The best UX Design books
Finding good books on user experience (UX) is no easy task, and who you learn from can largely determine the quality of what you learn. That’s why I find especially valuable UX books written by authors with many, many years of experience, who have faced hundreds of UX problems before.
The best UX Design books teach how to master the user experience to create accessible, intuitive designs and interfaces that guarantee users digital experiences that make them want to return to that page, interface, product or service.
After reviewing and considering more than twenty books on UX, in this guide I have collected what I consider to be the 7 best UX Design books you can find right now. I’ll also include some clues about each of them to help you know if it’s the perfect book for you.
The 7 best UX Design books of 2024
Laws of UX
- Author: Jon Yablonski
- Paperback: 150 pages
- Language English
Last price update on 2023-05-11. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
The best book for UX designers
Laws of UX stands out for exploring a section that is as important as it is overlooked by many people starting out in the world of UX design: understanding the relationship between human psychology and how it affects the way people perceive, process and interact with the world.
Its author is Jon Yablonski, an award-winning digital designer and senior product designer currently working on the next generation of interactive experiences for General Motors. Jon writes about design for publications such as A List Apart, Smashing Magazine and CSS Tricks.
In this guide, you will learn how key principles of psychology can be applied to create more intuitive and human-centered products and experiences, allowing you to design interfaces that are not only beautiful, but also tremendously effective.
The book has a practical approach. Throughout, the author deconstructs examples of well-known UX applications and designs to analyse, understand and propose how to build experiences that adapt to the psychology of users.
Laws of UX is a perfect book to establish solid UX principles, whether you are a beginner or an experienced designer who wants to improve the effectiveness of your UX designs.
View on AmazonDon’t make me think
- Author: Steve Krug
- Paperback: 216 pages
- Language English
Last price update on 2023-05-11. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
The best UX Design book
The premise of the book Don’t make me think is simple: users want to achieve their goal with as little effort as possible. Something that sounds obvious, but in practice we UX designers seem to have a hard time providing them with.
Therefore, the entire book revolves around understanding the user and providing you with the strategies and resources that allow you to design a satisfactory user experience. In addition, everything is always explained with a touch of humour and with dozens of easy-to-execute examples to learn, little by little, how to create a user-friendly UX design.
Steve Krug, its author, is a well-known author on UX design who has spent more than 25 years working as a consultant for a wide variety of clients including Apple, Bloomberg, Lexus, NPR and the International Monetary Fund. He also has a consulting firm, Advanced Common Sense.
Whether you are a beginner or an experienced UX designer, Don’t Make Me Think will prove to be a very useful book, as it is full of tools to better understand and argue your UX decision-making. This will allow you to communicate more easily and fluently with colleagues and clients, which can help you progress faster professionally.
View on AmazonLean UX
- Author: Jeff Gothelf
- Paperback: 168 pages
- Language English
Last price update on 2023-05-11. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
The best book on UX strategy
If you read or are familiar with the agile methodology popularized by the book The Lean Startup , you will love Lean UX, as it applies the same concepts adapted to the strategy for UX design.
Its author is Jeff Gothelf, an expert in hardware and software design with more than 20 years of experience, as well as an internationally recognized speaker. He is currently Executive Director of the prestigious Visual Thinking School, Neo New York.
In this book, Jeff explains new techniques and tools to achieve greater collaboration between different departments, faster turnarounds and much better designs. As a result, you will achieve more user-friendly interfaces, smoother collaboration and a much more agile production process.
At the end of the book, the first feeling you get is that you wish you had read this book much earlier, so I recommend putting it at the top of any list you have on UX strategies.
View on AmazonUX for Beginners
- Author: Joel Marsh
- Paperback: 256 pages
- Language English
Last price update on 2023-05-11. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
The best book for UX design beginners
If you want to learn the knowledge and skills needed to get started in UX, consider UX for Beginners the best shortcut to quickly understand and put into practice the fundamentals of user experience in the real world.
Its author, Joel Marsh, has over a decade of experience as a professional designer, with clients including international brands such as Absolut Vodka, McDonald’s, Samsung and Volvo. He has also been a freelance designer and has worked for successful companies such as Stardoll, Piczo and Trustpilot.
The author maintains a fun tone throughout the one hundred lessons in which the book is divided, always short, with simple and illustrated explanations. This makes it a very enjoyable book, easy to read and even easier to understand, which is why I highly recommend it.
View on AmazonThe User Experience Team of One
- Author: Leah Buley
- Paperback: 266 pages
- Language English
Last price update on 2023-05-11. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
The best book for UX Designers working on their own
This book is a practical guide for UX designers working without resources or a UX team to support them. If this is your case, you will find in it the resources and the necessary approach to develop your UX projects, focusing on what really matters.
The author is Leah Buley, a California-based researcher and designer with more than 20 years of experience in the industry. Leah is a strong advocate of evidence-based approaches to ensure effectiveness and demonstrates this in her book.
This book gets straight to the point, showing you what works in the UX design process and what is a waste of time. It doesn’t matter if you have enough UX team or if the team is just you, this book gives you tools and keys that will allow you to be more effective with fewer resources.
View on AmazonThink Like a UX Researcher
- Author: David Travis and Philip Hodgson
- Paperback: 294 pages
- Language English
Last price update on 2023-05-11. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
The best UX research book
From my experience, I would say that most UX projects that fail are due to research that is wrong in its approach or conclusions. However, Think Like a UX Researcher helps you rethink your methodology and think of new ways to approach the research process.
Its authors are David Travis and Philip Hodgson, two true experts in the field. David is an expert in ethnographic field research and usability testing, and in his more than 30 years of experience, he has taught more than 30,000 students. Philip is a UX researcher who has worked for all types of markets and products for over 25 years.
In Think Like a UX Researcher you will find several types of research methodologies that you can apply to your organization. In addition, the entire book is sprinkled with multiple examples, quite current, and lots of practical advice based on the experience of the two authors.
The best thing about this book is that it will help you take a more strategic view of the research process, which will end up being reflected in a better user experience. So, while UX researchers are its main audience, for me, it is also highly recommended for project managers, business analysts and designers, as it can help them better understand the whole process, as well as find tools, inspiration and fresh ideas to improve their UX-related processes and systems.
View on AmazonDesigning Interfaces
- Author: Jenifer Tidwell, Aynne Valencia and Charles Brewer
- Paperback: 600
- Language English
Last price update on 2023-05-11. We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
The best book on UI/UX Design
Translating UX strategy to interface design is not always easy, especially now, when the number of devices, screen sizes, channels and communication contexts are constantly growing and changing.
However, Designing Interfaces will help you identify patterns and solutions for the most common UI problems by showing you UI best practices, with all kinds of illustrated examples. In addition, the entire book is accompanied by practical tips from the author that will help you understand how to apply these solutions in your day-to-day work.
And speaking of the author, or rather authors of the book, I have to highlight Jenifer Tidwell, a UI designer and researcher with over 30 years of experience. She is also joined by Aynne Valencia, a designer with over eighteen years of professional digital design experience; and Charles Brewer, Director of UX and Product Design with over 25 years of experience.
If you are a beginner, you will find in this book a road map to the world of interface and interaction design. And if you are a professional, this book can help you polish some UI/UX knowledge, ideas and processes.
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