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The Design of Everyday Things
Start with a door that makes you hesitate. A flat plate invites a push and a handle suggests a pull, so a handle on the push side sends a mixed message. Norman gives you a way to notice the clues that doors, appliances, and controls give you before you touch them.
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The evolution of useful things (1992)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Compare two paper clips by how hard they are to slip onto a stack and how tightly they hold it. Petroski follows the attempts to improve the familiar bent-wire clip, including the trade-off between saving wire and keeping enough spring. It’s a good read for anyone who’s wondered why an apparently simple object has so many versions.
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Thinking with Type (2004)
7.0/10on Open Library
Published
Look at the spaces between letters on a sign. A designer can adjust a particular pair with kerning or change the spacing across a group of letters with tracking. Lupton’s examples give you two ways to diagnose why one line of type looks even and another feels crowded.
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Super Normal
Morrison describes a set of heavy, handblown wineglasses whose appeal became clearer through daily use. The book’s collection of familiar objects invites you to try his test on your own table. Pick the glass you reach for most often and think about what changes when you use a different one.
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Mismatch (2018)
Published
A computer mouse shaped for a right hand can make a routine task awkward for someone who uses their left. Holmes asks who an object assumes will use it and what happens to people outside that assumption. Try the same question the next time you meet a checkout screen with only one way to pay.
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Making It (2007)
Published
The chapter on injection molding gives you a way to examine a familiar plastic object. Look for a fine line where the parts of the mold may have met. The book lets you follow the clue back to a manufacturing process and compare it with other ways of shaping an object.
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Interaction of color (1963)
Published
Put two pieces of the same gray paper against different backgrounds and compare how light they look. Albers’s exercises teach you to judge a color in its surroundings. That’s useful when a paint chip or a fabric sample looks different once you bring it home.
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The Design of Childhood (2018)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Compare a pile of wooden blocks with a toy that has one finished shape. Lange’s account of blocks and construction toys asks how much a toy lets a child decide what to make. It’s an easy question to bring to a toy shelf or a playroom.
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Design as art (1971)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Start with Munari’s attention to an object as humble as a lamp, then try it on the light you use to read. What can you adjust, and where does the light actually land? His short essays move among lighting, chairs, road signs, and other things you can look at again the same day.
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The 99% Invisible City
The colors spray-painted on a sidewalk can tell you which kinds of utilities lie underneath. One of the first illustrations starts with marks the authors could see from their own office. The book makes a good companion for a walk when you want to know what those little marks and fixtures do.
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Designing for people (1955)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
The Bell telephone is a good place to start. Think about how its receiver fits between an ear and a mouth and how it feels during a long call. Dreyfuss’s account of his work makes it easier to see how a designer turns ordinary gestures and bodily measurements into a product’s shape.
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Stuff Matters (2013)
8.3/10on Open Library
Published
Pick up a square of chocolate and notice the snap before you let it melt. Miodownik brings the same curiosity to materials like paper and concrete, asking what their internal structure has to do with what you can feel. Read it when you want to look at an object through the properties of the stuff it’s made from.
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Just my type (2010)
7.2/10on Open Library
Published
Look at a movie poster and ask whether its lettering reminds you of a different film. Garfield’s story of Trajan on movie posters shows how repetition can make a typeface feel like shorthand for a kind of story. He also traces how Helvetica became so familiar that you can pass it without noticing.
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Emotional Design (2003)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Think of a clock you like looking at even when its face takes a moment to read. Norman’s framework lets you ask separate questions about its immediate appeal, the experience of using it, and what it means to you. Try the three questions on an object you keep even though another one could do the job.
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