Self-Taught Semester – Stepping Up My Design
So its been about a good 2 and a half years since I’ve been out of school and I’ve realized a couple things. Sometimes I get so busy cranking out work that I start to close myself off from learning new things. Even with my hectic schedule, I need to make time for my own personal growth as a designer.
So I’ve taken it upon myself to put together a semester of material that I will be studying from the months of August to December. So far, most of it is related to User Experiences and UI but I’m looking to add more material on related topics like ‘copywriting’ and ’startup advice’.
I feel like if I lay out some material and get serious about finishing them in a set time period, I can get back on track and get myself learning at an accelerated pace like in college (Hopefully with less Ramen and Red Bull involved).
So Here’s the List So Far
Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices by Dan Saffer
Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design by Bill Buxton
About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Allan Cooper
Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition by Edward Tufte
Feel free to suggest any books that I should consider adding to my personal curriculum and thanks to Khoi Vinh for his book suggestions.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Nice! I like the idea of a “self-taught semester.” I also try to continually pick up books to do the same, but I’m intrigued by the set timeframe and reading/curriculum to work through.
October 19th, 2007 at 6:32 am
[...] So i’ve been feverishly reading books for my self-taught semester of design (about 3/4 of the way done – fyi, Tufte’s books are definitely a long read), and it was interesting to note that a lot of these books advocated methods that were slightly different of what 37 signals practices. Slightly confused, I decided to fire off an email and ask them directly what they thought about it. [...]
November 8th, 2007 at 9:51 am
[...] Only two books left in my self-taught design semester. [...]