Must-read books for every designer (Part II)
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Are you looking for good sources of UX knowledge? I’m sharing my reading list with must-read books for every designer. I strongly believe educating yourself is the answer to a better life.
I am a fierce reader. Last week I’ve already shared some great books for all of you interested in UX design, or for those of you simply interested in finding out exactly what UX is.
Since there so many great books on UX and Usability out there it can be hard to narrow it down to the very best ones! Because of it, I’ve carefully curated a collection that I definitely recommend reading. It includes titles that have helped me along my journey as a designer and I still refer to.
By reading from this collection you’ll be able to take some useful information from and make solid progress on your own journey to master UX.
Best UX Design Books
6. The Design of Everyday Things: Revised and Expanded Edition, by Don Norman
This is probably the most well-known design book. In this iconic book, Don Norman talks about what design is and how it affects how we use everyday items around us. These normal items are designed in a way to give us cues to tell us what they are used for, how they should be used and when they are successful. His learnings are easy to translate to digital media and should also be considered and used when designing for digital screens. One thing I promise: you will find yourself observing that design is everywhere — no matter how it is good or bad.
Categories: Usability, Psychology, Industrial Design, Design Thinking
7. Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days, by Jake Knapp
This book shows us what happens when process geeks meet design-thinking in internet time: schedules shrink from months to days, and prototypes are passed around for review by the weekend. The principles in this book can be applied to pretty much any business problem you’re looking to solve. The bigger the problem the better. The reason the approach is so popular is that it starts with design thinking and puts it on steroids. It’s a framework that brings tangible results in just 5 days. Beginners will learn lots but experts will also be reminded of what is the best foot forward with lots of eureka moments. It’s not a scam book, believe me.
Categories: Methods & Process; Prototyping; Strategy; Design Thinking
8. Atomic Design, by Brad Frost
This book introduces a methodology for thinking of our interfaces as thoughtful hierarchies. It discusses the qualities of effective pattern libraries and showcases techniques to transform your team’s design and development workflow. Atomic Design details all that goes into creating and maintaining robust design systems, allowing you to roll out higher quality, more consistent UIs faster than ever before.
Categories: Methods & Process; UI Design; Interaction Design; Visual Design
9. The Laws of Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life, by John Maeda
John Maeda starts the book by explaining a Simplicity in his self-imposed 100-page limit. It’s a very easy read book from the former MIT professor where he aims to provide insight into the value of simplicity in design, technology, business and life with 10 ‘laws of simplicity’ that are ordered in “increasingly complex conditions of simplicity”. At the surface, Maeda’s book can be applied to superficially improve daily tasks. At a much deeper level, it provides the tools to enable an optimized implementation of ideas, both in tech design and in life.
Categories: Methods & Processes; Business
10. Prototyping: A Practitioner’s Guide, by Todd Zaki Warfel
With this book, Todd Zaki shows how prototypes are more than just a design tool by demonstrating how they can help you market a product, gain internal buy-in, and test feasibility with your development team. The author also explores how prototyping is a great communication tool to show the intent of a design, both clearly and effectively, in order to test assumptions, and gather real-time feedback from users.
Category: Prototyping
Don’t forget Part I can be found here.
Enjoy your reading!
And if you have any books you would like to share, feel free to. Community is what makes us great!
