Ambient Findability : What We Find Changes Who We Become

By Peter Morville

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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

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Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience

By Yi-Fu Tuan, Steven Hoelscher

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The Design of Everyday Things

By Donald A. Norman

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The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less

By Barry Schwartz

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Universal Principles of Design

By William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler

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This is one of those rare gems of a book that is both insightful and concise. The authors have collected together 100 principals that designers often spend years learning through trial and error. The principals themselves are not original. The 80/20 rule. Ockham's razor. Rule of thirds. These are concepts that have been identified and used countless times before. But the real value is that this book collects them together into a single volume, and explains each one very concisely. The authors devote just two pages to each principal — one explaining it and the other illustrating it — which is just enough to understand the concept without over-explaning it. (Bart Marable)