Reddit reviews Designing for the Digital Age: How to Create Human-Centered Products and Services

Have you guys validated your idea? Do you have hundreds or thousands of people who already gave you feedback that they would put down money for your idea?

If you don't have validation yet, that is the number one thing I would say you need to get. If I had to recommend three books for you to hold close by your side, they would be:

• The Startup's owners manual (http://www.amazon.com/Startup-Owners-Manual-Step---Step/dp/0984999302) - that will teach you how to validate customers
  
  
• Designing for the digital age (http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Digital-Age-Human-Centered-Products/dp/0470229101) - a comprehensive guide on how to know your user and design for them
  
  
• Traction (http://www.amazon.com/Traction-Startup-Guide-Getting-Customers/dp/0976339609) - gives stories and pragmatic tips on how to find your market
  
  Also, don't become the Winklevoss twins!

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
  

Here are a few:

Elements of User Experience, Jesse James Garret: What a typical experience design process is made up of.

Designing Interactions, Bill Moggridge: Seminal thoughts on Interaction Design, holds up to this day

Don't Make Me Think, Steve Krug: One of the first books to gave the issues of IA and UX design a human, customer point of view.

About Face, Alan Cooper: Another take on the whole process, dives a bit deeper into every stage than Garret's book.

Designing For The Digital Age, Kim Goodwin: Human-centered digital products

Sprint, Jake Knapp: A condensed prototyping methodology

100 Things To Know About People, Susan Weinschenk: How people think

There are a few more Product Design related books I recommended in another thread.

IDEO's design thinking methodologies are also a great resource:

Design Kit, A book and toolkit about human centered design

Circular Design, A guide for holistic design, organization friendly.

Cheers

The definitive how-to is in Kim Goodwin’s book Designing for the Digital Age. It is far more comprehensive than Alan Coopers probably because while he invented the concept she was the one putting them into practice at Cooper.

It does the best job describing exactly how to identify patterns in research that lead you to how many Personas actually exist and how to frame them. I wish more people were familiar with it because I see so much confusion about Personas based on bad templates not process.

Here’s a testimonial:

“Her work on Goal-Directed Design and persona development has set a standard." —Jared Spool

Kim Goodwin's - Designing for the Digital Age

Thanks a lot!!! This is exactly what I needed! Someone else also recommended https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Digital-Age-Human-Centered-Products/dp/0470229101 to me!