7 Books to Improve Your Design Toolbox
Get practical advice to help you do your job better
Every industry has it’s own expectations. Designers incorporate a broad scope of roles across a wide range of areas. The specific responsibilities of a designer may vary depending on the size or organization of your company.
The best way to prepare yourself for a role at the intersection of many other disciplines is to broaden your focus. These functional, practical books will add to your design toolbox so you can create better products, services and experiences.
- The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century (Steven Pinker)
A practical guide on how to communicate effectively and enhance the spread of ideas through writing. - Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products (Nir Eyal)
On creating products and services that resonates with your audience to drive engagement. - Design is Storytelling (Ellen Lupton)
A primer on presentation and storytelling to amplify your content and message. - Graphic Design: The New Basics (Ellen Lupton, Jennifer Cole Phillips)
A great introduction of new and existing concepts in graphic design, formatted to highlight illustrations and examples. - Conversational Design (Erika Hall)
Guidance on how to make conversational interactions more approachable, understandable and human. - Beautiful Visualization (Julie Steele, Noah Illinsky)
Learn from experts in data visualization as they break down the principles and process behind their work. - Negotiation Genius (Deepak Malhotra, Max Bazerman)
Negotiations are part of any collaborative process. Get informative advice to overcome obstacles in different negotiation situations from two leaders in the Harvard Business school.
Bonus
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (Jon Gertner)
A compelling read for anyone interested in the history behind the discoveries and development behind the modern technology we use and enjoy today.
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