When comparing Design for hackers vs Digital Design Essentials, the Slant community recommends Digital Design Essentials for most people. In the question“What are the best books on web design?” Digital Design Essentials is ranked 4th while Design for hackers is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Digital Design Essentials is:
This book works as a great reference for explaining design decisions to clients or coworkers, as both explanations and examples are provided.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro For programmers
The book is specifically written for developers who aren't sure how to approach design problems.
Pro Great as a reference
This book works as a great reference for explaining design decisions to clients or coworkers, as both explanations and examples are provided.
Pro Each topic includes a case study
Multiple case studies (over 100) are provided throughout the book to demonstrate the theory discussed.
Cons
Con Disjointed and hard to follow
Rather than providing proper context, and author frequently tries to tie points together by using backwards and forwards references ("As you've seen in chapter ___,").
Though there is a lot of interesting points throughout the book, nothing ties together so it can be hard to make sense of.
Con Too philosophical at times
The author goes into detail about things that would have been far better explained using practical examples.
For example, a rant on why Comic Sans is bad but no discussion on font selection for the context.
Con Basic overview of web design
This book is most beneficial for beginners just starting out with web design and UX as it's not a resource with much depth. Someone with an understanding of design essentials may find this book fairly repetitive and common sense.