27 November 2022 • 3 minute read
A Design System Reading List
helpful long-form resources that have shaped how I think about systems
Design Systems
- Design Systems by Alla Kholmatova – the canonical design systems book, in my opinion
- Expressive Design Systems by Yesenia Perez-Cruz – a great follow-up to Kholmatova's book
- Atomic Design by Brad Frost – written before we were using the term 'design system' for web interfaces, but many popular ideas extend from these ideas
Systems Thinking
- Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows – the canonical systems thinking book
- Systems Thinking for Social Change by David Peter Stroh – a good follow-up to Thinking in Systems with a bit of additional detail on system archetypes
- The Elements of Thinking in Systems by Albert Rutherford – focusing on system archetypes, this rounds out the other two resources nicely.
Design Thinking
- The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman – a pillar in design canon. Many of Norman's concepts and terms are a part of design vernacular
- Change by Design by Tim Brown – "Design Thinking" originated with IDEO, and there are some good lessons here. However, it is very anecdotal and can be a bit repetitive.
Visual Design
- Design Basics Index by Jim Krause – an introduction to basic design concepts
- Responsive Design: Patterns & Principles by Ethan Marcotte – one of the canonical responsive design resources
- The New CSS Layout by Rachel Andrew – the canonical CSS layout resource
- Thinking in Type by Ellen Lupton – a wonderful, in-depth discussion of typography
- Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst – the canonical typography resource
- Interaction of Color by Josef Albers – one of the canonical color resources
User Experience
- The User Experience Team of One by Leah Buley – This gets into the details of being a design researcher, but there's a lot to gain from having a high-level understanding
Information Architecture
- Everyday Information Architecture by Lisa Maria Martin – a very helpful guide for understanding information architecture
Accessibility and Inclusion
- Accessiblity for Everyone by Laura Kalbag – a short, but comprehensive guide on building for accessiblity and inclusion
Design Ethics
- Ruined by Design by Mike Monteiro – a good discussion of design ethics and technology
- Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design by Kat Holmes and John Maeda – A good discussion on inclusive design
Service Design
- Service Design by Andy Polaine, Lavrans Løvlie, and Ben Reason – a good overview of service design concepts
- Good Services by Louise Downe – another great resource on service design
Design and Systems Thinking Adjacent
- Nudge by Richard H Thaler – There's a lot of overlap in designing systems and behavioral economics
- Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt – a systems thinking approach to strategy
- Designing for People by Henry Dreyfuss – much of how we think about design today is rooted in industrial design, and Dreyfuss has a ton of great insights