However, I found it to be an extremely valuable read since it gives structure to lingering ideas and reinforces them. Consequently, it’ll make your efforts more focused and organized. 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. The first section provides an overview of the key design principles and ideas. Then, the authors dive into the nitty-gritty of design, using the best examples out of any product design book ever.
Learning how to integrate modular thinking and design systems into real-life design projects is an essential skill in modern UI design. It becomes even more useful once you start working in larger teams and on more complex digital products and websites. UI Design Systems Mastery is written for both beginner and experienced designers looking to master the fundamentals of UI design. It has a particularly strong focus on design systems and includes step-by-step guides on how to build design systems from scratch.
Seductive Interaction Design: Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective User Experiences – Stephen P. Anderson
The next one on our list of UX books started as an email newsletter, grew into a blog, and became viral. And now you have it as a book, organized into small bite-sized lessons packed with actionable advice. There are many self-taught UI designers in the design industry who started just with a couple of books. Becoming a UI designer is arguably more about practice and research than it is about former education.
We’ve picked out the best of the best and regularly update this post. Victor is well-known for sharing useful and practical design tips on X (Twitter) and has wrapped up his knowledge into a 108-page book. 100 UI/UX Tips & Tricks is short and to the point, with illustrative examples that act as mini case studies, as well as more than 60 additional external sources. Universal Principles of Design ui ux design books was first published in 2003 by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, and Jill Butler, making it one of the oldest books on this list. This is essentially a book on what makes good design in everyday things — the crossway between design, behaviour and psychology. In 2021, he released Landing Page Hot Tips with 100 actionable lessons and 200+ landing page resources for creating perfect landing pages.
The responsible object: A history of design ideology for the future by Marianne Van Helvert
You’ll learn to master pixel-perfect elements from typography to icons, equipping you to assemble them into robust components with confidence and expertise. It effectively marries theory and practice, making it an indispensable resource for anyone involved in digital design. Medium is a treasure trove for those seeking top-notch UX/UI design articles. It’s a platform where professionals share their experiences and lessons learned in the field. An exemplary article is ‘A Comprehensive Guide To User Experience Design,’ which provides an in-depth look at how to craft compelling digital experiences. If you’ve ever used an online color palette generator, you know that the five swatches they end up giving you are never enough to build out a real interface.
- I skimmed this book but based on my impressions, it’s a concise overview of all important UX concepts.
- Putting all that aside, there are so many good books for UI designers-to-be, UI design experts, and even for those who simply want to understand UI design a little better.
- Practical books that help you to improve your product design and web design visual design skills.
- There is no UX/UI designer book club that has or can skip reading The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman.
Norman delves into the psychology of design, shedding light on how people interact with and perceive everyday items. Through insightful anecdotes and real-world examples, he illustrates the importance of user-centered design, emphasizing the impact of well-crafted design on usability and user experience. With a keen focus on the relationship between humans and the objects they use, Norman’s book remains a timeless guide for designers and enthusiasts seeking to understand the intricacies of user-friendly and effective design. Whether you’re an aspiring designer, an established professional, or a business owner, understanding the principles of UX/UI design is essential.
Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love
I recommend this book to managers, designers, and developers alike, as it provides a common-sense outlook on usability. Also, he brings plenty of entertaining examples to underline his points. “Hooked” established an understanding of how to build and reinforce habits in certain products. Also, if you’re someone glued to their phone, it’ll make you more mindful of these products’ psychology without being preachy.
The reality is that most designers don’t read books and don’t actively strive to improve their design skills systematically. Today, we introduced a variety of ways and listed 20 best UI design books to help you learn about UI design. «Seductive Interaction Design» is a must-read for anyone in UX design.
Application examples
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. We’ve written this guide to focus specifically on the best books for modern UI design.
Consequently, it can not only enhance user experience by reducing cognitive load and improving usability but also foster a sense of sophistication and timelessness in design aesthetics. Alla shares key qualities of well-functioning, enduring design systems and how they can be achieved. This book includes practical examples and case studies from AirBnB, Atlassian, Eurostar, TED, and Sipgate, plus 18 months of research and interviews, to highlight what works and what doesn’t work in real-life digital products. The Design Manual is an excellent read for UI designers who want to learn Figma best practices and design skills specifically modern app UI design.
There certainly is many subfields of UI design, and the fact that it is a huge chunk of UX design doesn’t make it any easier to categorize each book. In a world where we are constantly surrounded by screens and interfaces, there has to be a way to co-exist better with technology. Krishna’s criticism that often gets to be funny and relatable touches upon precisely that.
It’s a common struggle for UX designers to fill the About page of their portfolio with adequate content. I suggest you write three 4-5 sentence reviews about your favorite UX-related books. This will signal to design leads that you invest time and effort into your craft. Here’s a great structure to include your product design reading list in your portfolio. Laying the Foundations by Andrew Couldwell is a comprehensive guide to creating, documenting, and maintaining design systems. Originally published in 2019, Andrew covers practical guides on the entire design process and how to design websites and products systematically.
It breaks down the process of crafting UI into a logical hierarchy, dives into what makes a great pattern library, and shows you how to level up your team’s design and dev workflow. Sooner or later, seeing how things could go wrong in practice, you start looking for some sets of recommendations towards good practice in design. Such guidelines for designers we have here, in our practical books category.
