Mint Digital

Seth Godin’s compiling a list of 300 books that provide a better education that an MBA. Here’s a suggested reading list for the web design & marketing module:

Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
The best book on creating websites that are a pleasure to use. Fun to read but never simplistic.

Philip and Alex’s Guide to Web Publishing by Philip Greenspun
This book opened my eyes to the ecology of the web, the value of sharing and the power of communities. It’s antique, its technological recommendations are obsolete, but it is still a rousing polmic. Free online version.

The Big Red Fez by Seth Godin
Hammers home one important point: don’t think of a web user as an intelligent human carefully weighing up all the options you present him with. Instead, think of the user as a monkey in a big red fez, manically searching for the next banana.

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
If you are coming to web design from an analytical background, you’ll need to present ideas in a snappier, more visual way. This book is a great demonstration of visual thinking for habitual bookworms.

Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples
If you’re interested in the web, direct marketing is the advertising medium you can learn most from: copy works hard, facts beat hype, testing is key. Caples was a master copywriter who shot to fame in 1925. If you are ever stuck for a headline, flick through this book and rejig one of his.

Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
Secrets of success from an advertising phenomenon. Ogilvy attributed much of his success to his direct marketing background. Learn from the master.

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill
Every website is selling - be it products, services or ideas. Underhill has spent 20 years watching shoppers’ every move - and understanding the subtleties of what facilitates, or blocks, the purchasing decision.

Visual Explanations by Edward Tufte
In impassioned and beautiful plea for clarity and simplicity in information design.

Peopleware by Tom Demarco and Timothy Lister
If you’re involved in websites, you may end up managing geeks. This book shows how. In short: give them responsibility, give them space and give them quiet.

Collapse by Jared Diamond
If you are thinking about an MBA, there’s a chance you’ll already have been infected with the cold, atomised worldview of contemporary economics. Collapse is the antidote. It demonstrates what successful businessmen (and Indian mystics) have long known: everything is connected.