Books on Design

August 1st, 2021
Kenji · Staff Recommendations

It’s easy to point out when something doesn’t work properly, or appears off somehow. If something’s too hard to read because of an obscure font, we notice that difficulty very quickly. If we have trouble opening a door, maybe it’s unclear you had to push instead of pull. Somewhere along the way in the design of that object, a poor decision was made.

The following books explore design philosophies in a broad range of contexts, from books to retail store layouts. Their subjects are things that we interact with in various ways, and the design decisions that go into making our interactions with them smooth and subconscious. Often providing historical backgrounds and how we arrived at the modern form of these objects, these books are fascinating explorations of what goes into good and bad design thinking.