In the attempt to show who we are and what take we have on software design (by we, I mean the freaks in the TraceWorks design dept.), I’ve collected a list of sources from which we gather our inspiration.

The amount of information available on interface design today is massive compared to last century when I started practicing this mystical art form. By that I mean to warn you dear reader, that we’re only human(ish) and the list is by no means the complete list of everything worth knowing.

Consider it a good starting point, and by all means tell us if you know of something we should check out. Ok! here we go:

Clever people

• Donald Norman, author of Design of Everyday Things, which we read a hundred years ago and started our crusade against poor design.
• Alan Cooper, a fairly new addition to our inspiration chest. We found out that we share the same views on software design, but Cooper has formalized it into a method called Goal Directed Design (which is what we’re tampering with at the moment).
• 37 signals, we where very inspired by these guys in the early days. They where sort of the first to shout out that business software don’t have to suck.
• Jeffrey Zeldman, author of Designing With Web Standards, and the master mind behind a list apart
• Edward Tufte, the man to see for theory on information graphics (although his books is a wee bit on the dry side).
• Seth Godin, has some pretty good points on marketing and product design, along with a good sense of humor.
• Henrik Birkvig Danish author of several graphic design books. Basic but imperative knowledge for any designer.

Blogs in our RSS reader
Here’s a list of blogs about design, software, or technology that we read frequently. To describe each one individually would make both you and I sleepy. Because, you probably know how it is with blogs; you read some of the posts, others you ignore, and they even post the same stories now and again. So it’s really just about leeching the information you want from all of them at the same time.

• xBlog: The visual thinking weblog
• information aesthetics
• Cool Hunting
• The Dashboard Spy
• Smashing Magazine
• TechCrunch
• Mashable
• Logic + emotion

Of course there’s a lot more than these on the radar, but if tied naked to a seatless chair with a eastern European gangster holding a set of red hot pliers uncomfortably close to my reproductive organs, that is the list I’d make.

Books
Here’s a list of books on the theory of product design and interface design. Some of them you should read cover to cover, others you can just pick out the tasty bits you need in what ever design task you’re facing.

They’re pretty good for proving points as well. People tend to believe what they read in books. So should you, may higher powers forbid it, be confronted with a disbeliever in you team, you can always slam “the manual” on the table and say “it says so right here”. I’d recommend a slightly more gentle approach if you’re dealing with clients though.

I’ve collected them all in an Amazon list here, if you want to investigate further.

This one is in Danish.

Smukkere grafisk design a danish book by Henrik Birkvig. If you’re an experienced designer, you’ll probably not learn anything new from this book. But it’s pretty cool for brushing up on basic design principles now and again.