The Double Diamond Design Book List
A reading list for UX/UI designers
In this reading list, we will give you a book recommendation for each phase of the Double Diamond design process. These are perfect for working UX/UI designers; all books are quick and practical.
There are a million articles about the double diamond design process, but there are few books that go deep into the mindsets and methods involved. This reading list will give you a more nuanced understanding of the main activities involved in each process phase.
There's also a bonus book for applying the double diamond in 2021 and beyond. Ok, let's jump into the list.
Discover
The first diamond phase is all about building a richer perspective on the problem through divergent thinking. This phase is where primary and secondary research begins, and it should also include a fair amount of planning.
Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
Erika Hall does an excellent job of giving a practical overview of the UX research methods that matter. We love how she avoids fluffy design ethnography methods like surveys and focuses on research methods that work with tight timelines. She writes techniques for busy practitioners that need ROI on their research. Our main takeaway from this book is that everyone on your team can and should do UX research.
Define
The second phase of the first diamond is about using your research to converge upon a problem. This phase is also known as design synthesis, and it's essential for nurturing your research discoveries into full-blown designs.
Exposing the Magic of Design by Jon Kolko
Kolko gives us a rare glimpse into the internal mental processes of turning your research into design ideas in this book. We love that this book has a mix of both the theoretical and the practical. Kolko's writing illuminates the hidden mental activities necessary to connect the two diamonds of the double diamond. Our main takeaway from this book was that designers should externalize the synthesis process if we want our non-design colleagues to understand design research.
Develop
Develop is the phase that non-designers will be most familiar with due to the work's high visibility. We recommend facilitating design ideas with other team members in this phase, making collaborative design crucial in the development phase.
Workshop Survival Guide by Rob Fitzpatrick, Devin Hunt
When the design community talks about workshops, the conversation is often centered on Sprint by Jake Knapp. While Sprint is a good book for running ONE workshop, The Workshop Survival Guide is useful for designing ANY workshop. While the Workshop Survival Guide's primary focus is creating interactive sessions, it also gives you some tips for running them. Our main takeaway from this book was that a workshop skeleton could help save time in planning workshops by avoiding details early in the workshop creation process.
Delivery
The delivery phase turns various design ideas into one design approach, ready to be launched to the customer. As you move through this phase, your project will go from concept to reality. To make ideas a reality, you will need your whole team, and understanding agile and lean will help you work better with modern tech teams.
Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden
Even though this book has been around for a while, we still think it's the best book on integrating UX design with development. Agile, Lean, and UX design can be complicated topics, but Gothelf and Seiden make them simple and compatible. Jeff has a few other books that offer similar lessons, like Sense & Respond or some of his self-published books, but we still think Lean UX is the best place to start if you're a designer working at a startup. Our main takeaway from this book is that UX, Agile, and Lean don't just get along...they complement each other.
Bonus for 2021 and Beyond
In 2020, there were many trends toward improving digital environments' quality due to our global lockdown. In 2021, we will likely see even more complex digital environments emerge. These digital worlds will become so complicated that you need a new mindset to manage them.
Systems thinking is precisely the mindset designers need to understand an increasingly complex world. If you want to stay relevant in 2021 and beyond, you need to start building a systems-thinking mindset today to prepare for tomorrow's challenges.
Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
Thinking in Systems was the last book Donella Meadows published, and it is a masterpiece. She was one of the best communicators in systems thinking, making her book an excellent introduction to the topic. Our main takeaway from this book was that every major problem on our planet feels solvable with a systems thinking lens.
If you’re interested in learning more about the double diamond, we have a six-week online course for working UX, UI, and product designers called Advanced UX Design for the Real World.
Learn More
Read about the history, usage, and future of the Double Diamond Design Process Model. This time-tested model will help you to think like UX, Product, or Service Designer.
