There are several books I keep on my desk at work. Some are about interaction and usability, one on coding and one for design and planning (with emphasis on the planning). I think part of having a well-rounded skill set is having a well-rounded library.
The Zen of CSS Design by Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag is a must for anyone developing in CSS. As mentioned in a previous post there is also an awesome website that you can go and participate in. Basically the book breaks down CSS into components: layout, images, type-face, and special effects. It provides real examples of technicques used and links to samples.
Don’t Make Me Think: Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug is an easy read for anyone interested in the basics of usability. While none of the insights are particularly profound, they are the sort of things that leave you thinking “oh ya, I forgot about that!” Which is where the whole common sense part comes in I guess. I bought the book when I was starting an e-commerce website. The site didn’t do that well, but that had more to do with my lack of business accumen than the site itself. One fo the most valuable pieces of information is how to do usability testing on the cheap.
Designing for Interaction by Dan Saffer was a book I purchased on the recommendation of a collegue. She buys books like some people buy shoes. This book is also an easy read and was particularly helpful to me as it describes interaction design in great detail. Many websites fail, not because the idea is poor or some big error, but because of something small, some piece of uability is causing users to abandon a form, or quit before completing a purchase. This book helps you identify those little annoyances and think about how best to deal with them… which is essentially interaction design.
Communicating Design: Developing Web Site Documentation for Design and Planning by Dan M. Brown is not a very easy read however it is very useful. Essentially it is a guide on how to properly document the planning of a website. This documentation is tailored to each specific audience and their needs. Should you show wireframes to the client? Do designers really need flowcharts? The book tackles personas, usability testing plans, usability reports, competitive analysis, concept model, site maps, flowcharts, wireframes and screen designs. Now if it could only tell me how to get a client to pay for all of that.¼/p>