- A comprehensive list of the best guides to designing and delivering experiences
Besides creating experiences, the Founders of, and contributors to, the WXO have written and read many books. This is our guide to the best books to help you think about experiences, understand the experience economy, and create memorable, meaningful, transformative and just plain fun experiences.
Like much of the WXO, this is a work in progress and built by the community. If you read through this list and think there is a great book on a sector of the experience economy that should be here, let us know.
Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas by then MIT and now NYU researcher Natasha Dow Schull
Age of Experiences by University of Iowa sociologist Ben Hunnicutt
Agencies and Brands in the Experience Economy
Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Dont Make Sense
Art of Gathering, The
Why do some moments take off and others fizzle? What’s the difference between the gatherings that inspire you and the ones that don’t?
In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker gets to the heart of these questions and reveals how to design a transformative gathering. An expert on organizing successful gatherings whether in conference centres or her living room, Parker shows us how to create moving, magical, mind-changing experiences – even in spaces where we’ve come to expect little.
Computers As Theatre
Presents a new theory of human-computer activity. Building on Aristotle’s analysis of the form and structure of drama, Laurel shows how similiar principles can help us understand what people experience when interfacing with computers.
Designing Experiences
by WXO Founding Circle members Mat Duerden and Bob Rossman
J. Robert Rossman and Mathew D. Duerden present a comprehensive and accessible introduction to experience design. They synthesize the fundamental theories and methods from multiple disciplines and lay out a process for designing experiences from start to finish. Rossman and Duerden challenge us to reflect on what makes a great experience from the user’s perspective. They provide a framework of experience types, explaining people’s engagement with products and services and what makes experiences personal and fulfilling. The book presents interdisciplinary research underlying key concepts such as memory, intentionality, and dramatic structure in a down-to-earth style, drawing attention to both the macro and micro levels
Employee Experience Advantage, The
by Jacob Morgan
This book explores the attributes that organizations need to focus on in each one of these environments to create COOL spaces, ACE technology, and a CELEBRATED culture. Featuring exclusive case studies, unique frameworks, and never before seen research, The Employee Experience Advantage guides readers on a journey of creating a place where people actually want to show up to work.
Ends
by WXO Founding Circle member Joe Macleod
Drawing on a plethora of sources in history, sociology, psychology and industry, Ends argues that we are taking the wrong approach to challenging the impact of consumption and that we need to create coherent endings in our product, service and digital experiences to rebalance this.
Event Design
by Ruud Jansen
This handbook lays the foundation for creating a common language. A language that can be spoken and understood by those who know and those who don’t yet know the mechanics of events. It is a pragmatic approach for designing and creating events that matter.
Experience Economy, The
by Jim Gilmore and WXO Founding Circle member Joe Pine
Gamification in Tourism
By Paul Bulencea & Roman Egger
Hooked
By WXO Founding Circle member Nir Eyal
‘A must-read for everyone who cares about driving customer engagement’ Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup
‘The most high bandwidth, high octane, and valuable presentation I have ever seen on this subject’ Rory Sutherland, vice chairman, Ogilvy & Mather
Indistractable
by WXO Founding Circle member Nir Eyal
‘A must-read’ Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck `This book is brilliant’ Matt Haig, author of Notes on a Nervous Plane
Irresistible
by NYU professor Adam Alter
“One of the most mesmerizing and important books I’ve read in quite some time. Alter brilliantly illuminates the new obsessions that are controlling our lives and offers the tools we need to rescue our businesses, our families, and our sanity.” –Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Originals and Give and Take
Isnt This Fun?
by Irish philosopher Michael Foley
Michael Foley, the author of bestselling The Age of Absurdity, wants to understand why he doesn’t appear to be experiencing as much ‘fun’ as everyone else . . .
Joy Of Work, The
by Bruce Daisley
The No.1 Sunday Times Business Bestseller
Service Profit Chain, The
Stealing Fire
by flow expert Steven Kotler
CNBC and Strategy + Business Best Business Book of 2017
“Steven and Jamie have done a wonderful job of balancing the promises, perils, and how-to prescriptions of engineering peak states such as ‘flow.'” —Tim Ferriss, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The 4-Hour Workweek
Storytelling Animal
by evolutionary expert Jonathan Gottschall
A NYTimes.com Editor’s Choice A Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Finalist “
A jaunty, insightful new book . . . [that] draws from disparate corners of history and science to celebrate our compulsion to storify everything around us.”
—New York Times
Time And How To Spend It
by WXO Founder James Wallman
A Financial Times Book of the Year
‘Genius … I couldn’t put it down, I read it from cover to cover’
CHRIS EVANS
Transformational Travel Journal, The
by co-founder of the Transformational Travel Council TTC)
Writers Journey, The
User Friendly
by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant
Worlds of Wonder
