About Face
About Face by Alan Cooperby Alan Cooper
Shares rank 10 of 12 design books by recommenders
Recommended as an influential guide to interface design, offering useful perspective on designing well by learning from a master.
Recommended as an influential guide to interface design, offering useful perspective on designing well by learning from a master.
3 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 3
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 3 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Influential, formative design book
“One of the most influential books I ever read”
Comment from 21 Aug 2026 in “Yes/No/Cancel causes Aspirin sales to soar” Learn design as an apprentice
“to design well you need to take the role of the apprentice alongside the master”
Comment from 27 Mar 2026 on Hacker News Useful UI design perspective
“Consider picking up Alan Cooper's (perhaps somewhat dated) UI books for some useful perspective”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Palm OS User Interface Guidelines [pdf]”
Other design books people recommend
The four most recommended other design books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Design of Everyday Thingsby Don Norman | 29 | 2 | 94% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Refactoring UIby Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger | 14 | 3 | 82% | 3 | — | — |
| Don't Make Me Thinkby Steve Krug | 12 | 1 | 92% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Practical Typographyby Matthew Butterick | 10 | 3 | 77% | 8 | — | Approved |
| About Faceby Alan CooperThis page | 3 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 3 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“One of the most influential books I ever read”
“to design well you need to take the role of the apprentice alongside the master”
“Consider picking up Alan Cooper's (perhaps somewhat dated) UI books for some useful perspective”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.