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“The Design of Everyday Things” book cover
The Design of Everyday Things (d. The Psychology of Everyday Things)
Donald A. Norman

Basic Books, 1988 (first edition)
ISBN: 0-4650-6710-7

An essential lecture; book describing in approachable way usability of everyday things in reference to human behaviour.

Buy at Amazon.com , Buy at Barnes & Noble


“Tog on Interface” book cover
Tog on Interface
Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini

Addison-Wesley, 1992
ISBN: 0-2016-0842-1

A book full of humour and anecdotes, written by guru who has been designing graphical interfaces in Apple Computer. Especially interesting to Macintosh fans.

Buy at Amazon.com , Buy at Barnes & Noble


“Tog on Software Design” book cover
Tog on Software Design
Bruce “Tog” Tognazzini

Addison-Wesley, 1995
ISBN: 0-2014-8917-1

In many aspects this book feels like a sequel to “Tog on Interface.” The center of attention is now Sun’s Starfire project, which purpose was to try to predict how the human-computer interfaces would look and behave like 10 years into the future. Now, the book was written in 1995, but since no prediction is 100% accurate, it is still a very interesting – if, in Tog’s tradition, slightly chaotic – read.

Buy at Amazon.com , Buy at Barnes & Noble


“Visual Explanations” book cover
“Envisioning Information” book cover
“Visual Display of Quantitative Information” book cover
Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Envisioning Information
Visual Explanations
Edward R. Tufte

Graphics Press, 1983 (second edition in 2001) / 1990 / 1997
ISBN: 0-9613-9214-2 / 0-9613-9211-8 / 0-9613-9212-6

An interesting set of three books on the principles of information design, with a lot of emphasis on history and – that part I found the most interesting – ethics.

In author’s words, “The Visual Display of Quantative Information” tells about pictures of numbers (that is data), “Envisioning Information” about pictures of nouns (maps), and “Visual Explanations” about pictures of verbs (dynamics). The three books complement each other, with a little bit of redundancy. Every one of them contains a lot of graphical examples, mixed with some redesigns/suggestions of particularly bad displays.

Typographically perfect and wonderfully designed, the trilogy is a joy for both the eyes and the mind. The most important problem is that it leaves reader wanting for more.

Order books at author’s official site ,
Buy first book at Amazon.com , Buy second book at Amazon.com , Buy third book at Amazon.com ,
Buy first book at Barnes & Noble , Buy second book at Barnes & Noble , Buy third book at Barnes & Noble



Page added on 11th May 2003, and updated on 4th January 2004.

Copyright © 2002-2005 Marcin Wichary