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Open-Source, Open-Access Literature
The democratization of design knowledge is at the very heart of our mission. That’s why—over 18 years after we started—we will never stop bringing leading designers, bestselling authors, and Ivy League professors together to create open-source, free-to-access textbooks on UX design. This is the world’s most comprehensive compendium of design knowledge, made available to everyone around the world.

The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed.
Free textbooks written by more than 100 leading designers, bestselling authors, and Ivy League professors. We have assembled our textbooks in a gigantic encyclopedia, whose 4,000+ pages cover the design of interactive products and services such as websites, household objects, smartphones, computer software, aircraft cockpits, and what have you. Name an item of design interest, and you'll probably find it discussed inside.
Table of Contents
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1Interaction Design - brief introby Jonas Löwgren
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2Human Computer Interaction - brief introby John M. Carroll
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3User Experience and Experience Designby Marc Hassenzahl
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4Social Computingby Thomas Erickson
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5Visual Representationby Alan Blackwell
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6Industrial Designby Kees Overbeeke and Caroline Hummels
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7Bifocal Displayby Robert Spence and Mark Apperley
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8Contextual Designby Karen Holtzblatt and Hugh R. Beyer
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9Mobile Computingby Jesper Kjeldskov
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10End-User Developmentby Margaret M. Burnett and Christopher Scaffidi
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11Philosophy of Interactionby Dag Svanaes
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12Affective Computingby Kristina Höök
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13Requirements Engineeringby Alistair G. Sutcliffe
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14Context-Aware Computingby Albrecht Schmidt
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15Usability Evaluationby Gilbert Cockton
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16Activity Theoryby Victor Kaptelinin
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17Disruptive Innovationby Clayton M. Christensen
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18Open User Innovationby Eric von Hippel
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19Visual Aestheticsby Noam Tractinsky
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20Tactile Interactionby Ben Challis
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21Somaestheticsby Richard Shusterman
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22Card Sortingby William Hudson
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23Wearable Computingby Steve Mann
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24Socio-Technical System Designby Brian Whitworth and Adnan Ahmad
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25Semioticsby Clarisse Sieckenius de Souza
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26Aesthetic Computingby Paul A. Fishwick
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27Computer Supported Cooperative Workby Jonathan Grudin and Steven Poltrock
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28Phenomenologyby Shaun Gallagher
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29Formal Methodsby Alan Dix
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30Personasby Lene Nielsen
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31Ethnographyby Dave Randall and Mark Rouncefield
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323D User Interfacesby Doug A. Bowman
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33Action Researchby Ned Kock
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34Experimental Methods in Human-Computer Interactionby Paul Cairns
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35Data Visualization for Human Perceptionby Stephen Few
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38Human-Robot Interactionby Kerstin Dautenhahn
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39User Interface Design Adaptationby Fabio Paterno
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40Emotion and website designby Dianne Cyr
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41Human-Data Interactionby Richard Mortier, Hamed Haddadi, Tristan Henderson, Derek McAuley, Jon Crowcroft and Andy Crabtree
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42Design for Allby Constantine Stephanidis
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43Research through Designby Pieter Jan Stappers and Elisa Giaccardi
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44Affordancesby Victor Kaptelinin
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52Semi-structured qualitative studiesby Ann Blandford
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53Service Designby John Zimmerman and Jodi Forlizzi
Research Bibliography
Browse the world’s largest Wiki Bibliography on human-centered technology, comprising 138,000 authors in more than 127,000 publications.
Contributing Authors
We are honored to have these highly regarded professors and experts as contributing authors of our educational materials:

Don Norman is widely regarded as the creator of the term “UX design.” An expert in design, usability, and cognitive science, Norman strongly advocated for user-centered design, which now underpins almost all design fields. His ideas on aesthetics, affordances, and usability profoundly impact the way we design everything, from doors to software applications. In 1993, he joined Apple as a User Experience Architect—the first ever use of the phrase “user experience” in a job title. Norman’s books, The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design, are regarded as essential readings for any design student. He is currently director of The Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego, and is also co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group.

Clayton Christensen is a professor at the Harvard Business School, and is best known for creating the theory of disruptive innovation in his 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma. Christensen’s ideas are influential to business managers and designers alike, through reinforcing how design, business, and marketing should work hand-in-hand in order to create exceptional value and commercial success. His insight is that market disruption—i.e., a new market overtaking an existing one—is not about technological sophistication, but rather about how technology is innovatively applied to achieve a new and better business model—that is, how technology is designed to create value for users.

Frank Spillers is a web and software usability expert and is the founder of usability consultancy firm Experience Dynamics. With a MSc in Cognitive Science, and eleven years of experience in UX design, Spillers has worked with clients such as Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Microsoft. He is an experienced practitioner of user-centered and emotional design, and has developed a new research technique called “cognitive archeology,” which aids experts when researching emotional product design.

Stuart Card is a pioneer of human-computer interaction (HCI), and played a significant role in designing Xerox PARC’s first commercial mouse. His research led to the first graphical user interface (GUI) employing a desktop metaphor, making reference to a desktop, folders, and files. The fact that operating systems today still use the desktop metaphor is a testament to the incredible impact of the research by Card and his team of designers. Card also contributed to the formulation of Fitts’ Law, which describes the time required to point a mouse at a target. This has influenced the way we design navigation user interface elements, such as menus and buttons.

Eric von Hippel is an economist and professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His idea of user innovation—that innovation is mostly done by consumers rather than suppliers—has impacted the way we design for innovation by challenging the assumption that innovation flows linearly from companies to end-users. In particular, von Hippel discovered that because products are designed to meet a wide range of consumers, these consumers often modify and refine the product to fit their specific needs. These innovations are then fed back to manufacturers, which further informs the companies’ innovations and reveals that, often, innovation happens non-linearly and in multiple stages.

Alan Dix is a computing professor at the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Centre of the University of Birmingham, UK. He is a co-author of the global, bestselling university-level textbook Human-Computer Interaction. Dix is passionate about designing things that connect humans and computers—everything from machines to software. He has co-authored and published hundreds of papers on HCI, covering topics ranging from information visualization and usability, to designing for appropriation.
We only invite contributions from globally recognized authorities within their respective design fields.
View more of our contributing authorsTop User Experience (UX) topics
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User Experience (UX) Design 178 articles
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Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) 49 articles
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Usability 48 articles
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User Interface Design 46 articles
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Design Thinking 45 articles
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User Research 40 articles
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Mobile User Experience (UX) Design 39 articles