5 books on design philosophy

Flip through these volumes to learn about creating great products

Designing for Behavior Change

Design for How People Think

Psychology for designers

The Design of Everyday Things

User Friendly How the Hidden Rules of Design are Changing the Way We Live.

Ever wondered about what makes a design efficient and stay in your memory? There is a lot of thought and research that goes into making a design perfect. These books share insights on the same.

The Design of Everyday Things

Author: Don Norman

Written by cognitive scientist and usability engineer Donald Norman, this book looks at how design can be a communication between an object and the user. It looks at the scenario where people blame themselves when objects malfunction, and how intuitive guidance must be present in the item’s design.

Read | Lookbook for summer

This book looks at the psychology behind what the author feels is good and bad design. He also popularised the term user-centered design. The book includes chapters on the psychology of everyday actions, human-centered design, and the design challenge.

Psychology for Designers: How to apply psychology to web design and the design process

Author: Joe Leech

The author in this book explains how psychological theory can be applied to design. Its pages explore the benefits of taking a psychological approach, and how to discover and apply relevant ideas. It also talks about how design decisions should be based on sound psychological reasoning, to make designs and the way they are presented better.

Designing for Behavior Change: Applying Psychology and Behavioral Economics

Author: Stephen Wendel

Nowadays, several new-age products are changing people’s behaviour and daily routines. This book looks at how one can design such products for users and achieve specific goals.

The author, who is online and mobile application HelloWallet’s head researcher, will take one through the process of applying behavioural economics and psychology to problems of product design and development. With varied development methods, one will learn about how to identify target users and behaviours, build the product, and estimate its effectiveness. One will also learn about creating effective interface designs that are enjoyable to use.

Design for How People Think: Using Brain Science to Build Better Products

Author: John Whalen

This page-turner will give you insight into how your product’s and service’s end user thinks, so that you can create
an exceptional experience. It will help identify user experience, which happens in the mind, and is multidimensional and multisensory.

The author shows how your team
can conduct “contextual interviews” to unlock insights — and how that knowledge can be applied to design brilliant experiences for your customers. One can learn about the ‘six minds’ of user experience.

User Friendly: How the hidden rules of design are changing the way we live, work and play

Authors: Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant

This is a book for those who like well-designed products and those who aspire to create such designs. It gives insight into how some designs feel intrinsically good and last forever, while others don’t stay in one’s memory.
‘User Friendly...’ looks at hidden rules of how design shapes our behaviour, and looks at incidents and stories from across the world to elucidate this.