Bookshelf
Resources
Books, essays, and references I keep recommending — on design leadership, agentic AI, and the ethics of building things that act for people. Each one links out.
Dive Club
Long, craft-obsessed interviews with the designers behind products you admire. The closest thing to sitting in on their process.
Envisioning Information
How to get more meaning per pixel without lying. The bible for legibility in dense, layered screens.
Excalidraw: A sketchy feeling canvas tool
The hand-drawn feel keeps early diagrams honest and disposable. Nobody argues about pixel-perfection on a sketch.
Fabricate: Make fake databases
From the creator of Mockaroo: Realistic fake data in seconds. Prototyping with real data is the rule; this is how you fake it convincingly until you have it.
Folk Interfaces
I love how Maggie connects how everyday users reappropriate software to build their own custom, improvised workflows. It provides crucial inspiration for designing interfaces that are malleable rather than rigid.
Helvetica: The Film
How one typeface carries ideology, a cult following. A fun way to see that no design decision is ever neutral.
How Designers Destroyed the World
The talk on design ethics and responsibility that still lands harder than any code of conduct.
How Do Committees Invent?
The origin of Conway’s Law: your product’s seams mirror your org chart. Design leadership is org design.
How to Make Sense of Any Mess
This is my go-to book on IA. It’s Information architecture stripped to its human core, and short enough to actually finish and share with your team.
Humans Need Not Apply
The clearest short case for taking automation’s impact on work seriously. Sobering context for AI adoption as an ops problem.
Inventing on Principle
This talk was way ahead of its time. Bret’s philosophy on creating immediate feedback loops inspires modern generative interfaces where ideas turn into working functional prototypes instantly. I re-listen often.
Just Enough Research (2024 edition)
Research demystified for teams that think they do not have time for it. Opinionated in the best way, short enough to finish, and instantly applicable. It’s my go-to recommendation for designers.