Design Resources

 

We have design resources that we've leaned on over time. There are a few key ones below. We'll be building this page out over time.

 

Books

1) The Design of Everyday Things

 

 

This is a personal favorite. With a cover like that, it's gotta be good, right? Even before you start the book, the cover forces you to think. We like to imagine it would be obvious to not design a kettle holding hot liquid with the spout and the handle facing the same side. And yet, why do so many products and services that are so badly designed reach the market? 

Once you read this book - you start to see design elements everywhere. Door handles (or the lack thereof). Hotel shower faucets. Services that only seem to make sense for the organization offering them. You can't unsee those elements. And that's why I recommend this book as a foundational read for everyone who wants to begin to understand design. 

 

2) Don't Make Me Think - Revisited

This book is an update to the original that was published in the early 2000s. The first edition was really foundational for a lot of designers and developers. The basic premise is - your website should be easy to navigate, and don't make things more difficult than they have to be.

This is even more true in the 2020s. We are bombarded with information from so many different angles. People are juggling so many different things. When a user lands on your site, your priority is to hold their attention until they complete their job to be done. If you make it difficult, you WILL lose that reader and any conversions you were hoping for. 

The book isn't super long, and it's written in a light witty tone. Even though there's a focus on websites, the principles carry over into other areas like customer experience and service design.