Reddit reviews Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change

Interaction Design

• About Face 3 by Alan Cooper
  
• Designing Interactions by Bill Moggridge
  
• Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell
  
• Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin
  
• Making Things Talk: (2011) (2007) by Tom Igoe
  
  Interior Design
  
  
• The Decoration of Houses by Edith Wharton and Ogden, Jr. Codman
  
• Domino: The Book of Decorating by Deborah Needleman
  
• Design*Sponge at Home: A Guide to Inspiring Homes by Grace Bonney
  
• The Vintage/Modern Home by Katherine Sorrell
  
• The Fundamentals of Interior Design by Simon Dodsworth
  
  Landscape Architecture
  
  
• Landscape Architectural Graphic Standards by Leonard J. Hopper
  
• Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers
  
• Landscape Graphics by Grant W. Reid
  
• Cities for People by Jan Gehl
  
• Design with Nature by Ian L. McHarg
  
  Lighting Design
  
  
• Stage Lighting Design by Richard Pilbrow
  
• The Architecture of Natural Light by Henry Plummer
  
• Painting With Light by John Alton
  
• Made of Light by Anthony Tischhauser
  
• Color, Environment and Human Response by Frank H. Mahnke & Rudolf H. Mahnke
  
  Product Design
  
  
• Sketching: Drawing Techniques from Product Designers by Koos Eissen
  
• Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek
  
• The Craftsman by Richard Sennett
  
• Mythologies by Roland Barthes
  
• Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
  
  Product Design
  
  
• In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World by John Thackara
  
• The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II & James H. Gilmore
  
• Universal Methods of Design by Bruce Hanington & Bella Martin
  
• Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough & Michael Braungart
  
• Mental Models by Indi Young
  
  Sound Design
  
  
• Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema by David Sonnenschein
  
• Designing Sound by Andy Farnell
  
• Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen by Michel Chion
  
• The Sound Effects Bible by Ric Viers
  
• Sound Theory Sound Practice by Rick Altman
  
  Urban Design
  
  
• The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
  * Cities for People by Jan Gehl
  
• A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander
  
• The Geography of Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler
  
• The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch
  
  Web Design
  
  
• Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug
  
• HTML & CSS: Design and Build Web Sites by Jon Duckett
  
• The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird
  
• Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS by Ben Frain
  
• Hardboiled Web Design by Andy Clarke
  

I have similar ethical concerns in regards to ID, I am a student in my junior year currently and I struggle daily against my less ecologically concerned classmates. I encourage you to pursue ID, the more tree huggers the better!

My outlook is this: If I give up and drop out of school because of my ethical concerns, my place in the corporate/design will be taken by an equally talented designer. However it is not guaranteed that said designer will have the same environmentally/socially responsible opinions as me. Even if I end up at a shit company right out of school, if I can do even the tiniest bit to make their practices more ethical then I will have succeeded.

That being said, if you're interested in the practice of design for social change, I highly recommend Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek. Very eye opening read.

This seems like nothing more than a summarized version of what Victor Papanek preached for many years. Much of Papanek's book "Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change" is a more in depth commentary of the same issue with more examples.

I was really hoping for something more before reading this article/site.

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Real-World-Ecology-Social/dp/0897331532/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1398635742&sr=1-1&keywords=victor+papanek

I think everyone who does anything on the web should have a copy of Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug.

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design is a nice overview of how to make useful and aesthetically pleasing websites for those without a design background (like myself).

Design for the Real World by Victor Papanek gets really deep into the subject of design and how it impacts society.

There are a lot more out there, but these are the ones off the top of my head that I found especially helpful.

Cradle to Cradle

Design for the Real World