Pemaquid Communications

If you’ve been following our tweets @pemaquid (you *have* been following our tweets, haven’t you?) you know that our first intern, Jordan Warren, began working with us last week. You also know that we’ve tweeted a couple of the books I’ve recommended to her from our library.

Here’s a list of some of the books that I’ve read and referred to over the years that have been invaluable resources for Web design:

Don’t Make Me Think – Steve Krug. Steve shows how people surf the Web, and that should affect how you build Web sites

The Design of Everyday Things – Don Norman. How people use a tool, a door, a switch, a Web site depends upon how it’s built (see affordance).

Designing with Web Standards – Jeffrey Zeldman. What it means to design with Web Standards, and why that’s better.

Bulletproof Web Design – Dan Cederholm. Why it’s smarter to lay out sites with CSS, rather than using <table>.

Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design – Andy Clarke. A great read from one of the world’s most talented Web designers. Andy explains how to use CSS to render your design visions beautifully and accessibly.

The Inmates are Running the Asylum – Alan Cooper. Explains why you want an Interaction Designer – not a programmer or a graphic designer – to build your Web site.

Designing Web Usability – Jakob Nielsen. An oldie but goodie. How to make Web sites easy to use.

Defensive Design for the Web – 37 Signals. Another book that’s been around for awhile, from one of the Web’s premiere usability consulting groups. The principles they espouse are timeless.

What’s funny is that lately I read fewer books and follow more blogs (that’ll be the subject of a future post).

Do you Web designers out there have any essential reads that have helped you over the years and that we should recommend to Jordan? (We know our short list above is far from complete) If so, please let us know in the comments.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 4:09 am by Rob and is filed under 37 Signals, Alan Cooper, Andy Clarke, Dan Cederholm, Don Norman, Jakob Nielsen, Jeffrey Zeldman, Jordan's Internship, Web Design, Web Standards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.