Top 10 Inspirational Reading Picks for Product Designers to Boost Creativity
In today's competitive world, product design pros need to stay up-to-date with trends and tools. Books are a great way to gain theoretical knowledge, get inspired, and tackle challenges head-on. Here's a rundown of some must-read books for product design enthusiasts:
1. The Design of Everyday Things: Don Norman
Don Norman's book, one of the all-time best-sellers, lays out the essentials of good design. It delves into the conscious design choices of commonplace products, explaining the reasoning and importance of practicality and convenience. The book highlights the significance of making things intuitive, exploiting natural relationships that connect function and control, and using constraints wisely for a good design.
2. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products: Nir Eyal
This book offers insights into enhancing the stickiness of digital products. Eyal emphasizes ways to retain customers and make products more engaging. The book is presented in a systematic manner and is worth checking out if you want to boost the performance of your digital products.
3. Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common-Sense Approach to Web & Mobile Usability: Steve Krug
Steve Krug's book, based on principles of intuitive navigation and information design, is an excellent read for product design professionals. With a fun and laid-back style, Krug offers a fresh perspective on usability design with real-world examples. The book is a quick, lighthearted, and practical guide for creating user-friendly websites and mobile apps.
4. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces: William H. Whyte
This book focuses on understanding public spaces, analyzing why and how people interact with different urban environments, and why some places work better than others. This book is a must-read for product designers who want to design functional, livable, and socially engaging products and spaces.
5. Just Enough Research: Erika Hall
Erika Hall's book provides practical methods for conducting user research, from competitive research and evaluative research to survey research. It's a perfect resource for learning efficient research techniques appropriate for teams of various sizes.
6. 101 Things I Learned in Product Design School: Sung Jang, Martin Thaler, and Matthew Frederick
Written by successful designers and educators, this book covers the fundamentals of product design in a simple and direct manner. It emphasizes that product design is not an art or craft but a combination of engineering, history, psychology, materials technology, marketing, manufacturing, and more. This book is a go-to guide for aspiring product designers.
To round up, these books are great resources for product design professionals who wish to improve their skills, explore innovative approaches, and gain valuable insights into creating exceptional products. Not only do they offer practical techniques, but they also inspire and challenge readers to think beyond the norm and push their creativity to the limit.
- In the realm of business and technology, understanding the design of everyday things, as outlined by Don Norman's book, is essential for creating practical and user-friendly products.
- To enhance the user experience of digital products, Nir Eyal's book, Hooked, offers strategies to build habit-forming products, thus boosting their performance.
- Steve Krug's book, Don't Make Me Think, Revisited, with its fun and laid-back style, serves as a valuable read for product design professionals, offering insights into usability design with real-world examples.
- For product designers aiming to create functional, livable, and socially engaging products and spaces, William H. Whyte's book, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, explores the theory and practice of public spaces.
- In the quest for efficient user research techniques, Erika Hall's book, Just Enough Research, provides practical guidance for conducting research relevant to teams of any size.
- Aspiring product designers can benefit from 101 Things I Learned in Product Design School, written by successful designers, which covers the basics of product design, emphasizing that it involves not just art but a combination of various disciplines.
- Books, such as those listed above, are invaluable tools in the competitive world of product design, offering theoretical knowledge, inspiration, and practical solutions to design challenges. Additionally, these resources can inspire designers to think creatively and challenge the status quo, thus enhancing their product's entertainment value.
