Reading paths · Five steps
Design that disappears
Work backwards from the things that are obvious to use, towards why they are obvious.
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Don't Make Me Think
Steve Krug
The fastest useful lesson in the subject, and short enough that there is no excuse for skipping it.
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The Design of Everyday Things
Donald A. Norman
The foundation the previous book is applying. Doors, taps and stoves, and then everything else.
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Emotional Design
Donald A. Norman
Norman's own correction: usable is not the same as wanted, and he had to write a second book to say so.
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Universal Principles of Design
William Lidwell
A reference to keep rather than a book to finish. Placed here because it is only useful once you have the arguments.
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The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Edward R. Tufte
Last and hardest: the same discipline applied to information, where there is nothing to hide a bad decision behind.
A path is an order, not a syllabus. Every step says why it sits where it does, so you can disagree with the sequence on the evidence rather than on faith.