Besides practice, books are the cheapest and most effective way of improving your knowledge and skills. If you’re not always reading a book, you’re stagnating. Here’s a list of my favorite books on UX, UI, usability and general design. I’ve also written longer reviews of some of these books, the links for which you’ll find in the descriptions below.
Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links, which means that I earn a commission (at no additional cost for you) if you choose to make a purchase.
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- The Design of Everyday Things
- by Don Norman
- Ever find yourself struggling to figure out where a certain option or a button is in an app? You look for it the obvious locations, but it’s just nowhere to be found. You finally discover it in some nonsensical place. It’s a kind of “Norman door,”—named after Don Norman’s analysis of doors that are difficult to open—a piece of UI that doesn’t make sense. The original title of this book was “The Psychology of Everyday Things,” and that’s what it’s about: understanding how your user thinks so that the interfaces you make can match their expectations. This is a must-read classic. You can read my full review here. Get it on Amazon.
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- Don’t Make Me Think
- by Steve Krug
- This is another usabilty classic, and it’s clear to see why. It’s a short, engaging read filled with examples to convey a simple, but fundamental point: your readers don’t want to think. The way you look at an interface will be different from the way the user sees it because your familiarity with the design and your goals differ. In this book you’ll learn how your users really think, which will drastically improve the quality of your work and ensure its success. Get it on Amazon.
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- Rocket Surgery Made Easy
- by Steve Krug
- Jakob Nielsen found that it takes just 5 test users to discover the vast majority of usability issues with your website or app. This means that you don’t need a lot of time or money to test your work—even the smallest effort put into testing will pay dividends. But how do you actually run a user test? This is the book that answers that question by walking you through all the steps needed to test your work with real users. Read my full review here. Get it on Amazon.
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- Lean UX
- by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden
- With its instant distribution, the Internet has transformed the business of software from products to processes. There are no finished products—everything is a work in progress. The businesses that can adapt their products fastest to meet market needs win. While Agile methodologies have focused on the code side of things, Lean UX takes design into the new era. Get it on Amazon.
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- Envisioning Information
- by Edward R. Tufte
- With the ever growing amount of data collected and processed by business and consumer products, the ways of visualizing that data are becoming ever more important. Tufte’s classic is a fascinating journey through a collection of visualizations that go beyond the flat and boring charts, graphs and tables that we typically come across. Get it on Amazon.
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- Universal Principles of Design
- by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler
- This is a very broad reference book of over 100 major design principles. Its value lies in the fact that the authors have organized the principles in the contents by their function, meaning that it gives you the tools to answer questions like: how to improve usability, how to influence the way a design is perceived, and how to make it look better. Get it on Amazon.
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- Web Form Design
- by Luke Wroblewski
- Forms are one of the most important parts of a website, especially web businesses. At the same time, they are one of the most annoying things from the user’s perspective. How well a form is designed will mean the difference between a new sale and a user abandoning the process altogether. Wroblewski’s book is a thoroughly researched guide on how to create forms that your users will actually be able to fill out without much fuss. Get it on Amazon.
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- The Laws of Simplicity
- by John Maeda
- Simplicity is one of the key goals for any consumer product, whether it’s an app or piece of hardware. John Maeda explores the principles of simplicity to help you think about ways of reducing and reshaping the chaos and complexity in your own work into something clean, clear and simple. The book itself is also beautifully produced (and typeset by the author). Read my full review here. Get it on Amazon.
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- The Elements of Typographic Style
- by Robert Bringhurst
- Typography is one of the most essential components of screen interfaces, and research shows that good typography is not subjective. Bringhurst’s book is considered by many a typography bible as it covers a massive amount of ground, from type history to guidelines on formatting and page layout. Get it on Amazon.
