11 essential UI/UX design books for beginners
These are my reviews of some of the most (and not so) popular books about product & UX design.
Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan, Steve Schoger
Refactoring UI offers good, hands-on advice on how you can bring your designs to the next level. Moreover, how to make simple design decisions that could greatly improve your end product. It’s full of simple UI examples and comparisons as well as useful tips on how to step up your UI game. The book aims to teach you the best practices that you can apply to any app or website. It does not dive deep into great detail, but the book is ideal for non-designers or UI designers at the beginning of their careers, as it covers the aspects of typography, layout, colour theory and use of whitespace. It would teach you how to keep things simple and easy for end-users.
Solving Product Design Exercises: Questions & Answers by Artiom Dashinsky
I know, I know, there are plenty of articles and videos on how to prepare and hack the product design interview, why bother and spend money on a book, when you can google it? Well, as a person who is new in the design field I think this book is a must-have if you have started looking for a job. Artiom shares his advice on how to perform better during job interviews. The book gives an overview of what to expect during the hiring process. One of the most useful things for me is that it offers a framework for solving design challenges. I spent a lot of time going through videos and articles dedicated to whiteboard challenges but more often than not I struggled to find a clear framework. For me, the book is a great guide for tackling on-site and home challenges from companies. Artiom’s framework helped me structure my design process and changed my workflow, the 5W1H rule is something I will keep using in the future. I recommend getting this book if you are new to product design exercises and/or are preparing to apply for jobs. There are also a bunch of great challenges for practice. Overall, a great book to keep referencing to.
Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience by Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden
This book is definitely a must-read for designers, however, it is best suited for people who are already familiar with or have some experience with Lean methodologies. Lean UX gives a great overview of how UX can work in an agile environment, as the book goes into the specifics about how to integrate designers into the iterative approach of a lean strategy. All in all, if you want to broaden your understanding of how UX design and agile practices could go hand in hand, you should give it a try. The book is quite practical and for those new to this methodology, it’s definitely a great start on learning a different process and mindset for development.
User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product by Jeff Patton, Peter Economy
User Story Mapping gives lots of examples and practical insights on product development planning and how to create better user story mapping. The first few chapters of the book focus on how to do user story mapping, while the rest of the book is dedicated to product discovery process and techniques, such as the lean startup and design thinking. I do believe it could have been shorter, as you might find it repetitive at times, especially if you are already familiar with Agile. Still, there are many useful and feasible ideas, so I highly recommend it to people building products.
Seductive Interaction Design: Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences by Stephen P. Anderson
It’s a great book if you are just starting with user interaction design. I don’t think it’s for a seasoned UI/UX designer as some of the concepts may seem basic. The book is relatively small but is filled with lots of useful tips, including how little tweaks in design can lead to better results. The author links universal psychological principles to UX design examples. In the second part of the book, Anderson describes the psychology behind what’s known as gamification. In other words, how to make a good, functioning website or app a one that keeps “seducing” users to come back. Personally, I’d love a revised version, which shows more recent examples. However, the fundamental principles are still true, if we can look beyond the latest trends.
Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton
Lupton provides a brief history of type, key theories and practical advice, which I found very helpful for those not formally trained in typography or design. Very informative and well-structured book. A great guide for beginners. It provides a lot of tips on how to choose a typeface, how to combine typefaces in order to achieve contrast etc. It is among the first books you should read when you are starting with design.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us is not on the usual UI/UX lists of books. However, the more books on UI/UX I read the more is Pink’s book referenced (including by Stephen P. Anderson in Seductive Interaction Design).
Actually, this was one of the first books I read this year because I was genuinely curious about what is that motivates us. One of the main ideas is that rewards can be used to motivate people to do tasks, as long as they are relatively mindless tasks that require little creativity or thought. However, rewards backfire, if the tasks require creativity or original thinking of any sort. Pink expands on the idea of intrinsic vs extrinsic motivations. I would recommend it to anyone who is building a product or improving engagement and user experience using gamification elements as it is a great read on motivational psychology.
Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug
Don’t Make Me Think is one of the top books that you have to read when you are just starting with UI/UX. This book is an excellent introduction to the area of web and mobile usability and as the title states, Krug offers a common-sense approach to web usability. Some examples are outdated, but the concepts are still quite relevant. #oldbutgold The book lays out some clear and effective principles as well as basic tips for building and improving user interfaces. Krug talks about the importance of ‘ease of use’ and how user experience is the key to any successful type of website. I would absolutely recommend it to everyone as a starting point to UI design.
100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan M. Weinschenk
Simple and straight to the point, Susan Weinschenk’s book is a very useful tool for a beginner designer. It’s hard to imagine that an experienced designer wouldn’t be familiar with the design facts presented in the book. An interesting read if you want to quickly grasp the basics of UI/UX design principles which are commonly used. Furthermore, Weinschenk provides information on the latest experiments and gives insights into customers’ psychology that drives their behaviour.
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
Absolutely loved it! An extremely valuable book for anyone building products designed to engage people frequently. If you are wondering why you are still scrolling on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, well this book has the answers. It is a perfect introduction to behavioural product psychology as Nir Eyar shares his insights on psychology, business, and tech using a four-fold model, which explains how to create habit-forming products. One of the main ideas for engaging users is having triggers. An external trigger — like an email or notification or ad that brings the user back. However, the best products also form internal triggers. Our emotions often drive our behaviour, and each emotion is mapped to a set of products we could use to “scratch the itch”, as Eyar calls it, of whatever we are feeling. Ultimately, these mappings become habits. It’s really a must-read if you want to understand the psychology behind what drives our behaviour in a world where there are so many services competing for our attention.
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
If you are thinking “hold on, hold on, this girl just missed The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, I saw it on every list about UI/UX books”. As the saying goes, save the best for last. This is, without doubt, the most well-known design book and I’d highly recommend it to anyone pursuing a career in design, product, tech, or anyone who just wants to build great products. The book introduces basic psychological concepts from different areas, such as cognitive psychology and ties them into usability and design. Even though the book feels a bit outdated, all the principles covered in it are still accurate and can be applied today. Again, #oldbutgold. I don’t want to spoil too much, all I will say is: A classic for a reason!
