Espen J. Aarseth, Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, ISBN: 0801855780. Details at Amazon
Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977, ISBN: 0195019199. Details at Amazon
Laura Arlov, GUI Design for Dummies, Foster City (CA): IDG Books, 1997, ISBN: 0764502131. Details at Amazon
Rudolph Arnheim, Visual Thinking, Berkeley and Los Angeles (CA): University of California Press, 1969, ISBN: 0520018710. Details at Amazon
Robin Baker, Designing the Future: the computer transformation of reality, London: Thames & Hudson, 1993, pp.208, ISBN 0500015783. Well illustrated coffee-table book on product and information design, with emphasis on graphics and the arts.
Stuart K. Card, Jock D. Mackinlay and Ben Shneiderman Readings in Information Visualization: Using Vision to Think, San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, pp.686, 1999, ISBN 1558605339. A collection of scholarly papers, mainly from researchers at Xerox PARC – very technical – for specialists only.
Alan Clarke, Designing Computer-Based Learning Materials, London: Gower, 2001, pp.196, ISBN 0566083205. Guide to the principles of designing training and instructional materials – from conception through to testing and evaluation.
Marlana Coe, Human Factors for Technical Communicators, New York (NY): John Wiley & Sons, 1996, ISBN: 0471035300. Details at Amazon
Stephen Few, Information Dashboard Design, Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly, 2006, pp.211, ISBN 0596100167
Jennifer Fleming, Web Navigation: Designing the User Experience, Sebastapol (CA): O’Reilly, 1998, pp.253, ISBN 1565923510. Excellent guide to the principles of web design and navigation. Focuses on information architecture plus site usability effectiveness rather than HTML coding. Highly recommended.
Ben Fry, Visualizing Data, Sebastopol (CA): O’Reilly, 2007, pp.366, ISBN 0596514557
Jesse James Garrett, The Elements of User Experience, Indianapolis (IN): New Riders, 2003, pp.189, ISBN 0735712026.
Thea M. van der Geest, Web Site Design is Communication Design, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2001, pp.165, ISBN 9027232024
Robert L. Harris, Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference, New York/London: Oxford University Press, 1999, pp.448, ISBN: 0195135326. Details at Amazon
James Hartley, Designing Instructional Text, London: Kogan Page, 3rd edn 1994, pp.183, ISBN 074941037X. Guide to the presentation of instructions – from paper size, through clear writing, to the use of diagrams and illustrations.
William K. Horton, Designing Web-Based Training : How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime, John Wiley & Sons, 2000, pp.640, ISBN: 047135614X. Best-selling guide to all aspects of instructional design and writing for web-based training materials.
William K. Horton, Illustrating Computer Documentation, New York (NY): John Wiley and Sons, 1991, ISBN: 0471538450. Details at Amazon
William K. Horton, Designing and Writing Online Documentation, New York (NY): John Wiley and Sons, 1994, ISBN: 0471306355. Details at Amazon
Bob Hughes, Dust or Magic: Secrets of Successful Multimedia Design, London: Addison-Wesley, 2000, pp.264, ISBN 0201360713. Amusing and thought-provoking study of working on multimedia projects – from web design to CD-ROM and interactive video.
Information Design Journal. http://www.benjamins.nl
Robert Jacobson (ed) Information Design, Cambridge (MA): MIT Press, 1999, pp.357, ISBN: 026210069X. Collected papers setting out arguments for the professional status of information designers – with examples of their work.
James Kalbach, Designing Web Navigation, Sebastopol (CA): O’Reilly, 2007, pp.394, ISBN 0596528108
Ellen Lupton and Abbott Miller, Design Writing Research: Writing on Graphic Design, London: Phaidon, 1996, pp.211, ISBN: 0714838519. This is a beautifully designed and exquisitely illustrated book which is a must for anyone interested in graphics, information design, typography, or media studies.
Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton, Web Style Guide, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999, pp.164, ISBN: 0300076754. Excellent web site design guide. Originally written for medical students at Yale. Concentrates on design principles and navigation.
David Macauley, Cathedral: The story of its construction, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973, ISBN: 0395175135. Details at Amazon
Robert McKim, Experiences in Visual Thinking, (2nd edn) Boston: PWS Publishing Company, 1972, ISBN: 0818504110. Details at Amazon
Peter Morville, Ambient Findability, Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly, 2005, pp.188, ISBN 0596007655
Kevin Mullet and Sano, Darrell, Designing Visual Interfaces: Communication Oriented Techniques, Englewood Cliffs (NY): Prentice Hall, 1995, ISBN: 0133033899. Details at Amazon
Jennifer Fleming, Web Navigation: Designing the User Experience, Sebastopol: O’Reilly, 1998, pp.253 plus CD-ROM, ISBN 1565923510
Jakob Nielsen, Usability Engineering, San Francisco (CA): Academic Press Professional/Morgan Kaufmann, 1994, ISBN: 0125184069. Details at Amazon
Jakob Nielsen, Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, Indianapolis (Ind): New Riders, 2000, pp.420, ISBN: 156205810X. Nielsen puts speed and simplicity of access above all else in this tutorial on Web site design which pulls no punches. Fully illustrated with good and bad examples. Recommended.
Jakob Nielsen and Marie Tahir, Homepage Usability: 50 websites deconstructed, Indianapolis, (Ind): New Riders, 2002, pp.315, ISBN: 073571102X. Neilsen shows the strengths and weaknesses of famous web sites – and offers his own makeovers of their home pages.
Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (formerly The Psychology of Everyday Things) New York: Doubleday/Currency, 1998, ISBN: 0385267746. Classic study of usability in modern product engineering – establishes the principles of user-centred design. Highly recommended.
Elizabeth Orna, Information Strategy in Practice, London: Gower, 2004, pp.163, ISBN 0566085798.
Elizabeth Orna, Making Knowledge Visible, Aldershot, UK: Gower, 2005, pp.212, ISBN 0566085631.
Elizabeth Orna with Graham Stevens, Managing Information for Research, Buckinghamshire: Open University Press, second edition 2009, pp.271, ISBN 0335221424
Elizabeth Orna, Practical Information Policies, Hampshire: Gower, 2nd edn, 1999, pp.375, ISBN: 0566076934.
James G. Paradis, and Muriel L. Zimmerman, The MIT Guide to Science and Engineering Communication, Cambridge (MA): MIT Press, 1997, ISBN: 0262161427. Details at Amazon
William Pena, Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer, (3rd edn) Washington (DC): American Institute of Architects Press, 1987.
Jonathan and Lisa Price, Hot Text: Web Writing that Works, Indianapolis (IN): New Riders, 2002, pp.507, ISBN 0735711518. Professional-level manual on how to write, structure, and edit information for the Web. Highly recommended.
Louis Rosenfeld, and Peter Morville, Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Sebastapol (CA): O’Reilly, 1998, pp.224, ISBN 1565922824. Advanced level web design concepts, focussing on the principles of efficient labelling, searching, and navigational aids. Highly recommended.
Jeffrey Rubin, Handbook of Usability Testing, New York (NY): John Wiley and Sons, 1994, ISBN: 0471594032. Details at Amazon
D. Sano, Designing large-scale web sites: A visual design methodology, New York (NY): John Wiley & Sons, 1996, ISBN: 047114276X. Details at Amazon
Karen Schriver, Dynamics in Document Design, New York (NY): John Wiley and Sons, 1997, ISBN: 0471306363. Wide-ranging academic and practical study in design theory and applications – with arguments for professionalism in design. Recommended.
Nathan Shedroff, Experience Design, Indianapolis (IN): New Riders, 2001, pp.304, ISBN 0735710783. Double page graphic spreads of photos and web sites, with accompanying comments – all in avant garde [hard to read] typographic layout.
Jenifer Tidwell, Designing Interfaces, Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly, 2005, pp.331, ISBN 0596008031.
Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Cheshire (CT): Graphics Press, 1983, ISBN 096139210X. The first of Tufte’s now-famous, beautifully illustrated books on information design in theory and practice. Highly recommended.
Edward Tufte, Envisioning Information, Cheshire (CT): Graphics Press, 1990, pp.126, ISBN 0961392118. The second in the Tufte Trilogy – focussing on ‘increasing information depth on paper’. Just as attractive as the other volumes. Highly recommended.
Edward Tufte, Visual Explanations. Images and quantities, evidence and narrative, Cheshire (CT): Graphics Press, 1997, pp.156, ISBN 0961392126. More from Tufte – arguing the need for accuracy, detail, precision, and truth in the presentation of quantities. Highly recommended.
Jeffrey Veen, The Art & Science of Web Design, Indianapolis (IN): New Riders, 2001, pp.259, ISBN 0789723700. How the Web works, and why user-centred design is necessary. Analyses of successful sites, and how to use style sheets to control the layout of your pages. Highly recommended.
Toni Weller (ed), Information History in the Modern World, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, pp.211, ISBN: 0230237371
Peter Wildbur and Michael Burke, Information graphics: Innovative solutions in contemporary design, London: Thames and Hudson, 1998, ISBN: 0500018723. Details at Amazon
Robin Williams and John Tollett, The Non-Designer’s Web Book, Berkeley (CA): Peachpit, 2nd edn, 2000, pp.304, ISBN 0201710382. Beginners’ design manual – with emphasis on graphic design. Well illustrated and nicely designed. Details at Amazon
Christina Wodtke, Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, Indianapolis (IN): New Riders, 2002, pp.348, ISBN 0735712506. Gentle and easy-to-read introduction to the main concepts of Information Architecture. Well illustrated with screenshots. “Think first. Design second.”
Richard Saul Wurman, Information anxiety: What to do when information doesn’t tell you what you need to know, New York: Doubleday/Bantam, 1989, ISBN: 0553348566. Details at Amazon
H. J. G. Zwaga, T. Boersma & H. C. M. Hoonhout (eds) Visual Information for Everyday Use: Design and Research Perspectives, London: Taylor and Francis, 1999, pp.338, ISBN 0748406719. Details at Amazon
© Roy Johnson 2009
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