Experience Design Resources

The Art of Gathering
by Priya Parker

How we meet and why it matters. A transformative exploration of the power, purpose, and benefits of gatherings in our lives.

The Power of Moments
by Chip Heath & Dan Heath

Explore why certain brief experiences can jolt us and elevate us and change us—and how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our life and work.

The Umami Strategy
by Aga Szóstek

Enjoyable, practical and full of hidden gems and tips, this book will help you build a unique market value through delivering memorable experiences to your customers.

A More Beautiful Question
by Warren Berger

The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. Questioning—deeply, imaginatively, "beautifully"—can help us identify and solve problems, come up with game-changing ideas, and pursue fresh opportunities.

The Book of Beautiful Questions
by Warren Berger

A follow up to A More Beautiful Question, this book goes deeper into the powerful questions that will help you decide, create, connect, and lead.

Frame Innovation
by Kees Dorst

Create new thinking by design. How organizations can use practices developed by expert designers to solve today's open, complex, dynamic, and networked problems.

The Power of Ritual
by Casper ter Kuile

How to create meaning and connection in everything you do.

How Emotions Are Made
by Lisa Feldman Barrett

A new theory of how the brain constructs emotions that could revolutionize psychology, health care, law enforcement, and our understanding of the human mind.

Designing Experiences
by J. Robert Rossman and Mathew D. Duerden

The authors present a comprehensive and accessible introduction to experience design synthesizing the fundamental theories and methods from multiple disciplines and lay out a process for designing experiences from start to finish.

Get Together
by Bailey Richardson, Kevin Huynh & Kai Elmer Sotto

A guide to cultivating a community—people who come together over what they care about. Stories, prompts, and principles for each stage of cultivating a passionate group of people.

Orchestrating Experiences
by Chris Risdon

Orchestrating Experiences is a practical guide for designers and everyone struggling to create products and services in complex environments.

Design Justice
by Sasha Costanza-Chock

Community-led practices to build the worlds we need.

The Shape of Engagement
by Scott Gould

This short but incisive book demystifies and breaks down engagement into seven profoundly simple shapes that explain the mysteries behind what makes people form enduring connections with ideas, brands, organizations, and each other.

Dare to Lead
by Brené Brown

This is a book for everyone who is ready to choose courage over comfort, make a difference and lead.

Creative Confidence
by Tom Kelley and David Kelley

David and Tom Kelley identify the principles and strategies that will allow us to tap into our creative potential in our work and personal lives, and innovatively approach and solve problems.

Experience: Culture, Cognition, and the Common Sense
by Caroline A. Jones, David Mather, and Rebecca Uchill

A book that produces sensory experiences while bringing the concept of experience itself into relief as a subject of criticism and an object of contemplation.

The Field Guide to Human-Centered Design
by IDEO

The Field Guide comes with 57 design methods, the key mindsets that underpin how and why design can change lives, a full slate of worksheets, and case studies from projects that show human-centered design in action. Download the PDF for free.

The Positive Design Reference Guide
by Simon Jimenez, Anna Pohlmeyer, and Pieter Desmet

The Positive Design Reference Guide focuses on the why, what and how of human experience – both in general, and in relation to design for well-being. Available as a PDF.

The Age of Experiences
by Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt

Harnessing happiness to build a new economy. In today’s marketplace there is less interest in goods and services and more interest in buying and selling personal improvements and experiences.

Odyssey Works: Transformative Experiences for an Audience of One
by Abraham Burickson and Ayden LeRoux

Odyssey Works believes that art can be meaningful. They believe that it can elevate the lives of everyone involved. They believe that every person in this world has the right to be brought to their knees by beauty, and they’ve dedicated their lives to figuring out how. This book is the culmination of their research.

Designing for Impact: Transformational Experience Design Model
by Andy Sontag

Why you need to design experiences holistically

The 5E Experience Design Model
by Andy Sontag

A step by step guide to designing meaningful experiences

Relational Experience Design
by Andy Sontag

How to use experience design to build meaningful relationships

How the Japanese Concept of Ichigo Ichie Can Tune You in to Your Life
by Héctor García

Magical coincidences are about attention to moments, not luck

The Role of Experiential Design in an Increasingly Disconnected Society
by Damian Madray

Designing for Connection to Self, Other and Nature.

Branding is Dead, CX is King
by Micah Bowers

The days of crafting brands without incorporating a customer experience design mindset are drawing to a close.

Positive Design: An Introduction to Design for Subjective Well-Being
by Pieter Desmet and Anna Pohlmeyer

This paper introduces a general framework for designing for subjective well-being and discusses research challenges in the domain of “Positive Design.”

From Good to the Greater Good
by Pieter Desmet and Anna Pohlmeyer

This paper outlines why and how design can (and cannot) support the sustainable wellbeing of individuals and communities.

The Art of Asking a Great Question
by Mighty Networks

The guide to 1,000 great community questions is a great guide for creating community engagement.

Seed Cards

50 cards that help generate new ideas for designing experiences by Aga Szóstek.

Lifeline Cards

Printable cards from IDEO that create a shared critique vocabulary to reach a new level of creative excellence, discourse, and awareness in your work.

Design Kit Travel Pack

Curated by IDEO.org designers based on their experience in the field, this tool can be used by anyone tackling big challenges to design more creative, impactful solutions to big challenges.

We’re Not Really Strangers

A purpose driven card game and movement all about empowering meaningful connections. Three carefully crafted levels of questions and wildcards that allow you to deepen your existing relationships and create new ones.

Conversation Menus

We typically spend a lot of time getting the food right when we invite others over for a meal, but in the end what makes a really great occasion is—of course—always the conversation around the table. Arranged to accompany each course, these twenty beautifully designed Conversation Menus lead us artfully to some of the most fascinating and revealing conversation topics.

Cards for Humanity

A practical tool to help you design more inclusively. Inclusive design allows everyone to access, use and enjoy a service experience. No matter what their situation or context.

Norn

Norn is an interpersonal way to explore what matters to you. Think deeper in conversation with your friends, family or partner.