Design Books Every Hacker Should Read • Hacker News Board

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#31

Post by stiff » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:22 AM UTC

Good books, but not particularly good for hackers. I have the "The Elements of Typography Style" for example, it is certainly a classic, but it is written for people already familiar with typography to some extent, is very long and most of it isn't very relevant to web design.

A good design book for hackers, would have less than 200 pages and deal with the essentials, basic typography, using whitespace productively, grids, color theory etc. in a systematic way. If anyone has any recommendations for that kind of book, I would love to hear them.

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#32

Post by zalew » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:24 AM UTC

msutherl wrote: post #24

zalew wrote: post #10

where is "don't make me think"?

While useful for the non-designer, Don't Make Me Think is a relatively shallow book compared with those recommended here.

I agree, but it's a good kickstarter. I don't know if the said 'every hacker' will understand the one about type (I haven't read it, but even as someone interested in design I find typography quite a difficult subject).

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#33

Post by sgdesign » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:26 AM UTC

stiff wrote: post #31

Good books, but not particularly good for hackers. I have the "The Elements of Typography Style" for example, it is certainly a classic, but it is written for people already familiar with typography to some extent, is very long and most of it isn't very relevant to web design. A good design book for hackers, would have less than 200 pages and deal with the essentials, basic typography, using whitespace productively,…

Agreed. These are great books, but "design for hackers" implies that these book will help you "hack" design, which they won't.

These books will help you get a better understanding of the principles of good design at root level, but they won't do much if you're just looking to make your app look or work better.

On the other hand, these books are much more practical:

http://bootstrappingdesign.com/

http://designforhackers.com/

http://nathanbarry.com/webapps/

And I also wrote a design eBook myself (not as good as the three above, but it's also a lot cheaper):

http://sachagreif.com/ebook

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#34

Post by discovr » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:28 AM UTC

stiff wrote: post #31

Good books, but not particularly good for hackers. I have the "The Elements of Typography Style" for example, it is certainly a classic, but it is written for people already familiar with typography to some extent, is very long and most of it isn't very relevant to web design. A good design book for hackers, would have less than 200 pages and deal with the essentials, basic typography, using whitespace productively,…

hey stiff, there is an excellent book (for web) that covers the essentials in a simple and very clear way. Really good. Might be more what you are looking for. http://www.fivesimplesteps.com/products/a-practical-guide-to...

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#35

Post by discovr » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:31 AM UTC

sgdesign wrote: post #33

stiff wrote: post #31

Good books, but not particularly good for hackers. I have the "The Elements of Typography Style" for example, it is certainly a classic, but it is written for people already familiar with typography to some extent, is very long and most of it isn't very relevant to web design. A good design book for hackers, would have less than 200 pages and deal with the essentials, basic typography, using whitespace productively,…

Agreed. These are great books, but "design for hackers" implies that these book will help you "hack" design, which they won't. These books will help you get a better understanding of the principles of good design at root level, but they won't do much if you're just looking to make your app look or work better. On the other hand, these books are much more practical: http://bootstrappingdesign.com/ http://designforhack…

agreed. sacha's books above are really practical and go the next level.

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#36

Post by sgdesign » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:31 AM UTC

geoka9 wrote: post #7

Another web design site, another page that's almost impossible to read due to washed out text. Guys, do you test your sites on anything other than Macs with "retina" displays? For example, I maxed out the brightness setting on my Thinkpad x60 and the text is still barely legible. Granted, this TP has a very average display, but do you really want to limit your audience to Mac users?

It's possible that the text color has been changed since you wrote this, but it's now at #333333.

If you have trouble reading that on a white background, then the problem is with your screen, not with the page.

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#37

Post by discovr » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:33 AM UTC

This is awesome too: http://hackdesign.org "Design lessons for programmers, curated by top designers".

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#38

Post by maguay » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:38 AM UTC

Another great one: Frank Chimero's "The Shape of Design". More about the design process than design itself, and that makes it all the more applicable to anyone who creates anything at all.

http://www.shapeofdesignbook.com

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#39

Post by monsterix » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:39 AM UTC

sgdesign wrote: post #33

stiff wrote: post #31

Good books, but not particularly good for hackers. I have the "The Elements of Typography Style" for example, it is certainly a classic, but it is written for people already familiar with typography to some extent, is very long and most of it isn't very relevant to web design. A good design book for hackers, would have less than 200 pages and deal with the essentials, basic typography, using whitespace productively,…

Agreed. These are great books, but "design for hackers" implies that these book will help you "hack" design, which they won't. These books will help you get a better understanding of the principles of good design at root level, but they won't do much if you're just looking to make your app look or work better. On the other hand, these books are much more practical: http://bootstrappingdesign.com/ http://designforhack…

Absolutely. I just finished reading Jarrod' Bootstrapping Design and it certainly is a great book to consider for web design.

Re: Design Books Every Hacker Should Read

#40

Post by jedmund » Tue, Jan 15, 2013, 6:49 AM UTC

natesm wrote: post #21

Is there an edition of Grid Systems with just English for, uh, half the price? I don't think I need a copy in German as well.

The copy you get from Amazon is bilingual in German/English and it's totally worth it. The way they set the bilingual text in itself is a pretty fascinating study on grid systems.

I read this book in design school and its probably some of the best reading I've ever done. If I had to pick one book out of all of these, it'd be this one.