1. The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability
The first book that inspired me to create meaningful design is by Ann Thorpe. I read quite a while ago. I used the book for the course Sustainable Product Design. Before I read this book, no book has crossed my path with such to the point tips for designers.
2. Designing Things
When I started my research project, I loved to go to the university library to find books about meaningful designs and designing with values. I found a book by Prasad Boradkar. This book is easy to read and loaded with examples and theory. That was the book that helped me formulating what values are and how to use them as a designer.
Designing Things: A Critical Introduction to the Culture of Objects
3. Innovation Design
Another book that helped me through the first period of trying to understand the topic is by Elke den Ouden. She not only included design theory in her work, but also perspectives from psychology, sociology, and business. It a great resource for theory.
Next to that her book provides two concrete tools you could use in teams or networked innovation to get insight in all value perspectives of project stakeholders and value flows between them.
Innovation Design: Creating Value for People, Organizations and Society