One of the things I had while writing the book was an inspiration bookshelf. These were books that not only inspired the content of Design for How People Learn, but also the style of it.
None of these are instructional design books, but they are all books that instructional designers should read.
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman (and also his book on Emotional Design)
The Non-designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell
The Head First Books by Kathy Sierra, et al (really, any of the Head First books would work to look at. You can learn more about their approach here: http://headfirstlabs.com/readme.php) Update: Badass: Making User Awesome has come out since this was first posted, and is the book I would now recommend.
A Theory of Fun by Ralph Koster
This one is more recent, but it’s a great book too:
Seductive Interaction Design by Stephen Anderson
How about you? What’s on your inspiration bookshelf?
Quite a few of those are on my “to read” list. I don’t have an inspirational bookshelf just yet, but I will say the items that are on my bookshelf as is are: Making Online Teaching Accessible by Norman Coombs and Mind Meld by Jon Aleckson and Penny Ralston-Berg.
Thanks Karla! I haven’t read either of those, but I’m scurrying off to Amazon right now to investigate 🙂