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core information design library

The core “must have” list for an information design reference library. Why these particular books and not others? My test is simple: is this a book good enough to be worth re-reading every year or two? A good book teaches. A great book teaches something new each time you read it.

			The Timeless Way of Building The book that launched pattern languages as a wonderful theoretical extension of the module-and-program underpinnings of modern design and architecture movements. It's interesting that this book on timeless themes in humane living spaces became a cult classic for object-oriented programmers, and the source for all the pattern language work in other disciplines. The first in a series of three volumes, followed by A Pattern Language and The Oregon Experiment. Christopher Alexander 1979, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0-19-502402-8
			Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines The best single-volume introduction to the basic elements of modern graphic user interfaces. Although the book is old now and covers details of the pre-OS X Macintosh (OS8-9) interface, all the fundamentals are here in a comprehensive presentation that doesn't just tell you how to properly use the many details of a graphic interface, but also the why behind each component of the interface. Apple has their current OS X guidelines online. Download the whole thing as a PDF and print it for maximum value. Apple Computer, Inc. 1993, New York: Addison-Wesley Professional ISBN: 0201622165
			How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built A deeply wise book on how designed objects of all kinds evolve in response their users and inhabitants, and what it takes to create adaptive, humane environments that respond and change with their users. Especially rich in ideas for "Web 2.0" online communities that evolve in response to user-contributed comments and content. Brand also gives a severe drubbing to architects and designers who make grand personal statements at the expense of the people who then have to live with their poor designs. Stewart Brand 1994, New York: Penguin Books ISBN: 0-14-013996-6
			The Elements of Typographic Style, 3rd ed. The best introduction to letterforms, typography, and the proper design of the printed page. Much more than a book on type design, it is also a compact typographic style guide, classic page design primer, and survey of major typefaces and their evolution over time. Robert Bringhurst 2004, Vancouver, B.C.: Hartley and Marks ISBN: 0-88179-206-3
			The Social Life of Information A superb examination of the way we use information to support our working lives. I especially like the authors' concept of a information life cycle, the relationships between knowledge in our heads, what we manage to transfer to various "knowledge management" systems and other storage media, and how we actually use information to support our day-to-day activities. In a better world this book might finally have killed the idiotic meme of an ideal future "paperless office," but that misunderstanding of how we actually use information goes on and on in spite of common sense and despite the detailed refutations like this book. John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid 2000, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press ISBN: 0-87584-762-5
			Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd ed. A brief, bracing dose of advanced common sense, and mandatory reading for anyone who designs interfaces for the web. If you've only got time for one brief read on web interfaces, this is your book. Steve Krug 2006, Berkeley: New Riders. ISBN: 0-321-34475-8
			Universal Principles of Design This book is unique. It's an attempt to assemble all the basic elements and principles of design in a single volume. Each principle gets a spread of two pages, with ample and well-executed illustrations. The book cuts through all the clutter, noise, and ephemeral fashion in graphic and information design, gets down to the real foundational principles of why good designs work. W. Lidwell, K. Holden, and J. Butler. 2003, Gloucester, MA: Rockport Publishers ISBN: 1-59253-007-9
			Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art A masterpiece of visual communications theory and practice, disguised as a book about comics. The single best book I know of on how to establish and sustain an intelligent visual narrative with illustration and still graphics. Scott McCloud 1993, Northhampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press ISBN: 0-87816-243-7
			Meggs' History of Graphic Design, 4th ed You can't do good design of any kind without a sense of history, how the genres of design developed, and how design fits into the larger narratives of history and mass communications, particularly since the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s. There are better expositions of design history within more limited scopes, but Meggs' volume covers it all pretty well. P. Meggs and A. Purvis 2005, New York: Wiley ISBN: 0-47169-902-0
			Grid Systems in Graphic Design, 4th ed. THE foundational volume on grids in graphic design, module and program for layout, with a very Swiss sense of order. Lots of interesting ideas and relevance to pattern languages for graphic design and web design. Josef Müller-Brockmann 1996, Basel: Verlag Niggli ISBN: 3-72-120-145-0
			The Design of Everyday Things Very few books (including most of the ones on this page) can literally change the way you view the world and your relationship to designed objects, but this small book can do it. Originally published as "The Psychology of Everyday Things," this book lays out the foundational principles of cognitive psychology as applied to design, in straightforward non-technical language. Read it, and the next time you are baffled by a poorly designed object, obtuse software program, or confusing web site, you'll know exactly whom to blame, and why. Donald Norman 1988, New York: Basic Books ISBN: 0465067107
			Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd ed. The first and still by far the best book on information architecture. The term "information architecture" is fashionable these days, and even most IA professionals admit that the boundaries and definitions of IA are blurry. However, most other nominal IA books currently on the market are really information design books, with more of an emphasis on the visual aspects of IA and graphic user interface design as applied to the web. Lou Rosenfeld and Peter Morville 2007, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press ISBN: 0-596-00035-9
			The Elements of Style, 4th ed. Still the most elegant exemplar of communications design on the market, 50 years after it was first published, and almost 100 years since Strunk first composed its core language. Page for page, it's the densest dose of of wisdom you'll ever find. William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White 2000, New York: Macmillan ISBN: 0205313426
			The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd ed. The book that launched Tufte's second career as an information design guru and famous foe of "chartjunk" and boring misuses of PowerPoint (Tufte is also an emeritus professor of economics at Yale). Thousands of vapid graphic design books get published every year, but this single volume finally laid out the intellectual case for intelligence, integrity, and lasting meaning in visual displays of all kinds, not just quantitative graphics. A bonus: it's a gorgeous object. I discovered the book in 1983 while browsing at the old Yale Coop, and bought it immediately although the title was a bit daunting. I snapped it up on the spot because it was such a beautiful example of book design. Edward Tufte 1983, Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press ISBN: 0961392142
			Envisioning Information In his next volume on visual information design Tufte deals with a more broad selection of diagrams, maps, and other visual displays. Although these first two volumes are the best of Tufte's books and lay out all his core messages, his Visual Explanations and Beautiful Evidence are also excellent and belong on this list—I just don't want to look like a total Tufte fanboy. Edward Tufte 1990, Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press ISBN: 0961392118
			The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers, 15th ed. Indispensable for any serious editorial work. Also extremely useful, and less of a handful when you're deep into writing and need a quick style reference: The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage, and The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law. University of Chicago Press 2003, Chicago: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226104036
			On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction Nominally a guide to writing -- and a superb one at that -- this book is one of the finest general guides to concise, well-designed, and humane communications of all kinds. A book to be read and re-read over the years. The mark of a true classic is that you appreciate it more as you gain experience, and the depth of the wisdom becomes more clear as your understanding matures. William Zinsser 2006, New York: Collins ISBN: 0060891548