Usability books

The Design of Everyday Things

Donald Norman.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Things That Make Us Smart

Donald Norman.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Design of Sites: Patterns, Principles, and Processes for Crafting a Customer-Centered Web Experience

Douglas K. Van Duyne, James Landay, Jason I. Hong.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

User-Centred Web Design

John Cato.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Contextual Design: A Customer-Centered Approach to Systems Designs

Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

User and Task Analysis for Interface Design

Joann Hackos, Janice Redish.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context

Albert N. Badre.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites

Andrew Chak.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Handheld Usability

Scott Weiss.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Web Accessibility for People With Disabilities

Michael G. Paciello.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Design by People for People: Essays on Usability

Russell Branaghan.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Designing Web Usability

Jakob Nielsen.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Usability Engineering

Jakob Neilsen.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Web Site Usability

Jared M. Spool.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Steve Krug.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Posted in Interaction design, Reading, Research, Usability

Game design books

Rules of Play : Game Design Fundamentals

Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Game Design

Bob Bates.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Andrew Rollings and Ernest Adams on Game Design

Andrew Rollings, Ernest Adams.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Game Architecture and Design

Andrew Rollings, Dave Morris.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Game On

Lucien King.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

RE:Play

Liz Faber.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Electronic Plastic

Jaro Gielens, Robert Klanten.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Trigger Happy

Steven Poole.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Posted in Experience design, Interaction design, Play, Reading, Research

Experience design books

The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web

Jesse James Garrett. This small book succinctly and professionally explains the entire user-experience field. Every page has some insight to offer; from user-centred strategy to visual branding and graphics. For more information see jjg.net.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Art as Experience

John Dewey. A classic book written in the 1930s. Read the chapter ‘What is an experience’ for the most astute and intelligent discussion of what makes our world of experience.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Experience and Nature

John Dewey.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Experience Design

Nathan Shedroff. Diverse and interesting examples of design being used to shape our experiences. A very poorly designed book.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

A Natural History of the Senses

Diane Ackerman.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Shape of Content

Ben Shahn.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

British Rail Design

James Cousins. Out of print. A fascinating overview of the complete British Rail user-experience, from the fabric for the seat covers, to carriage design, to signage and pedestrian density in stations.
Danish Design Centre / UK booksearch.

Posted in Adaptive design, Experience design

Visual design books

Grid Systems in Graphic Design

Josef Muller-Brockmann.
Magma Books / Niggli / UK booksearch

Primer of Visual Literacy

Donis A. Dondis.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Graphic Design Timeline: A Century of Design Milestones

Steven Heller, Elinor Pettit.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

6 Chapters in Design

Philip Meggs.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Pioneers of Modern Design

Nikolaus Pevsner.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design

Steven Heller.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Design Literacy (Continued): Understanding Graphic Design

Steven Heller.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Paul Rand: A Designer’s Art

Paul Rand.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Design, Form and Chaos

Paul Rand.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Designing Books

Jost Hochuli, Robin Kinross.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

On Book Design

Richard Hendel.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Design and Form

Johannes Itten.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Elements of Color

Johannes Itten.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Color Star

Johannes Itten.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Interaction of Color

Josef Albers.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Basic Law of Colour Theory

Harald Kueppers / amazon.com

Color for Websites: Digital Media Design

Molly Holzschlag.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Wabi-Sabi: for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers

Leonard Koren.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Katachi: Classic Japanese Design

Takeji Iwamiya, Kazuya Takaoka.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Dutch Graphic Design

Kees Broos, Paul Hefting.
amazon.co.uk

Experience

Sean Perkins.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Permanent: Design Is Kinky

Andrew Johnstone, Jade Palmer.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Catching the Moment

Terry Jones.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Reload: Browser 2.0

Patrick Burgoyne, Liz Faber.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Narita Inspected

Lopetz Klanten.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Mobile Minded

Miekke Gerritzen. An introduction to Mattmo’s work in motion graphics design, interaction design and print.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Design For Interaction

Lisa Baggerman. This is a very visual book – somewhat disappointing in it’s coverage of interaction, but offers many visual examples of rich web designs for inspiration.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Posted in Graphic design, Information design

Broadcast design books

Pause: 59 Minutes of Motion Graphics

Julie Hirschfeld, Stefanie Barth ed.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Anime

Robert Klanten, Hendrik Hellige, Birga Meyer. Includes 4 ½ hours of motion graphics work on DVD, but the book itself is disappointing.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Type in Motion

Jeff Bellantoni, Matt Woolman.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Understanding Animation

Paul Wells.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

2-D Animation

Jayne Pilling.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Animator’s Survival Kit

Richard Williams.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

After Effects in Production

Trish Meyer, Chris Meyer.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Creating Motion Graphics: with After Effects

Trish Meyer, Chris Meyer.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Posted in Graphic design, Television

Brand and communication books

No Logo

Naomi Klein.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Guide to Identity

Wally Olins.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Principles of Corporate Communication

Cees van Riel, Wally Olins.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Brand New

Jane Pavitt ed.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Strategic Brand Management

Jean-Noel Kapferer.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Brand Manners

Hamish Pringle, William Gordon.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Posted in Experience design, Graphic design, Reading

Typography books

Type and Typography

Phil Baines.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Signs: Lettering in the Environment

Phil Baines, Catherine Dixon.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

A View of Early Typography

Harry Carter.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Unjustified Text: Perspectives on Typography

Robin Kinross.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Karel Martens: Printed Matter / Drukwerk

Robin Kinross, Karel Martens, Jaap van Triest.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Counterpunch

Fred Smeijers.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Stop Stealing Sheep

Erik Spiekermann, E.M. Ginger.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Basic Typography

James Craig.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Typo – When, Who, How

F Friedl.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Typographic Design

Rob Carter, Philip B Meggs, Ben Day.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Elements of Typographic Style

Robert Bringhurst.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Typographica

Rick Poynor.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Dimensional Typography: Words in Space

J. Abbott Miller.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Fuck Off Typography

Gerard Saint.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Typography

Wolfgang Weingart.
Magma Books / Niggli / UK booksearch

Typography

Friedl, Ott, Stein.
Magma Books / Niggli / UK booksearch

Basic Typography: Design With Letters

Ruedi Ruegg.
Magma Books / Niggli / UK booksearch

Typography: Macro + Micro Aesthetics

Willi Kunz.
Magma Books / Niggli / UK booksearch

Posted in Graphic design, Information design

Business and strategy books

The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from Ideo

Tom Kelley.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Innovator’s Dilemma

Clayton M. Christensen.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Dream Society

Rolf Jensen.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Experience Economy

B. Joseph Pine.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Experiential Marketing

Bernd H. Schmitt.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Posted in Experience design, Reading, Research

Technical books

Designing with Web Standards

Jeffrey Zeldman.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Taking Your Talent to the Web

Jeffrey Zeldman. A fantastic how-to book for designers looking to get involved in web publishing and design. Takes the reader through writing, usability, architecture and technical tips.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Eric Meyer on CSS: Mastering the Language of Web Design

Eric Meyer. One of the leading proponents and practitioners of css on the web explains his ideas and techniques.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation

Owen Briggs, Steve Champeon, Eric Costello, Matt Patterson
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Cascading Style Sheets: Designing for the Web

Håkon Wium Lie. The inventor of CSS1 explains advanced w3c standard site design techniques.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Database Design for Mere Mortals

Michael J. Hernandez. High level design guidelines for designing relational databases, covering categories, fields, relationships and the end-user.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Building Accessible Websites

Joe Clark. Valuable work on the techniques for improving the accessibility of online media.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com / website

Posted in Interaction design, Reading, Research, Technology

Film books

Film Art

David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson. Classic textbook, required reading.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Sculpting In Time

Andrey Tarkovsky.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Time Within Time

Andrey Tarkovsky.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Kieslowski on Kieslowski

Danusia Stok, Krysztof Kieslowski. A thorough insight into Kieslowski’s process, thinking and ideology. Wonderful.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Art and Science of Screenwriting

Philip Parker. Essential reading for screenwriting, not just the usual Hollywood basics.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Film Architecture

Dietrich Neumann.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Audio Vision

Michel Chion. Essential for anyone thinking about the interaction between audible and visible.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Directing: (Screencraft Series)

Mike Goodridge.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

First Cut: Conversations with Film Editors

Gabriella Oldham.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

The Director’s Journey: The Creative Collaboration

Mark Travis.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Making Movies

Sydney Lumet.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Film Directing: Shot By Shot

Steven Katz.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Directing the Film

Eric Sherman.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Making Movies Work: Thinking Like a Filmmaker

Jon Boorstin.
amazon.co.uk / amazon.com

Posted in Film, Reading, Television