Web books
These are books that we like or that have influenced us. We hope you'll find our remarks useful.
Non-disclaimer: we accept full responsibility for both patting backs and stepping on toes on this page.
Books by category:
Blogs
Categorization
Communities and Web 2.0
Content
Content management
Design - contextual
Design - interaction
Design - navigation
Design - visual
Design - user experience
Design - websites
History
Information architecture
Information management
Personas
Persuasion marketing
Philosophy
Prototyping
Search engine optimization
Teamwork
Thesauri
Web analytics
Usability
Wayfinding - Findability
The Weblog Handbook: practical advice on creating and maintaining your blog
Rebecca Blood (Perseus, 2002)
Although there are loads of places to get info these days, no serious blogger should be without this tightly written, wonderfully intelligent introduction to the world of weblogs.
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Blogging: genius strategies for instant web content
Biz Stone (New Riders, 2003)
More nuts-and-bolts than the previous work, this 310-page tome gets into practical subjects like archiving, traffic generation, and RSS syndication. The modest author is a self-proclaimed genius. Great for folks who know nothing about setting up a web page.
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Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: what categories reveal about the mind
George Lakoff (University of Chicago Press, 1987)
Lakoff, one of the world's leading cognitive scientists, shows how language reflects what's going on in our brains. Hence, this book is as much about linguistics as it is about cognition. Definitely not light reading (and it weighs almost a kilo, too), but it's an important work, although one you could probably live without.
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Sorting Things Out: classification and its consequences
Geoffry C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star (MIT Press, 1999)
An overly wordy, but thoroughly practical work, this is really something of a "must read" for budding information architects. Quite a bit of time is spend discussing the political and persuasive aspects of categorization, which are as important as they are fascinating.
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Card Sorting: Designing Usable Categories
Donna Spencer (Rosenfeld, 2009)
Although there are loads of places to get info these days, no serious blogger should be without this tightly written, wonderfully intelligent introduction to the world of weblogs.
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The Order of Things: an archaeology of the human sciences
Michel Foucault (Tavistock/Routledge, 1970)
Originally published in French as Les Mots et les choses, Foucault does for philosophy what Lakoff does for cognition. Truly a work of genius, but a seriously difficult read. If you're in a hurry, skip to Chapter 5, Classifying, for 30 of the most erudite pages you'll ever read.
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Community Building on the Web:secret strategies for successful online communities
Amy Jo Kim (Peachpit, 2000)
Not only was this the first book to address the issues of community building, but it's been a tough act to follow. Ms. Kim has written a true gem that runs the entire informational gamut - from Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to establishing community holidays.
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Online Communities:
designing usability and supporting sociability
Jennifer Preece (John Wiley & Sons, 2000)
A bit dry, Professor Preece intended this book to be used at the university level, but is actually a fairly basic book when all is said and done. If you're seriously into community building, get it - but only after you've studied Amy Jo Kim's much more appealing work.
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Designing for the Social Web
Joshua Porter (New Riders, 2008)
An incredibly intelligent book that moves beyond the current Web 2.0 hype to help people create useful and usable social networks. Not only does Josh understand the techniques needed, he also understands the underlying psychology that is the ultimate driving force behind successful social communities. A must read!
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Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide
Amy Shuen (O'Reilly, 2008)
The blurb on the cover says a lot: “If you’re executing strategy and want to know how the Web is changing business, this is the book you need.” What it doesn’t say is that the book won’t help you define or refine your strategy. Rather, it is a semi-related collection of success stories glued together with pithy diagrams borrowed from some popular business books (keywords: long tail, tipping point, chasm, etc.)
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Net Words:
Creating high-impact online copy
Nick Usborne (McGraw-Hill, 2002)
The words of wisdom are few and far between. The title of chapter 13 is "Copywriting on-line is different." It would seem fair to assume that most potential readers already knew this. However, there's good stuff about e-mail marketing, which is actually the main thrust of the text.
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Hot Text:
web writing that works
Jonathan & Lisa Price (New Riders, 2002)
Fat volume that teaches basic writing skills as well as specific on-line techniques. If you're already a professional writer, you may find some of this a bit patronizing. Still, there's a lot of good hands-on stuff about menu-writing and usability as it relates to text.
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Content Critical:
gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content
Gerry McGovern & Rob Norton (Prentice-Hall, 2001)
The authors are writers and firmly believe people come to websites to read - everything else is mere distraction. Although there are lots of writing tips, the book's real value lies in the information on creating a web publishing strategy and organizing a publishing team.
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The Web Content Style Guide
Gerry McGovern, Rob Norton, and Catherine O'Dowd (Pearson, 2002)
Only the first 32 pages discuss the actually task of writing, the rest of the book is an A-Z glossary of web terms. It's a fine book, but now a little past its prime. And because the name is misleading, we list it here so you'll know before you buy it sight unseen from someone.
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Web Word Wizardry: a guide to writing for the web and internet
Rachel McAlpine (Ten Speed Press, 2001)
Excellent beginners guide to writing for new media. In addition to standard page content, Ms. McAlpine also discusses Ezines and search-engine optimization. Convenient checklists remind newbies to include metadata and microcontent.
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Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works
Janice (Ginny) Redish (Morgan Kaufmann, 2007)
This is a brilliant book. No question. And possibly the single best book on web content yet produced. Surprisingly, Ginny doesn't touch at all on the subject of creating shared references, which we've discovered is the single most important objective when developing online content. But don't let this hold you back. If you're a writer, you should have this on your bookshelf next to your Strunk & White.
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The Internet Writer's Handbook
Martha C. Sammons (Allyn & Bacon, 1999)
Here's a terrific, easily accessible reference tool that brings the Chicago Manual of Style into the electronic age. Too often, writers attempt to create Web pages by simply using the same techniques they use for print documents - IWH provides specific advice on writing and designing on-line hypertext documents. The many contemporary topics even include e-mail style. Highly recommended.
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The Elements of Style: a style guide for writers
William Strunk and E.B. White (Longman, 1999)
According to the New York Times, "No book in shorter space, with fewer words, will help any writer more than this persistent little volume." 'Nuff said.
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On Writing Well
William Zinsser (Quill, 2001)
The classic guide to writing nonfiction, now in its 25th anniversary edition. Even if you're a good writer, this will make you better. Guaranteed. The four main sections include Principles (simplicity, audience, etc.), Methods (beginnings, endings, and stuff in-between), Forms (writing about people, places, travel, etc.), and Attitudes (tone of voice, decisions, etc.).
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Eats, Shoots, & Leaves: the zero tolerance approach to punctuation
Lynne Truss (Gotham Books, 2003)
A book on punctuation that's actually fun to read? Lynne Truss pulled it off! No wonder it was top of the New York Times bestseller list for months on end. OK, so we work in the web world where a lot of writers don't even know how to use capital letters. Put an end to sloppy writing NOW!
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Words Fail Me: what everyone who writes should know about writing
Patricia T. O'Conner (Harcourt Brace, 1999)
Can you untie this one? "He did not marry her because she was a web designer." No, this has nothing to do with either passion or profession. It could mean: "Because she was a web designer, he did not marry her." Or: "He married her, but not because she was a web designer." We shouldn't expect our content readers to be mind readers, too. Great book.
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Web Copy That Sells
Maria Veloso (Amacom,2005)
Ms. Veloso is a specialist in direct marketing – and it shows. If you’re writing landing pages or spam emails, this book has a lot to offer. But if online advertising isn’t your thing, this probably isn’t the book for you.
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Writing for the Web
Crawford Kilian (Self-Counsel, 1999)
- Amateurs won't learm the nuts and bolts of wordsmithing
- Professional web writers won't learn much they don't already know
- Technical writers might benefit.
- Bullet points are really, really good.
Check out http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/ instead.
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The Content Management Handbook
Martin White (Facet, 2005)
Here's a marvelously readable book that is by far the best introduction yet to a very complex subject. White elegantly progresses from the "why" (information enabling your organization), to the "how" (SoR and vendor selection) in a mere 139 pages. Fantastic!
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The Content Management Bible
Bob Boiko (Wiley, 2004)
Not surprisingly, Boiko's philosophy of CM is that the system should contain everything, as does this 1000-page book. The question is, does any individual really need it all? It's not always clear who the audience is. In fact, the reading level on the back cover states: "Beginning to Advanced". Strictly for die-hard CM fanatics.
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Managing Enterprise Content: a unified content strategy
Ann Rockley (New Riders, 2002)
Rockley is one of the world's most respected CM consultants and she freely shares her hard-earned knowledge in this interesting work. If you're in charge of implementing CM across a diverse and far-flung organization, this book is a must read. You don't have to agree with everything she says, but you'll at least be able to make informed choices.
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Web Content Management: a collaborative approach
Russell Nakano (Addison-Wesley, 2001)
With CMS systems, anyone with a password, anywhere in the company, can now publish web content. Nakono explains in elegantly simply terms how webmasters can keep collaboration from decending into chaos. If you're looking to go beyond the basics outlined by Martin White, this is the book to get.
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Information Storage and Retrieval
Robert R. Korfhage (Wiley, 1997)
It's fat, expensive, and filled with mathematical equations - but you'll be hard pressed to find a better textbook/reference on this incredibly important subject. And even if you don't have the math or physics background to understand entropy functions etc., there's a lot of other less technical information that will prove immensely useful if you are the least bit involved in database design.
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Contextual Design:
defining customer-centered systems
Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt (Morgan Kaufmann, 1998)
A brilliant work from two of the pioneers in Human-Computer Interaction. CD cuts the development cake rather differently than most other books by emphasizing the need to understand (and often mirror) human processes when designing computer applications. As such, usability, information architecture, and other key issues assume their correct places as means to an end rather than the ends themselves.
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Designing for the Digital Age: how to create human-centered products and services
Kim Goodwin (Wiley, 2009)
The backbone of this 768-page monster is the goal-directed design framework developed by persona guru Alan Cooper. Ms. Goodwin, Cooper's office manager, has clearly drunk the Kool-Aid - for better and for worse. Better, in that this is a good process and Kim explains it nicely. Worse, because it isn't a religion, nor is it the only effective design methodology.
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Back to the User:
creating user-focused web sites
Tammy Sachs & Gary McClain (New Riders, 2002)
A good, basic book, probably best-suited for members of web teams and others who need to know something about user-centered design, but aren't going to make a career of it. The mere fact that you found our site suggests you've already moved beyond this stage.
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Breaking Through to the Other Side: using the user experience in web, interactive TV, and mobile services
Thomas Snitker (Nyt Teknisk Forlag, 2004)
FatDUX co-founder, Thomas Snitker, shows how user research forms a solid foundation for building useful and usable applications. It effectively bridges the gap between initial research and late-stage usability testing, outlining an amazing number of research techniques: from field ethnographics, to card sorting, to think-aloud testing.
Observing the User Experience: a practitioner's guide to user research
Mike Kuniavsky (Morgan Kaufmann, 2003)
Amazingly detailed account of research techniques - right down to explaining the difference between cardiod and omnidirectional microphones and creating a seating order for a focus group. One of the very best how-to manuals of user research available.
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Mental Models: aligning design strategy with human behavior
Indi Young (Rosenfeld, 2008)
A mental model helps categorize and map repeating user behaviours/needs determined during your research to your current and future content and features. This insightful book covers everything from planning to interview techniques and evaluation. Destined to become a classic.
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About Face 3.0:
the essentials of interaction design
Alan Cooper and Robert Reimann (Wiley, 2007)
Comprehensive review of the current state of the art, including practical design tips and reviews of various techniques (for example, several pages are devoted to a discussion of pointing devices). This is not a book that will inspire you to do better work. But it will keep you out of trouble.
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Designing Interfaces: patterns for effective interaction design
Jenifer Tidwell (O'Reilly, 2006)
Jenifer has been asking for pattern contributions on the various special-interest lists since 2002. This book is the brilliant culmination of her work. Not only can she write, she talked O'Reilly into including hundreds of color illustrations to help clarify the concepts and techniques. The single best interface book on the market today.
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Designing Interactions
Bill Moggridge (MIT Press, 2007)
This 766-page tome (plus CD) includes insightful interviews with 40 of the pioneers of interactive design. Richly illustrated and richly rewarding, you could read this for relaxation if it weren't too heavy to hold when you're lying on the couch.
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Designing the Moment: Web Interface Design Concepts in Action
Robert Hoekman Jr. (New Riders Press, 2008)
Basically, this is a collection of 32 short chapters (or long blogposts) discussing a loosely organized range of interface topics that interest the author. Some of his comments will inspire you, some will confuse you, and some you'll know are simply dead wrong if you've done any usability testing. Alas, if you don't know the difference, this book could get you into trouble even when the basic philosopy is sound.
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Designing Gestural Interfaces
Dan Saffer (O'Reilly, 2009)
With the advent of gestural interfaces (Nintendo’s Wii, for example), we’ve learned that interaction doesn’t always require a mouse or keyboard. This exquisite book shows you how interactive gestures work and provides an extensive pattern library.
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Information Dashboard Design:
the effective visual communication
of data
Stephen Few (O'Reilly, 2006)
Dashboards translate complex data from several sources and display the composite information in a useful and usable manner. The first third of this gorgeous book presents an inspirational review of a dozen dashboards from leading corporations. The next two-thirds describe the philosophy and practicalities behind the creation of great dashboards. Highly recommended.
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Designing for Small Screens: mobile phones, smart phones, PDAs, pocket PCs, navigation systems, MP3 players, game consoles
Carola Zwick, Burkhard Schmitz, and Kerstin Kühl (Ava, 2005)
The title says it all - and the book really lives up to its promise with a wealth of priceless research and sensible conclusions. Although the authors and the folks behind the scenes are associated with the University of Applied Science in Magdeburg and the University of the Arts in Berlin, this is anything but a tired textbook - it's simply drop-dead gorgeous. All are part of the innovative Studio 7.5 in Berlin.
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Designing for Interaction: creating smart applications and clever devices
Dan Saffer (New Riders, 2006)
A collection of interviews, musings, and historical review. A fine book, although it occasionally bites off a bit more than can be comfortably chewed. As an introduction to interaction design, this is far and away the best you'll find.
Thoughts on Interaction Design
Jon Kolko (Brown Bear, 2007)
First of all, let us say at the outset, that we are HUGE Jon Kolko fans. Smart, witty, hard-working, and sporting some great tattoos, Jon really understands user experience and interaction. Here, you'll find 11 fantastic essays (four from equally smart contributors), in four sections. Read this for relaxation on Sunday afternoon, and you'll find yourself reaching for your highlighter Monday at work.
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Designing the User Interface: strategies for effective human-computer interaction
Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant (Addison Wesley, 2005)
This is one of the HCI classics, now in its fourth edition. It may not be the sexiest book on the shelf, but it's certainly one of the most important. The new edition covers 3D and sound, but you won't find video in the index - our world is moving pretty fast.
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Interaction Design: beyond human-computer interaction
Jennifer Preece, Yvonne Rogers, Helen Sharp (Wiley, 2002)
Some years back, Professor Preece wrote a dull book on communities. Now, she's written a dull book on interaction design. Mind you, it's a fine textbook (choose your own definition of "textbook"). Many of us dream of creating good interaction; Preece puts us to sleep.
Interaction Design for
Complex Problem Solving
Barbara Mirel (Morgan Kaufmann, 2004)
Here's a scholarly work that contains practical advice for application software designers. But you could also view it as a practical work aimed at university students. So which is it? There's a lot of good information here, but it's a difficult read - ironic for a book dealing with complex problem solving.
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The Humane Interface:
new directions for designing interactive systems
Jef Raskin (Addison-Wesley, 2000)
The creator of the Macintosh speaks out. But that's misleading. This is a heavy-duty book (references to Hick's Law in relation to Fitts' Law, GOMS calculations, etc.) for HCI people and application designers - who will love it!
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The Elements of User Interface Design
Theo Mandel (Wiley, 1997)
Heavy-duty textbook at the university level. A serious book for serious developers-which will undoubtedly put off those looking for "cool" books. Hey, let's face it, folks, life isn't always easy, but this is the book to read if you really mean business.
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Produkt ist Kommunikation: Integration von Branding und Usability
Norbert Hadwiger and Alexandre Robert (Galileo Business, 2002)
This book is hard to categorize - it deals with the integration of branding and usability. No wonder there's a bright green apple on the cover. But this combination is precisely the problem: what is the focus? Corporate communication or interface design? The authors have a lot of important things to say about both, but, for example, leaping from a section on Strategy to one on Interfaces requires some serious professional dexterity.
Web Navigation:
designing the user experience
Jennifer Fleming (O'Reilly, 1998)
Ms. Fleming holds a master's degree in library science and also has a superb understanding of the graphics of navigation design - an unbeatable combination. For years, this pioneering work was required reading for all designers and information architects; today many of the specific techniques are out-of-date due to new browser capabilities.
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Designing Web Navigation: optimizing the user experience
Jim Kalbach (O'Reilly, 2007)
The long-awaited sequel to Ms. Fleming's book covers many key issues that have developed in the past decade (site relaunches, Web 2.0, AJAX, RIA, etc.). It focuses on design principles and development techniques, with case studies and essential concepts seamlessly folded in. Superb!
Tagging: people-powered metadata for the social web
Gene Smith (New Riders, 2008)
metadata, folksonomy, search engine optimization, seo, findability, web 2.0, types, tips, techniques, tricks, genesmith, goodfriend, greatbook, getit
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Envisioning Information
Edward R. Tufte (Graphics Press, 1990)
Envisioning Information is the second in an outstanding series of three books on visualizing information. This book deals with nouns, the other two deal with numbers and verbs. It's a true treasure-trove of information regarding the design of visual media. Although this isn't a web book per se, it provides important insights regarding the design of multimedia interfaces, of particular interest if you often work with sites containing lots of financial graphs and similar images.
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Universal Principles of Design
William Lidwell, Kritna Holden, Jill Butler (Rockport, 2003)
The subtitle of this work is "100 ways to enhance usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make better design decisions, and teach through design." And it actually delivers quite well on all of these counts. The 100 points are listed alphabetically, which is a rather meaningless organizational scheme, that puts icons next to immersion. But the book is inspirational and well worth the semi-hefty price.
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Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks
Luke Wroblewski (Rosenfeld, 2008)
Forget about the design of your home page. Experts agree: the design of your response mechanisms is the single most important factor in increasing your conversion rates. Luke has written a gem of a book that is destined to become required reading for all professional web designers. Trust us, your clients will love you forever for putting these precepts to use.
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Show Me the Numbers: designing tables and graphs to enlighten
Stephen Few (Analytics, 2004)
As gorgeous as Edward Tufte, but much more practical. If you ever have to design a graph - even just once - this book is going to make it better. And if you do graphic design for a living, this should be require reading. In fact, after you've read it, you'll never again propose one of those silly 3-D piecharts. A real eye-opener.
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Visuel Kommunikation på Websites
Lisbeth Thorlacius (Roskilde Universitetsforlag, 2002)
Here's a Danish PhD thesis that somehow made its way into both print and mainstream bookshops. Dr. Thorlacius has defined five key interactive functions, which play major roles in user-experience design. But the practical application of these functions is tricky - and alas, this is not a particularly practical book.
The Elements of User Experience: user-centered design for the web
Jesse James Garrett (New Riders, 2003)
Deceptively simple, Mr. Garrett's five-level model of user experience is one of the masterpieces of our industry. Be warned, though, this is a book for people who think. If you're looking for hard-core "Insert Tab A into Slot B" design advice, read Van Duyne's pedantic The Design of Sites (see Design - websites).
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Experience Design: a manifesto for the creation of experiences
Nathan Shedroff (New Riders, 2001)
An enchanting tour through virtual and real-world experiences. Mr. Shedroff writes like a dream and his photos are great, but.. the whole thing is so over-designed that it is next to impossible to read - mostly negative text on busy photos. A disasterous experience :(
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Subject to Change
Peter Merholz, Brandon Schauer, David Verba & Todd Wilkens (O'Reilly, 2008)
Written by four of the smartest guys in the UX arena, this book is really a joy. All of the examples are taken from the work of Adaptive Path, where the authors work. However, the constant references to “Here at Adaptive Path, we…” tend to make the book seem more like an ad than it really is. Our advice? Ignore the questionable editing and you’ll have a great user experience.
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The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman (Doubleday/Currency 1988)
Originally published as The Psychology of Everyday Things (POET to those in the know), this wonderfully entertaining book has long been the design bible for many of the "old-timers" in the business. The emphasis here is on VCRs, water faucets, and other everyday devices, but the principles of human cognition and the reasons for various types of "human error" are just as relevant in the on-line world. Superb!
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Emotional Design: why we love (or hate) everyday things
Donald A. Norman (Basic Books, 2004)
Professor Norman's follow-up to his 1988 classic (see above) has one overriding thesis: that inanimate objects become more fun when they are invested with a degree of personality. This allows us to react emotionally to them. Norman then shows how output from our sensory systems is processed at three levels - the reflective, behavioral, and visceral - to affect our motor reactions. Lots of nice anecdotes.
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Why Things Bite Back:
technology and the revenge of unintended consequences
Edward Tenner (Vintage, 1997)
"Why are the lines at your bank's ATMs often longer than the ones at the teller's windows?" - just one of hundreds of examples of how good intentions can go wrong. Although not as well known as the previous title, this is also an important work that can help web developers avoid creating more problems than they actually solve. A provocative book that gives us all cause to think twice about how we implement our on-line solutions.
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Sketching User Experiences: getting the design right and the right design
Bill Buxton (Morgan Kaufmann, 2007)
Bill Buxton is a way-smart designer/scientist/educator who loves paper and pencil. Find out why sketches on napkins are often far more valuable than sophisticated electronic tools when nailing down a design concept. And while you're at it, let Bill explain the inner workings of business models, ecosystems, and much more. Incredible.
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The Inmates are Running the Asylum: why high-tech products drive us crazy and how to restore the sanity
Alan Cooper (Sams, 1999)
The "Father of Visual Basic," Cooper effectively bridges the communication gap between programmers, usability experts, and the people who employ them. Should be required reading for all three groups!
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Build for Use: driving profitability through the user experience
Karen Donoghue (McGraw-Hill, 2002)
This is a business book. That's why it's from McGraw and not from one of the usual web publishers. But to her credit, the author has read all the important stuff and produced a decent volume in its own right, although the ideas are not particularly original. We're not sure who the audience is, but if you've got a left-brain client who's eager to learn a little about a lot, this might be the book to recommend.
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Fast Forward: Design For Constant Change
(Avenue A | Razorfish, 2007)
A fascinating collection of essays from key individuals at Avenue A | Razorfish, one of the key players on the web design / advertising scene. We picked this up as a freebie at a conference in New York, but perhaps you can get the nice folks at Razorfish to send you one of your very own. You'll be glad you did!
Web Redesign 2.0:
workflow that works
Kelly Goto & Emily Cotler (New Riders, 2005)
When we first read this book, it seemed that the basic premise was "your first site was awful, so now we're going to do it right." Hence, "redesign" generally meant starting from scratch. Actually, when you really start to dig in, you'll find this is a fabulously insightful book that covers a lot of territory not found in other works, such as content inventories and audits. A great discussion of business goals, too. The "2.0" in the title refers to the second edition.
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Site-seeing:
a visual approach to web usability
Luke Wroblewski (Hungry Minds, 2002)
Rather than the standard "Keep your links blue. Keep your text short.", Wroblewski focusses on visual presentation - not just to make the site "pretty" but to aid visitors in their quest for information. A truly excellent work (and beautifully designed, too).
Communicating Design: developing web site documentation for design and planning
Dan Brown (New Riders, 2007)
If you're working in the web business, this book is a major "must have." Disguised as a book about documentation, this is a masterful review of popular deliverables that will also help you avoid the worst political squabbles. Our motto: "Never leave home without a good book by Dan Brown."
Web Design for ROI: turning browsers into buyers & prospects into leads
Lance Loveday, Sandra Niehaus (New Riders, 2008)
Think landing pages are "so 1996"? Think ROI can't be proven because you don't have a baseline? Think ROI is strictly for e-commerce sites? Then think again. Without question, the single best web book we've read in years, valuable for designers and business people alike.
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Landing Page Optimization
Tim Ash (Wiley Publishing, 2008)
A well-written, but overly comprehensive book – from the math of ROI to the AIDA model, to Journalism 101, to persona creation, to A-B testing, to usability testing, and on and on. In fact, there’s so much stuffed between the covers, that the landing page info has a tendency to get lost.
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The Art and Science of Web Design
Jeffrey Veen (Que, 2000)
Jeffrey Veen is smart, innovative, and has impeccable design sense - something of a killer combination. No wonder he's been a mover and shaker on the Web since its outset. Here, you'll find his tricks of the trade all wrapped up in one fabulous reference.
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Designing the Obvious: A Common Sense Approach to Web Application Design
Robert Hoekman Jr. (New Riders Press, 2006)
This is one of the few books that talks specifically about application design rather than web design. And the advice is superb. Hoekman clearly knows his stuff and in this slim, highly readable book, he offers a lot of terrific advice. His section on combating feature bloat is itself worth the whole price.
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Mapping Web Sites: digital media design
Paul Kahn & Krzysztof Lenk (RotoVision SA, 2001)
Tufte with an electronic twist. Slick, large-format book with loads of mouth-watering pictures of site maps of every kind. Chapter 4 is particularly interesting for web developers and information architects because it deals with boxes-and-arrows deliverables. Great source of inspiration.
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Web Pages That Suck: learn good design by looking at bad design
Vincent Flanders, Michael Willis (Sybex, 1996)
It's actually a little unfair to list this book as a "design" book, since it really covers so many key points about website development, not least of which is usability. Intelligent and highly entertaining, if you're only going to read one book on website development, this is the one to get. Son of Web Pages That Suck was published in 2002.
Companion website at www.webpagesthatsuck.com
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Design Wise: a guide for evaluating the interface design of information resources
Alison J. Head, (Cyberage, 1999)
An interesting collection of interviews with movers-and-shakers in the interactive industry, plus case stories, and practical checklists-all in all, quite a bit of useful information crammed in just under 200 pages.
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Defensive Design for the Web: how to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points
Matthew Linderman with Jason Fried (37 Signals) (New Riders, 2004)
Here are 40 design signals from the folks at 37 Signals - and each one of them is a gem. Is this book about usability? Or common sense? Or design? Or something completely different? Take your pick - and pick up this book. This may well be one of the five most important books on web design published to date (along with Krug, Garrett, Wroblewski - and that other one).
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The Design of Sites: patterns, principles, and processes for crafting a customer-centered web experience
Douglas K. van Duyne et al. (Addison-Wesley, 2003)
762 pages of problems and solutions. A thorough book with excellent color illustrations, although it reads like a set of idiot-proof user instructions: "Use blue underlined text for hyperlinks. Avoid using blue or underlines for anything other than web links." Hmm..
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The Principles of Beautiful Web Design
Jason Beaird (Sitepoint, 2007)
The author is a graphic artist who things websites should be pretty. We agree. Alas, although the basic graphic design info is very good, his ideas don’t always translate well to online media. In fact, many of the examples given would probably flunk a basic usability test. Here at FatDUX, we think beautiful websites can be both attractive AND functional.
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Web Style Guide:
basic design principles for creating web sites (3rd ed.)
Patrick J. Lynch, Sarah Horton (Yale University Press, 2009)
Sober and succinct, if you take the principles to heart and apply them to your own work, you're well on your way to earning the title "professional web designer."
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Taking Your Talent to the Web: a guide for the transitioning designer
Jeffrey Zeldman (New Riders, 2001)
The King of Web Design Standards shares his considerable knowledge. However...we have yet to meet a successful print designer who understood this book. That's because the very concept of "concept" in the print and on-line worlds is radically different and Zeldman doesn't really address this crucial issue. Hence, this is a book for web designers who want to become better web designers - and seen from this angle, it's very successful.
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Michael A. Hiltzik (HarperBusiness, 1999)
Xerox' Palo Alto Research Center in the 70s was to computer scientists, what Paris in the 20s was for artists and writers. They more or less invented the personal computer and the laser printer. They invented the Graphical User Interface and SmallTalk. And they gave the computer mouse a permanent place on the desktop. Gee...and we thought Steve Jobs did all this in his garage.
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Weaving the Web: the past, present and future of the world wide web by its inventor
Tim Berners-Lee (Texere, 2000)
Think you have problems getting your great ideas across to your co-workers? Take heart in the trials and tribulations of WWW founder Berners-Lee as he describes the events leading up to the launch of the first web server at info.cern.ch on Christmas Day, 1990 and the communications revolution that followed. Want to know how URIs (Universal Resource Identifiers) became URLs? Let Tim tell you!
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The Silicon Boys - and their valley of dreams
David A. Kaplan (Morrow, 1999)
An entertaining read from before the dot-bomb that describes the successes enjoyed by a dozen or so Silicon Valley pioneers (Woodside 94062), plus a few non-resident interlopers (Bill Gates, for example).
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Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: designing
large-scale web sites (3rd ed.)
Louis Rosenfeld, Peter Morville (O'Reilly, 2006)
This was the very first book to deal with this important subject, now available in a greatly expanded and vastly improved third edition. A must-read for all serious students of information architecture.
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Practical Information Architecture: a hands-on approach to structuring successful websites
Eric L. Reiss, (Addison-Wesley, 2000)
From Amazon: "I found this book to be a great first read and an excellent resource to go back to. I'm a producer at a web firm and information design is a part of my job. This book helped me move to the next level of knowledge and helped confirm, what the author calls "common sense", issues for me. More than worth the investment."
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Information Architecture:
blueprints for the web
Christina Wodtke (New Riders, 2003)
Really good, hands-on information for semi-experienced information architects, including loads of practical tips. If you can interpret some of the residual dot-com slang, it's also an entertaining read. A second edition (co-authored with Austin Govella) was published in March, 2009, but we haven't read it yet.
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Information Architecture for Designers: structuring websites for business success
Peter Van Dijck (Rotovision, 2003)
Without question, this is the prettiest information-architecture book around. But what's really important is that it is a GOOD book, too. In fact, one could argue that this is the best beginning book on the subject to be found - and keep in mind that we actually wrote one of the competing books.
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Information Architecture: designing information environments for purpose
Alan Gilchrist & Barry Mahon (ed.) (Facet, 2004)
Superb collection of 17 articles covering four main aspects of information architecture: design, software, metadata, and interface. The list of authors reads like a Who's Who of the IA biz. Even so, it's a little difficult to justify shelling out $75 for a 266-page book in A5 format with no illustrations and only a smattering of line diagrams.
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Information Architecture for Information Professionals
Sue Batley (Chandos Publishing, 2007)
Dr. Batley’s work is so hard-core library science that only four other books on this list are even mentioned in the extensive bibliography. A brief discussion of personas completely misses the mark. And an extremely odd chapter on interface design reads like Nielsen’s Useit column anno 1996. But hey, this isn’t a book for all of us amateurs working in the web arena. It’s for professionals.
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Information Architecture: an emerging 21st century profession
Earl Morrogh (Prentice-Hall, 2002)
A fascinating, scholarly review of the historical and social background for the growing field of information architecture. Professor Morrogh is both thorough and detailed, although the book's rather complex layout confuses more than it enlightens. And in 2009, the book is really starting to show its age.
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Architecttura dell'informazione: Trovabilità: dagli oggetti quotidiani al Web
Luca Rosati (Apogeo, 2007)
The first book on information architecture in Italian, written by Dr. Luca Rosati of the University for Foreigners in Perugia. We were fortunate to get an English summary from Luca - this book is superb!
Uzytkownicy systemów hipertekstowych
Stanislaw Skórka (Wydawnnictwo Naukowe AP, 2006)
OK. The title has to do with developing hypertext systems, but this is really about information architecture - the first real text in Polish. The author, Dr. Stanislaw Skórka, is spearheading the IA movement in Poland - and we are honored to know him.
Information Architects
Richard Saul Wurman (Graphics Inc., 1997)
A gorgeous book consisting of lavishly illustrated articles by 20 of the industry’s best thinkers. Most of the examples are offline (museums, books, maps, etc.) but the inviolable link between IA and user experience is clearly and elegantly established. Buy it used – it’s expensive, but worth every cent.
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Information First: Integrating Knowledge and Information Architecture for Business Advantage
Roger Evernden and Elaine Evernden (Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann, 2003)
The authors address six main problems when dealing with information as a means to organizational change. Organizations are: inert, uncertain, unsystematic, unrealistic, unproductive, and out-of-date when it comes to gathering information and restructuring it to break down organizational silos. If you're involved in intranet development, you'll enjoy this tremendously.
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The Social Life of Information
John Seely Brown & Paul Duguid (Harvard Business School Press, 2000)
According to the authors, we need to look beyond our obsession with information and individuals to include the critical social networks of which these are always a part. That's from the dust jacket. Inside, you'll find out why "social" is more than just a weasel word and how even those who learn in isolation are nevertheless enmeshed in a complex social environment.
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The Persona Lifecycle: keeping people in mind throughout product design
John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin (Morgan Kaufmann, 2006)
Personas are fictional archetypes that help focus design teams. Although the development and usefulness of personas, as a technique, is often blown out of proportion, others take a more sensible view, as is the case here. Great examples of sample posters, key-rings, and other deliverables that serve to keep personas in view. Several excellent contributed chapters, although the author bios are easily confused with sample personas!
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The User is Always Right: a practical guide to creating and using personas for the web
Steve Mulder with Ziv Yaar (New Riders, 2007)
"Practical" is the operative term; rarely has a book contained so many useful tips in as few pages (293 with index). Incredibly, this is also a very entertaining read, which will hopefully get more people to use personas in a constructive manner (we think Alan Cooper goes way overboard).
Persuasive Technology:
using computers to change
what we think and do
B.J.Fogg (Morgan Kaufmann, 2003)
Fogg is director of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, and has essentially invented a whole new discipline: how to change attitudes and behaviors without resorting to lies or coercion - an essential trustbuilding activity. Fogg also addresses key ethical issues in a sober and thorough manner.
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Submit Now: designing persuasive web sites
Andrew Chak (New Riders, 2002)
Not much psychology here, this is more a collection of best practices and common sense advice to help make e-commerce sites more usable (and therefore more "persuasive"). A nice introduction to the do's and don't's of designing on-line shopping experiences.
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Call to Action - Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results
Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg (Thomas Nelson, 2005)
Here’s a seriously good, eminently practical book that could just as easily be placed in our web copy section, or even under website usability. The Eisenbergs know just what it takes to get people to respond in an online environment – without advertising hype or other cognitive strong-arm techniques. Superb.
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Being Digital
Nicholas Negroponte (Vintage, 1995)
Although this book has become a best-selling classic (written by the head of the Media Lab at MIT), it's something of a one-idea book: we've gone from being a world in which we move atoms (physical things) to one where much of our business depends on moving bits (the atomic particles of the digital age). An interesting read for people who have been in hibernation the past 20 years.
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Silicon Snake Oil: second thoughts on the information highway
Clifford Stoll (Anchor, 1996)
Want to know the truth about data security? Or why a whole generation is growing up without learning basic social graces? Or how e-mail devours our time without contributing to our knowledge? If so, then read this book - a gentle reminder that our world is a big, exciting place. When you're logged onto the web it's sometimes easy to miss the big picture - even with a big screen.
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Everyware: the dawning age of ubiquitous computing
Adam Greenfield (New Riders, 2006)
Adam Greenfield has graduated from "information architect" to "messiah." Here, 81 theses, in seven sections, proclaim that traditional computers will disappear. In the future, info will appear, as if by magic, when and where we need it. We like the title.
Information Anxiety
Richard Saul Wurman (Bantam Books, 1989)
An incredible guide to finding and dealing with information in a society eager to over-inform. This 1989 classic is as relevant today as it ever was – and in many ways much better than the sequel. Perhaps this is because Wurman deals here with generic principles of information seeking and learning without trying to relate these to a rapidly changing technological environment.
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Information Anxiety 2
Richard S. Wurman, (Que, 2000)
A follow up to his classic first edition, Wurman (who coined the phrase 'information architecture') examines how the Internet, desktop computing, and advances in digital technology have not simply enhanced access to information, but in fact have changed the way we live and work.
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Paper Prototyping:
the fast and easy way to
design and refine user interfaces
Carolyn Snyder (Morgan Kaufmann, 2003)
A unique work describing how dead trees can be used for fast, iterative prototyping without wasting electrons or pestering a programmer. Very interesting stuff, marred by a catch-all attempt to explain a zillion other general aspects of usability testing.
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Search Engine Optimization: an hour a day
Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin (Wiley, 2006)
Finally, an SEO book that actually asks, "What are the goals of your business"? Not only will this book help site owners avoid the common pitfalls and generate traffic, it will also help generate the RIGHT traffic. And it's all presented in easy, one-hour steps. Get it!
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Search Engine Visibility
Shari Thurow (New Riders, 2003)
A must-read for people who are developing websites and want them to be indexed properly. The forward by search guru Danny Sullivan says it all: "Build it right with the help of this book, and you should indeed find that they come!" Great glossary, too.
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Collaborative Web Development: strategies and best practices for web teams
Jessica Burdman (Addison-Wesley, 1999)
The definitive book on creating and managing web teams and the development process itself. Absolutely first-rate, but still undiscovered by most site owners and ignored by many web houses and advertising agencies. More's the pity.
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The Fountainheadache: the politics of architect-client relations
Andy Pressman (Wiley, 1995)
Here's an interesting discussion of how service professionals (in this case building architects) interact with clients and sub-contractors. The title is a play on The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand's classic novel about intrigue and ambition in an architectural office.
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Thesaurus construction and use:
a practical manual
Jean Aitchison, Alan Gilchrist, and David Bawden (Europa, 1972)
This is the standard textbook used in most library schools (now Schools of Information). However, with our growing need to create meaningful, machine-readable tags for our documents, serious information architects need to become familiar with the techniques of thesaurus development - even if they outsource the heavy-duty projects to specialists.
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Web Analytics - An Hour a Day
Avinash Kaushik (Wiley Publishing, 2007)
Fantastic work – and all of the proceeds go to charity! If you want to know the nuts and bolts of web analytics (i.e. drawing smart conclusions from your web stats), you couldn’t ask for a better guide. But beware, you’ve really got to put in your hour a day – and for many, many weeks if you really want to become a capable practitioner. Excellent companion CD included.
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Actionable Web Analytics
Jason Burby & Shane Atchison (Wiley Publishing, 2007)
Although not as detailed as the previous book, this might be the better place to start if you’re new to the analytics biz. There is well-deserved emphasis on achieving business goals, planning and developing website content, and ROI, which should, after all, be the goals of any analysis program.
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Web Metrics: proven methods for measuring website success
Jim Sterne (Wiley, 2002)
Excellent introduction to a wide range of hands-on techniques. Sterne has been a marketer for 20 years and brings his unique understanding of customer service to the web. More than just a review of log analysis techniques, the author also shows you how to calculate conversion rates and lots of other good stuff.
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Measuring the Success of your Website: a customer-centric approach to website management
Hurol Inan (Prentice-Hall Australia, 2002)
Sadly out-of-print, this is a fine book from Australia, that's better than a lot of the stuff still being churned out by American presses. It's an excellent, code-free introduction to site analysis. But its real beauty is the way it describe the value of basic metrics and web functions, and inspires folks to use metrics in a proactive manner to create business value.
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Web Site Stats:
tracking hits and analyzing traffic
Rick Stout (Osborne, 1997)
That's right. Some of us were looking at logs almost 15 years ago! This is still a very solid book, but only in a figurative sense - the spine on our copy is now coming apart. Questionable value today, apart from the generic code and comments. Main claim to fame: this is where we first learned about WebTrends.
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Practical Web Traffic Analysis
Peter Fletcher et al. (Glasshaus, 2002)
Most Glasshaus books are ugly as sin - and this one is no exception. But boy, it's just chock full of good advice and good code. Not for beginners or people already using a commercial program, such as WebTrends. Rather, this is for the techies who are seriously into log files.
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Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Steve Krug (Que, 2006)
There are no two ways about it - usability books don't get any better than this. Easy to read, yet jam-packed with spectacular advice, if you're only going to read one book on usability, this has got to be it. And if you're a usability expert, here's the book to give hesitant clients. Now available in a new, improved second edition.
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Homepage Usability:
50 websites deconstructed
Jakob Nielsen & Marie Tahir (New Riders, 2002)
50 pages of basic usability guidelines followed by heuristic evaluations of 50 websites. One of the best Nielsen offerings to date, although the inside cover is devoted to "How This Book Works." You'd think two ranking usability gurus could figure out how to avoid the "first-time visitor" syndrome!
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Designing Web Usability
Jakob Nielsen (New Riders, 2000)
We remember when we could hardly wait for this big, colorful manifesto to appear. Today, its self-important style is incredibly grating and most of the lessons can be learned elsewhere in far fewer pages.
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Prioritizing Web Usability
Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger (New Riders, 2006)
We're not convinced this book even belongs in the usability section. It's a very useful review of design best practices anno 2006. Good advice on writing, structure, labeling, use of popups, and a zillion other things. Not as entertaining as Krug (and a whole lot longer), but it does build on real-life examples and has lots of good screenshots.
Handheld Usability
Scott Weiss (Wiley, 2002)
Weiss treads a fine line here. On the one hand, he has a lot to say on generic issues, such as labels and paper prototyping. On the other hand, he gets very specific discussing devices that have already been off the market for a couple of years. An important book, but clearly due for an update.
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Design by People for People:
essays on usability
Russell J. Branaghan (ed.) (UPA, 2001)
As easy to read as a novel, these 25 usability articles provide both insight and inspiration. Key sections include: experience design (4 articles); consulting issues (3); methods (13); conceptual modeling (2); and website evaluation (3).
Web Site Usability Handbook
Marc Pearrow (Charles River Media, 2000)
Pearrow's methods are still valid even if some of the web examples are more than a little dated. The discussion of heuristic evaluations, though, is about as good as it gets, and the chapter on user-centered design is both practical and concise.
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Usability for the Web
Tom Brinck et al. (Morgan Kaufmann, 2001)
Good introduction to the field. Not as entertaining as Vince Flanders, not as dry as Mark Pearrow, not as opinionated as Jakob Nielsen. One of the most notible aspects is Chapter 5, which deals with information architecture - well done, Tom!
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Handbook of Usability Testing
Jeffrey Rubin (John Wiley & Sons, 1994)
From the quick-and-dirty to the pull-out-all-the-stops, Mr. Rubin provides a good description of the methods, reporting formats, and tools needed to accomplish professional usability testing. However, this is a supplement to the theoretical books, not a replacement.
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Web Site Usability:
a designer's guide
Jared Spool et al. (Morgan Kaufmann, 1999)
Well, let's get this straight at the outset, this is NOT a designer's guide. Rather, it's a collection of site reviews along with practical remarks and recommendations. Although dated and marred by a few odd conclusions, it was the first truly useful book on website usability (and we are great Jared Spool fans), so it's on this list.
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Image of the City
Kevin Lynch (MIT Press, 1960)
THE classic text on wayfinding - the building architect's buzzword for navigation in the built environment. In short, wayfinding deals with the strategies people use to find their way in familiar or new settings, based on their perceptual and cognitive abilities and habits. A brilliant and insightful work that ought to be required reading for all web designers.
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Wayshowing
Per Mollerup (Lars Müller Publishers, 2005)
A good, highly illustrated review of current signage practices. Excellent rules of thumb offset a surprising lack of originality and passion – except for the rather pedantic insistence that the discipline deals with “showing” rather than “finding”. Clearly, Professor Mollerup does not believe in user-centered design.
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Ambient Findability: what we find changes who we become
Peter Morville (O'Reilly, 2005)
Peter does for the information society, what Kevin Lynch did for cities. A fabulously eloquent work that describes, questions, embraces, and exposes the tools and techniques we use to gather inspiration and wisdom in our brave new world.
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