book on universal design for teenager

December 13, 2007 8:00 AM

Is there an easy to understand book on universal design suitable for an adolescent?

My little brother, who just turned 16 in October, thinks he might be interested in studying universal design when he goes to college. I'd like to buy him a book for Christmas that gives him more information about it. When I searched amazon, it was hard to tell if any of the results would be accessible/interesting to a 16 year old.

Does such a book exist? He's interested in it from an engineering perspective, if that matters.

posted by rosethorn to Shopping (7 answers total)

Are you looking for a book on "how UD is done" - plans and implementation and so forth? Or are you looking for a book about the history of UD and where UD is today? If the latter, "Make Them Go Away" by Mary Johnson is a good one. (It goes beyond UD into disability theory/politics, but quite a bit of it is about the fight for infrastructure accessibility.)
posted by spaceman_spiff at 8:08 AM on December 13, 2007

I read books on universal design from my library from time to time. If he's interested in stuff and not web stuff, he might enjoy Access by Design by George Covington It is about ten years old so there are probably better ones out there, but this was a real explication of different things that make things more usable for everyone, including the disabled. It's a big picture book type book, lots of photos but also good things to read. I think it would make a nice present if it's not too out of date.
posted by jessamyn at 8:10 AM on December 13, 2007

Designing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen is a good read that's worth is not limited to the internet alone.
posted by daviss at 8:22 AM on December 13, 2007

Donald Norman's The Design of Everyday Things
posted by mumkin at 8:32 AM on December 13, 2007

The Center for Universal Design has a publication list.
posted by ochenk at 8:49 AM on December 13, 2007

Seconding Donald Norman. The book isn't about UD per se (it was first written in 1988), but it's an excellent primer on the need for UD, very accessible and simply written, and would be perfect for a 16-year-old.
posted by goo at 9:28 AM on December 13, 2007

The Universal Principals of Design
posted by quadog at 9:46 AM on December 13, 2007