Andrew Haglund

A colleague recently asked if I had book recommendations that cover the philosophy of design¹ or books that gave me a leg-up when starting in UX design. This was a head-scratcher initially and I didn’t know where to begin. Right out of school I immersed myself in design — like someone moving to another country to learn a foreign language. This involved a lot of reading, podcasts, doing freelance and pro-bono side projects, and visiting friends who worked in the Austin and San Francisco tech startup scenes.

I’ve let that slide in recent years² but I figured I could share the books, podcasts, and videos that helped me along the way.

Podcasts

While the majority of these shows are now retired I consider them to be evergreen.

• Design Matters by Debbie Millman is about creative people from a wide array of disciplines.
• High Resolution by Bobby Ghoshal and Jared Erondu was a limited-run show where they interviewed design leaders.
• Layout by Kevin Clark and Rafael Conde was a good (semi-topical) show that helped me feel connected to the broader design community.
• Presentable by Jeff Veen is a great set of interviews with design experts.

Books

• Build by Tony Fadell includes lessons from creating the iPod and Nest.
• Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull is about how Pixar makes and tests movies iteratively.
• The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman is all about affordances.
• Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug is about usability testing.
• It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried and Daniel Heinemeier Hansson³ is about bucking the work-obsessed Silicon Valley culture.
• The Ten Faces of Innovation by Tom Kelley of IDEO is about the roles of innovative teams. It’s summarized in this post.
• 100 Things: Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan M. Weinschenk, Ph.D. is about the intersection of psychology and design.

Videos

• AJ&Smart’s workshop videos do a great job at demystifying facilitation.
• Apple’s Design videos are top-notch.