10+ Best Books for UX Design Beginners 2024 Edition

We’ve also made sure to encompass different areas of UX, from design and research to strategy. In the digital landscape, user experience (UX) design holds a pivotal role. Every pixel, every interaction, and every piece of visual communication online is an element of UX design. Gain confidence using product data to design better, justify design decisions, and win stakeholders. In Change By Design, IDEO CEO Tim Brown explains design thinking—a collaborative, human-centered approach to innovation—and how it can help to transform products and organizations. In this list, we’ve curated a classic core library of UX books that will allow you to dive deep into the concepts and principles of UX design—and how to apply them in the everyday workspace.

“Designing with the Mind in Mind” explores perceptual and cognitive psychology and how it can inform effective UI design. It provides insights into human decision-making, hand-eye coordination, color perception, and memory, offering a strong foundation for user-centric design. Through “The Paradox of Choice,” Schwartz contends that while the abundance of choice may appear beneficial, it often leads to frustration and dissatisfaction. If you understand how people think, you can make your designs better by focusing on what users need, not just what they want. “User Friendly” by Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant explores how design principles subtly shape our daily lives and the world around us. The authors weave a historical narrative and chart the evolution of user-experience design from a niche concept to a universal reality in our digital age.

Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems by Steve Krug

He’s known for his practical approach and engaging writing style, making complex UX concepts accessible to a wide audience. Since user needs and desires are malleable, products need to adapt continuously. This book provides a great approach to prioritizing your users in a sensible fashion. If you’ve been working at a modern product company, you won’t find this book ground-breaking. However, I found it to be an extremely valuable read since it gives structure to lingering ideas and reinforces them. Overall, “100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People” is a valuable resource for designers of all levels, providing practical advice and interesting insights into the design field.

• Understanding the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital interfaces is perhaps the single most valuable non-design skill you can develop.
• Understanding user psychology is crucial in UX design, and “100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People” is a treasure trove of such knowledge.
• The following books are a combination of ageless user experience literature as well as recent publications that can aid in establishing a solid base in the field of user experience.
• It goes beyond basic design principles and delves into the strategic aspects of product development.

The book offers insights into how to craft user-centric copy that helps users interact with products more effectively. We hope you find this list of some of the best UI design books helpful. Regardless if you’re new to UI UX design or a professional product designer, there’s always room to learn and improve your design process and design skills. It mixes psychology and UX research with real-life examples to help you understand your users on a deeper level.

UX design reference books

Marsh discusses the optimal timing for research implementation and showcases how a deep understanding of users can improve product and service design. In this book, Evans links cognitive psychology with UX design principles. He explores the psychological processes that influence design success and shares hypotheses for research to meet user needs more effectively.

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. “Lean UX” offers a fresh perspective on incorporating lean principles into the UX design process.

The Design of Everyday Things

Furthermore, it encourages readers to contemplate the future trajectory of UX design. Its lessons prepare you to innovate, adapt, and create exceptional user experiences. The key takeaway from this book is that understanding human psychological constraints is crucial for effective UX design. This book explains how to align digital designs with inherent bottlenecks in human nature. It provides case studies and strategies for marketing and product development in the social media age.

“The Elements of User Experience” also covers the general terminology of UX design and the relationship between different terms. I was particularly astounded by how the user-friendliness of equipment came to prominence only recently and how technology is becoming simpler and simpler until it becomes invisible. Also, the authors make many revelations about the influence of industrial design on interface design, which is a perspective that’s usually not highlighted much. Even if you already read about it in Medium articles, “Sprint” is a worthwhile read, especially if you’re an aspiring design lead or new to the startup environment. I didn’t feel like he was wasting my time by repeating the same things. Besides the content, the other reason I am so enthusiastic about “Refactoring UI” is that Wathan and Schoger respected my time.

What Is UX Design: Your Essential Guide to User Experience Fundamentals

As trends evolve and the best books to learn UI UX design change, we’ll be updating the content to ensure it remains relevant and valuable for your learning journey. This e-book talks about common UX hurdles and shares practical ways to navigate them. It sheds light on the power of storytelling to create engaging and captivating user experiences. Marsh, a seasoned UX researcher, offers insights into implementing UX research effectively within an organization.

Within its pages, readers will find ten revolutionary principles that unlock their artistic potential and lead them towards a more enriched and imaginative life. This manual deals ui ux design books with how to make digital systems more human by exploring how conversations are designed. Chapter 3 explains how to put the principles of this type of design into practice.

Seductive Interaction Design: Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences

Venturing into the world of interface animation, Val Head’s book is among the best books for UX design beginners seeking to craft engaging and meaningful motion designs. Thoughtful inclusion of animations can greatly enhance user experiences and boost user interaction. This instructional guide equips you to proficiently navigate the realm of animation in UX design. If you’re wondering what “perceptual and cognitive psychology” is, don’t worry! This book is essentially about the psychology behind the user interface design principles and rules that we know today. Understanding the psychology behind how users behave and interact with digital interfaces is perhaps the single most valuable non-design skill you can develop.

I skimmed this book but based on my impressions, it’s a concise overview of all important UX concepts. You’ll learn about things like midstream changes, deferred choices, satisficing, incremental construction, microbreaks, spatial memory, and so on. The biggest benefit of reading this book is that it will help you communicate more professionally.

The book provides practical advice on the most up-to-date  user research methods and data interpretation techniques. Steve Krug’s “Don’t Make Me Think” underscores the power of simplicity and consistency in web design. He advocates for intuitive, skim-friendly interfaces and emphasizes the importance of user testing. Krug suggests that, while creativity is important, it shouldn’t compromise the expected consistency unless it enhances the user experience. The above-mentioned 10 UX design books are not just simple manuals for effective designing but rather serve as guides to refine your skills and master the art of UI/UX designing. Her personal stories and insightful commentary provide a unique perspective for aspiring user experience designers.