The Design of Everyday Things — Don Norman
The foundational text of human-centred design — why everyday things fail, and how to make them work for people. Gave designers a language still used today.
The Mythical Man-Month — Frederick Brooks
Brooks on what he learned managing OS/360 at IBM — that adding people to a late project makes it later, that the second system is always over-engineered, that no silver bullet is coming. The most reread book in software, and still right.
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information — Edward Tufte
Tufte's foundational work on how to show data so it tells the truth. The vocabulary every honest dashboard, every honest chart, every honest infographic owes him.
Don Norman
Cognitive scientist who coined 'user experience' while at Apple in the early 1990s, then co-founded the Nielsen Norman Group. The Design of Everyday Things (1988) is still the entry text for anyone designing anything anyone uses.
James Dyson
British industrial designer who built 5,127 vacuum prototypes before the one that worked. Founder of Dyson, the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial, and the Dyson Institute. Engineer-as-author — the design and the writing about the design are the same thing. The first principles of physical product.
IDEO.org Design Kit
A free toolkit for human-centred design. 57 methods for designing products and services that work.
Figma
The world's leading collaborative interface design tool. Free for individuals.
