The best 34 Design books

In an age where computers and well-trained workers from low-paid countries are taking over even white-collar jobs, what can you do to stand out? As we move out of the Information Age and into a new Conceptual Age, the answer is to start embracing the aptitudes associated with the right side of your brain, which were previously thought of as less valuable than analytical left-brain skills.

• Anyone who wants to discover the difference between 20th-century work and 21st-century work
• Anyone interested in the concept of “right-brain” thinking
• Anyone who wants to develop the right skills to succeed at work in the modern age

This book explores the cognitive psychology of good design and what makes a product that responds to users’ needs. The author develops the common barriers to good design, how to reduce and fix errors, and how to bring users and technology closer together.

• Designers, product managers, distributors, creators and manufacturers
• Anyone who teaches design or other disciplines requiring creativity and inventiveness from their employees

The Laws of Simplicity consists of a set of “laws” formulated by the author to try to grasp the meaning and essence of simplicity. Along the way, it provides useful advice on how to introduce simplicity to our daily lives, business and product design.

• Anyone who wants to design successful products
• Anyone who wants to bring more simplicity into their lives
• Anyone in sales or marketing

Steal Like an Artist (2012) will help you unlock the secret to creating great art: theft. No artist creates their work in a vacuum: all art is influenced by the art that came before it. Steal Like an Artist teaches you how to “steal” from the work of your heroes, and use it to create something new and unique. It also provides important advice on using the internet to launch your career, so others can enjoy your creativity!

• Artists or other creative types
• Anyone struggling to find inspiration
• Any artist who needs advice on launching their career

Art, Inc. is a practical guide for artists who want to earn a living from doing what they love. Art, Inc. presents the business side of the art world in a palatable way, sharing useful advice and practical guidance.

• Artists who want to stop struggling and earn money from their work
• Artists who want to understand the business side of the art world

Make Your Mark features the wisdom and tips of 21 of the most successful entrepreneurs and creatives of the last few years. These artists, coders, developers and writers share the secrets and ideas that have helped them take their respective markets by storm.

• People working in the creative industry
• Anyone looking to turn their creative skills into a business
• Leaders, managers and CEOs

Change by Design (2009) presents a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to designing solutions to address any sort of innovation challenge. In following this step-by-step guide, you’ll be able to more creatively develop the stories and inspirations that will lead to tomorrow’s innovations.

• Anyone whose job requires creativity and innovative thinking
• Anyone interested in finding a better way to address problems in society
• Business leaders who want to inspire creativity and innovative thinking

Lean UX (2013) is a guide to applying lean principles to interactive design workspaces. These blinks explain the techniques of Lean UX and outline how you can best integrate them into your company’s design process. You’ll learn the importance of close collaboration and customer feedback, as well as how to constantly improve your designs.

• Anyone interested in how lean startup tactics apply to a design environment
• People who want to design successful user experience more efficiently
• Managers of design-based projects, or any professionals involved in one

Creative, Inc. (2010) provides a handy step-by-step guide to setting up and running a freelance business. Clearly structured and packed with tips on everything from advertising and agents to portfolios and pricing, this is an indispensable guide for those considering turning their artistic talents into a freelance career.

• People who want to leverage their creative skills into a freelance business
• Creative freelancers who want to earn more

The Power of Visual Storytelling (2014) is the ultimate guide in showing you how to tell stories through visuals and how to use this technique to your company’s advantage. With well-illustrated examples, these blinks explain in detail how you can master today’s most important social media platforms through powerful images.  

• Anyone interested in social media marketing
• Marketers, advertisers and people working in communications
• Artists and designers eager to tell more compelling visual stories

Happy City (2013) explains how urban planning can help us live healthier and more joyful lives in the big city. From the history of urban sprawl to design blunders, to strategies that encourage residents to socialize, relax and exercise, these blinks reveal the hidden features that can make or break city life.

• Readers thinking about moving to a new city
• Students of social psychology or urban planning
• People fascinated by the inner workings of urban life

The Innovator’s Hypothesis (2014) shows us how modern innovation no longer comes from big, costly, time-intensive research and development departments. These days, the innovation process is different. Big ideas come from business experiments being quickly conducted by small teams at little cost. It’s time to get on board and find out how your business can adapt for the future – before it’s too late!

• Futurists interested in how the next big idea will emerge
• Innovators interested in lean and agile systems of creativity
• Entrepreneurs trying to think outside the box

Content, Inc. (2015) is a useful and practical guide on how to use content management to market your business, attract an audience and bring your ideas to the world. These blinks are packed with tips and tricks that will help you turn that audience into loyal subscribers and allow you to diversify your brand and move to the forefront of your industry.

• Entrepreneurs looking to start a business
• CEOs who want a more effective marketing strategy
• Anyone who wants to disseminate their ideas

21 Days to a Big Idea (2015) is your guide to rekindling playful creativity and discovering the countless bright ideas your brain is capable of producing. These blinks share the secrets behind simple yet effective techniques to get your creative juices flowing, and provide helpful tips for turning your wild ideas into a viable business.

• Entrepreneurs who feel stuck in a creative block
• Product developers seeking simple creative techniques to incorporate into their routines
• Business-savvy readers looking for inspiration for a new project

The Architecture of Happiness (2006) is about how humans relate to architecture and design. These blinks demystify the power of architecture by explaining why different people prefer specific buildings, how design speaks to us and how we can use architecture to bring out our best.

• People with an interest in architecture and design
• Anyone looking for a novel perspective on human happiness

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (2011) is an essential guide for every designer. Combining research and practical examples, the book illustrates how important it is for designers to know, among many other things, how consumers make decisions and how memory is integral to good design.

• Product managers and developers
• Design or psychology students
• Consumers who want to improve their awareness

UX Strategy (2015) is your guide to integrating business strategy and user experience design. These blinks lay out a concrete path to develop a product and business strategy, as well as product experience that will captivate users, capture market share and catapult your start-up to success.

• Entrepreneurs and product managers
• UX, interaction and UI designers
• Anybody interested in closing the gap between business strategy and UX design

Value Proposition Design (2014) is a comprehensive guide to designing compelling products and services. Real value comes from empathizing with customers to find out what everyday jobs and tasks they need help with. However, coming up a product that helps customers complete these jobs and tasks is only the beginning.

• Aspiring or current entrepreneurs
• Anyone interested in innovation and value creation

This is Service Design Thinking (2011) presents the core principles of service design. By providing tools and real-life examples, it’s a great introduction to this evolving and interdisciplinary approach to designing services. These blinks present the most salient information on the subject.

• Entrepreneurs and innovators
• Students and professionals of design
• Marketers and consultants

Do Design (2016) is a nifty handbook for designers, crafters, and creatives of every stripe who want to know what makes design great and how they can achieve it in their own work. Covering a broad notion of design, Do Design goes beyond the design of things to reflect on how we ought to design our businesses and even our lives. Ultimately, these blinks are a call for us to transform human lives for the better by creating more beauty in the world.

• Designers who want to improve their creative process
• Business leaders seeking to optimize their businesses
• Anyone who wants to create beautiful things

Start at the End (2019) provides a highly practical, step-by-step approach to designing products and services that make an impact on the world. Drawing on behavioral science, the process begins with a simple question: How do we want our potential consumers to act? It then works backward to figure out how to make that vision a reality. 

• Start-up employees looking for a way to shake up their industry’s playing field 
• Leaders of established companies looking for their next big idea 
• Entrepreneurs interested in applying behavioral science to their pursuit of business

Why Design Matters (2022) is a collection of some of the best interviews from Debbie Millman’s long-running podcast of the same name. It collects over 50 interviews from over 15 years’ worth of conversations. These talks not only explain why design matters, they also show how the principles of design extend to creativity in general and the ways in which we communicate and express ourselves.

• Anyone interested in the creative process
• People fascinated by design and marketing
• Artists looking for inspiration

Continuous Discovery Habits (2021) explores how product managers and designers can keep making a positive impact on their customers’ lives. It explores an optimal decision-making process for product teams, so that they can continue to improve their offerings. 

• Product managers looking for a new way of working
• Entrepreneurs seeking a fresh perspective on creativity
• Product designers

The Home Edit (2019) proposes a straightforward formula to organize any part of the home in a way that is functional, classy, and easy to maintain. The technique it teaches is equally easy for other members of the household to learn and apply, so that everyone can enjoy a calm, happy home environment.

• Anyone trying to maintain order and beauty in their homes
• Parents teaching their kids good housekeeping habits
• Interior designers trying to help clients maintain the spaces they create

Sell Like Crazy ( 2019 ) is a comprehensive guide that unveils step-by-step strategies for attracting your ideal customers and converting them into loyal, high-paying clients. It presents a proven blueprint for escalating your customer acquisition efforts and outlines a consultative approach to significantly enhance conversion rates.

• Entrepreneurs seeking sales growth
• Marketers seeking conversions
• Business owners looking for new customers

Visual Thinking (2022) offers an authoritative view on different ways of thinking, and how those differences have been crucial to many of our biggest creative advancements. It shows how society tends to be biased toward verbal thinkers – and how visual thinkers, albeit typically underserved in society, bring an array of crucial skills to various domains.

• Anyone curious about autism
• Artists and creative minds
• People interested in team-building

Well-Designed (2014) is about the transformative power of empathy in product design. It explains how understanding and empathizing with users can lead to innovative and beloved products. The book offers practical advice on observing user behavior, understanding their needs, and creating products that resonate deeply with them.

• Product designers
• User experience professionals
• Innovative entrepreneurs

Emotional Design (2003) delves into how emotions influence our interactions with everyday objects. It explores the three levels of design – visceral, behavioral, and reflective – and how they affect our perceptions, use, and memories of products. This book reveals the importance of these elements in creating designs that not only function well but also create emotional connections with users.

• Design enthusiasts
• Marketing professionals
• Product developers

Brave Together (2024) explores the transformative potential of cocreation for sparking innovation and driving leadership success. Through practical advice and insights, it demonstrates how to harness collective creativity to shape a visionary future and foster a culture of collaborative achievement.

• Corporate leaders and management teams
• Creative professionals and innovators
• Anyone interested in enhancing creativity and collaboration

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1935) is a pioneering examination of how mechanical reproduction – particularly via photography and film – transformed the nature, value, and perception of art. It explores the concept of the "aura" of a work of art and how this aura diminishes in a reproduced work.

• Art history students
• Modern artists and critics
• Scholars interested in media theory

Get the Picture (2024) turns an investigative lens on the complex and often insular world of contemporary art along with its quirks and contradictions. It explores the obsessions that drive artists and collectors, sheds light on the personal and sometimes irrational reasons that art becomes meaningful, and unravels the motivations and passions of artists and collectors to uncover how deeper engagement with art can be achieved.

• Art enthusiasts curious about the inner workings of the art world
• Aspiring artists seeking insight into the contemporary art scene
• Fans of deep dives into niche cultural topics

Designing Brand Identity (2003) breaks branding down into a simple five-step process that helps teams build a clear and confident identity. It shows how research, strategy, design, touchpoints, and long term management fit together, and it uses real examples to make the ideas feel practical and doable. It gives anyone working with a brand a straightforward way to bring focus and consistency to their work.

• Brand managers seeking a structured process
• Designers building or refreshing identities
• Entrepreneurs clarifying how their brand should show up

Visual Thinking for Design (2025) turns years of neuroscientific research into practical advice for anyone who creates visual information. Bridging the gap between laboratory discoveries and real-world design challenges, this guide will help you understand exactly how people see and process what they’re looking at – giving you the tools you need to make your work truly effective.

• Graphic designers and visual communicators who want to understand the science behind effective visual design
• UX/UI designers looking to create interfaces that work with how people naturally process visual information
• Students and educators who need to present complex information in ways that enhance understanding

The Design of the UNIX Operating System by Maurice J. Bach provides an in-depth look at the inner workings of the UNIX operating system. It delves into the design principles, data structures, and algorithms that make UNIX a powerful and flexible system. Whether you're a student, developer, or system administrator, this book offers valuable insights into the foundation of modern operating systems.

• Computer science students and professionals interested in understanding the inner workings of UNIX

• System programmers who want to gain a deep understanding of operating system design principles

• Developers who want to enhance their knowledge of UNIX system calls and kernel-level programming