To follow up on my post concerning your Knowledge Portfolio I thought it would be nice to gather what you find to be the essential books that any programmer or designer should have. Here is what I have come up with so far.
- Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach To Web Usability
- Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web
- The Elements of Typographic Style
- Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
- Envisioning Information
- The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
- Grid Systems in Graphic Design
- Universal Principles of Design
- Thinking With Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students
- The Design of Everyday Things
- Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
- The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
How about you?
Lets hope these links work… otherwise I look like a total n00b…
For general grammar, I would suggest Eats, Shoots & Leaves.
For non-fiction writing, I would suggest On Writing Well.
For Flash, I would suggest Actionscript: The Definitive Guide (MX Edition)
These are books that changed the way I write, and the way I program Flash. I know, not one in the same, but they are quite possibly the best books I own.
Even though they are geared more towards the print design world, I would recommend any of Steven Hellers books. Design Literacy and Design Literacy Continued are good.
Designing Web Usability and Homepage Usability by Jakob Nielsen
Building Accessible Websites by Joe Clark
Many of the principles put forth in Jeffrey Veen’s The Art and Science of Web Design are still relevant as well.
Web ReDesign: Workflow That Works by Emily Cotler and Kelly Goto.
I’d add: a subscription to the New Yorker
G’day Paul. These two Australian books might help you on your quest for simplification. Even though I haven’t noticed management gobbledygook in your writing or anything like that, I just know that I found after I read these books I was much nmore clearer in my own thinking, writing and don’t over complicate things as much because the books illustrate how through langauge, writing and thoughts stuff can be overly convoluted.
The Decay of Public Language
Watson’s Dictionary of Weasel Words
Also it looks like both books have been merged and just published in the USA as:
Death Sentences : How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language
Dan Cederholm’s (www.simplebits.com) Web Standards Solutions.
GAG’s Pricing & Ethical Guidelines.
And of course STAR magazine.
The Inmates are Running the Asylum
The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web
For freelancers I would recommend Business and Legal Forms for Graphic Desigenrs
One from your favorite author Building Accessible Websites
I also enjoy subscriptions to both Communication Arts and HOW magazines.
The Art of Looking Sideways
I’ve read each of these from cover to cover. I’m not going to bother linking them ’cause I’m sure everyone here can search them.
– DOM: The complete reference.
– Javascript for the WWW
– Sitepoint:
– – HTML Utopia
– – CSS Tips Tricks Hacks
– – PHP Anthology I,II
– – BYODDW
– SAMS Publishing
– – PHP4 and MySQL
– – PHP5
– – XML in 10 minutes
– Oreilly
– – MySQL Pocket Book
– Designing Usable Websites
– Usability for the web
– Designing with Web Standards
– Don’t make me think
– The Zen of CSS Design
– Web Standards Solutions
I was surprised to find that I have most of the books on Joel Spolsky’s list – http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html
Its fairly complete.
I’m currently hooked on Professional Javascript for Webdevelopers by Nicholas C. Zakas from Wrox. I also keep the O’Reilly pocket references close at hand, for Javascript and CSS. A book I’m missing here is Defensive Design for the web from 37signals.
Also Hack Notes Websecurity Portable Reference should be a must-read, to get a grasp on web-app security.
This seems more like a list of books for a usability person than for a programmer: I think I’ve read 90% of these books as part of UTS‘ Interactive Multimedia Masters programme. With Dustin, I’d definitely include Designing with Web Standards in the list, to help learn a post-tables approach to page construction.
A couple more suggestions:
Design Patterns The famous catalog of basic OO patterns.
Nonviolent Communication Not a programming book per se, but of tremendous use to programmers, especially when tensions are running high.