Ambrose
4.6 on Amazon
1 HN comments
Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design (Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life)
Kat Holmes and John Maeda
4.7 on Amazon
1 HN comments
The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production -- Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Revolutionizing World Industry
James P. Womack
4.6 on Amazon
1 HN comments
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
Neil Sheehan
4.7 on Amazon
1 HN comments
Keeping a Family Cow: The Complete Guide for Home-Scale, Holistic Dairy Producers
Joann S. Grohman
4.8 on Amazon
1 HN comments
A Book of Five Rings
Miyamoto Musashi
4.6 on Amazon
1 HN comments
Kiss the Ground: How the Food You Eat Can Reverse Climate Change, Heal Your Body & Ultimately Save Our World
Josh Tickell and Terry Tamminen
4.8 on Amazon
1 HN comments
Signals and Systems
Alan Oppenheim, Alan Willsky, et al.
4.1 on Amazon
1 HN comments
Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
Sabine Hossenfelder, Laura Jennings, et al.
4.6 on Amazon
1 HN comments
Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution
Michael J. Behe
4.6 on Amazon
1 HN comments
enhdlessonApr 23, 2021
- The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman is the classic for learning design.
- Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug is another classic, and very digestible.
- Refactoring UI is a good book for those coming from a developer perspective: https://refactoringui.com/book/
- Mismatch by Kat Holmes talks about the importance of inclusive design for both usability and innovation.
- Not a book, but Apple's Human Interface Guidelines are excellent: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...
- Similarly, just try reading the design principles of companies with good design, like Shopify: https://polaris.shopify.com/experiences/crafting-admin
- If you're interested in building a design system, I would start with InVision's Design Systems Handbook: https://www.designbetter.co/design-systems-handbook
Ultimately, good design is informed by research - what is the problem you're trying to solve? What is the user's goal and how can you make that easy for them to achieve? What are you trying to communicate? Start with interviewing 5+ potential users, distilling that data into actionable opportunities, and sketching wireframes on paper before jumping into Figma.