I’ve been reading Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter, the lead designer for MailChimp. It’s a quick read, very engaging, and infinitely useful. I’d been in a bit of a creative slump, focusing on navigation patterns, getting inspiration from great work other people are doing, and generally avoiding the being creative part. This book has definitely gotten me back on track.
I found the most helpful part of the book to be an exercise in Creating a Design Persona for you Site. An excerpt of this section is available on the author’s site, as well as a template and example available for download.