The book list.


The books on one’s shelf say a lot. This is a list of the design books that have shaped me or I reference in times of need, categorized the way I wish the design section in a book store would be.

Design, general
THE SHAPE OF DESIGN
Frank Chimero, 2011
THE DESIGN OF EVERYDAY THINGS
Don Norman, 1988
NOTES ON THE SYNTHESIS OF FORM
Christopher Alexander, 1964
Design ethics
FUTURE ETHICS
Cennydd Bowles, 2018
Download discussion guide I put together for Artefact Book Club
THE LITTLE BOOK OF DESIGN RESEARCH ETHICS
IDEO
Design history
THE INVENTION OF DESIGN: A TWENTIETH-CENTURY HISTORY
Maggie Gram, 2025
USER FRIENDLY
Cliff Kuang with Robert Fabricant, 2019
QUEER X DESIGN
Andy Campbell, 2019
STEVE JOBS
Walter Isaacson, 2011
Designerly ways of thinking 
THE LAWS OF SIMPLICITY
Jon Maeda, 2005
NAVIGATING AMBIGUITY
Andrea Small & Kelly Schmutte, 2022
LIMINAL THINKING
Dave Gray, 2016
MISMATCH: HOW INCLUSION SHAPES DESIGN
Kat Holmes, 2020
DECOLONIZING DESIGN: A CULTURAL JUSTICE GUIDEBOOK
Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, 2023
Design approaches
THIS IS SERVICE DESIGN THINKING
Mark Stickdorn, Jakob Schneider, et al, 2012 
VALUE SENSITIVE DESIGN
Batya Friedman and David G. Hendry, 2019
ADVERSARIAL DESIGN
Carl DiSalvo, 2015
FIELD GUIDE: EQUITY-CENTERED COMMUNITY DESIGN
Creative Reaction Lab
CONTEXTUAL DESIGN
Hugh Beyer & Karn Holtzblatt, 1997
DISCURSIVE DESIGN
Bruce M. Tharp & Stephanie M. Tharp, 2019
SPECULATIVE EVERYTHING
Dunne & Raby, 2013
DESIGN NOIR
Dunne & Raby, 2001
THE MANUAL OF DESIGN FICTION
Julian Bleecker, Nick Foster, Fabien Girardin, & Nicolas Nova, 2022
THINGS WE COULD DESIGN FOR MORE THAN HUMAN-CENTERED WORLDS
Ron Wakkary, 2021
DESIGNS FOR THE PLURIVERSE
Arturo Escobar, 2018
Design research
DOING RESEARCH IN DESIGN
Christopher Crouch & Jane Pearce, 2013
THE FIELD STUDY HANDBOOK
Jan Chipchase
MIXED METHODS
Sam Ladner, Ph.D., 2019
Identity & branding
THE BRAND GAP
Marty Neumeier, 2005
DESIGNING BRAND IDENTITY
Alina Wheeler, 2012
Graphic design, general
GRAPHIC DESIGN THE NEW BASICS
Ellen Lupton, 2015
A PRIMER OF VISUAL LITERACY
Donis A. Dondis, 1973
THE ELEMENTS OF GRAPHIC DESIGN
Alex W. White, 2022
VISUAL GRAMMAR
Christian Leborg, 2006
UNDERSTANDING COMICS
Scott McCloud, 1993
Typography
THINKING WITH TYPE
Ellen Lupton, 2004
THE ELEMENTS OF TYPOGRAPHIC STYLE
Robert Bringhurst, 1992
ADVANCED TYPOGRAPHY
Richard Hunt, 2020
UNDERSTANDING MOLECULAR TYPOGRAPHY
H.F. Henderson, 1992
ON WEB TYPOGRAPHY
Jason Santa Maria, 2014
EXPLORATIONS IN TYPOGRAPHY
Carolina de Bartolo with Stephen Coles and Erik Spiekermann
STOP STEALING SHEEP & FIND OUT HOW TYPE WORKS
Erik Spiekermann, 1993
DESIGNING TYPE
Karen Cheng, 2006
DESIGN WITH TYPE
Carl Dair, 1967
DETAIL IN TYPOGRAPHY
Jost Hochull, 2015
Grid systems
STRUCTURING DESIGN: GRAPHIC GRIDS IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
Ulysses Voelker, 2020
GRID SYSTEMS: PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZING TYPE
Kimberly Elam, 2005
TYPOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS
Kimberly Elam, 2007
GRID SYSTEMS IN GRAPHIC DESIGN
Josef Müller-Brockmann, 1981
Color
INTERACTION OF COLOR
Josef Albers, 1963
DESIGNING IN ONE COLOR AND TWO COLORS
Maia Francisco, 2011
Information design & data visualization
ENVISIONING INFORMATION
Edward Tufte, 1990
THE VISUAL DISPLAY OF QUANTITATIVE INFORMATION
Edward Tufte, 1983
VISUAL EXPLANATIONS
Edward Tufte, 1997
DATA DESIGN
Per Mollerup, 2015
VISUALIZING COMPLEXITY: MODULAR INFORMATION DESIGN HANDBOOK
Darjan Hil & Nicole Lachenmeier, 2022
DESIGNING DATA
IDN EXTRA 07
INFOGRAPHICS & USER INTERFACES
IDN VOLUME 24 NO. 5
THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF MAPS
Carissa Carter, 2022
DEAR DATA
Georgia Lupi & Stefanie Posavec, 2016
Interaction design
ABOUT FACE: THE ESSENTIALS OF INTERACTION DESIGN
Alan Cooper, Rober Reimann, David Cronin, Christopher Noessel, 2014
Systems thinking
THINKING IN SYSTEMS
Donella H. Meadows, 2008
CLOSING THE LOOP: SYSTEMS THINKING FOR DESIGNERS
Sheryl Cababa, 2023
DESIGN JOURNEYS THROUGH COMPLEX SYSTEMS
Peter Jones & Kristen Van Ael, 2022
Foresight
FORESIGHT INFUSED STRATEGY
Maree Conway, 2016
Teaching design
TEACHING DESIGN
Meredith Davis, 2017
HOW I TEACH
Jon Kolko, 2017
Fiction with design storylines
THE CHEESE MONKEYS
Chip Kidd, 2002
THE LEARNERS
Chip Kidd, 2008
MR. PENUMBRA'S 24 HOUR BOOKSTORE
Robin Sloan, 2012

© 2010–2026, Chad P. Hall. See the book list. Learn more on LinkedIn.