Critical Web Design, xtine burrough & Owen Mundy, MIT Press, 2026

Critical web design, like critical design, employs a social usefulness to challenge the ways technology enters our lives. It reclaims the mechanisms, tools, and practices used to produce coercive and commercial interfaces, harnessing the power of design and networked information to question preconceptions about the medium itself. This engaging, practical textbook explores how to design for the web while maintaining a critical understanding of the technoculture that sustains it. Motivated by new media art practices and speculative design, xtine burrough and Owen Mundy teach readers to conceptualize, design, and program responsive websites as both an applied and creative practice.

Each chapter integrates coverage of the field's historical and cultural concepts with hands-on, technical exercises. The result is a timely, innovative guide that makes professional front end development tools accessible to all.

• Learn-by-doing approach builds technical skills in interface design, usability/accessibility, and coding in HTML/CSS and Javascript
• Historical, political, and philosophical context relates the “why” argument for learning to code
• Case studies and interviews with artists and designers bring ideas to life
• Extensive supplemental resources include code, exercises, examples, and videos

Chapters

1. Introduction
2. Networks
3. View Source
4. Critical Design
5. On the Grid
6. Usability & Forms
7. Off the Grid
8. Ethical by Design
9. Generative Design
10. Data Tracking
11. Design & Power
12. Distribution

Available at: MIT Press, Powell's, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Bookshop.org