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10 good design reads that aren’t written by white men

Yes, they exist!

Anna Saraceno
UX Collective

Designers — Think about the books you’ve read throughout your design career. Think about the readings that come up in conversation when your colleagues ask for recommendations, whether it’s for seminal design theory or more current and niche design viewpoints and practices.

Now think about the authors of these books and readings. A whole bunch of white dudes, amirite? (Straight cisgendered white dudes, if you want to be specific.)

This group of authors doesn’t look entirely unlike the design leadership teams at most companies I’ve worked for. But that’s for another article.

But surely, since our industry has had so many years to mature and we spend so much time talking about diversity and inclusion, we are recommending and discussing more books and articles authored by women, people of color, LGBTQ folks, and others who have been underrepresented in design and tech as a whole. Right?

When I came across the article “The designer’s summer reading list” created by InVision’s Design Leadership Forum, I decided to do an experiment. I found photos of the authors of the recommended books and articles and put them all in one view:

Image ordering is intentional for dramatic effect 🎭

Zoinks. Welp, I guess we haven’t come all that far in diversifying the readings…

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