Because when a product doesn’t work for a user, it’s not the user’s fault but that of the designers who overlooked their needs and interests. Often (and I’m the first to admit I do this), designers fall back on trends rather than carefully considering the best typography for a design. Paired with great copywriting, understanding the basics of effective typography is a powerful force multiplier to help you stand out and improve user experiences. Even the best designers occasionally lose sight of the fundamental principles of design. Heaths’ framework will help you as a designer to focus on the highest-impact ideas and to better communicate with your target audience.

If you’re new to UX design or an experienced UI UX designer looking to brush up on your UX design skills and UX design process, this book is a good idea and covers pretty much everything you need. Introduction to Design Thinking for UX Beginners by Uijun Park was published in 2023, making it one of the newest UX design books on this list. We’ve added it because it’s a perfect introduction to the field of UX design. Consider this book as your comprehensive guide for design projects. It guides you in Interviewing users to broaden the designer’s perspective. This book is an excellent resource in the UX career for those seeking practical advice to deliver impact despite working with limited resources or team support.

What about UI design books?

Arranged chronologically to provide context, more than 320 typefaces are displayed in the form of their original type specimens or earliest printing. Each entry is supported by a brief history and description of key characteristics of the typeface. The Visual History of Type traces the evolution of typeface design over the last 200 years. As much a beautifully-design coffee table as an exhaustive and thorough history of type, The Visual History of Type is a great primer for levelling up on your typography knowledge. These are just a few of the questions that the book answers in its deep-dive exploration of what makes people tick. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas—and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.

But as we know, common sense is not always obvious until pointed out. For one, there’s a book for every aspect required to become a well-rounded UX designer—from research to design, psychology, marketing, creativity, and even business. If you do your research, many books are thoroughly reviewed and fact-checked, you can bank on the credibility of the information you’re getting.

Build Better Products: A Modern Approach to Building Successful User-Centered Products by Laura Klein

Traditionally, UX design has focused on the interaction between human users, machines, and contextual environments. Since the 1990s, UX design has evolved to help us understand user behavior for digital user interfaces such as computers and devices. With the motto “Change the way you work forever” this book offers amazing advice for running a business or running a team, but it can also be very effectively applied to building products. Another great book that focuses on psychology and human behavior, it helps you realize that having more choice doesn’t bring a feeling of freedom. In fact, having too many options can make us overwhelmed, doubtful, afraid of regret, and so on – something valuable to take into account when you’re designing.

Designing with the Mind in Mind was originally published in 2014 by Jeff Johnson and has become an everlasting textbook on the concepts of perceptual and cognitive psychology in user experience design. This is a bit of an unusual addition to this list of the best UX design books, but an important one. Many people may not know who Ken Kocienda is, but he played an integral part in Apple’s success.

Other UX-related books Books for all content and product people

Saves your settings and preferences, like your location, for a more personalized experience. Governs the storage of data necessary for maintaining website security, user authentication, and fraud prevention mechanisms. Here’s UX designer and co-founder of HYPE 4, Michal Malewicz with more on the importance of UI design. While the term “UX design” may have been recently coined, the underlying principles date back thousands of years.

Although the tools and techniques have changed over the years, the ideas and core principles outlined in this resource continue to be valuable for UX professionals of all levels, year after year. Whether you’re looking to land your first UX job or make the next giant leap in your career, this handbook from UX veteran Lisa Murnan ui ux design books can help. You’ll learn proven best practices for resume design, cover letters, portfolios, your online presence, interviews, and even in-person design exercises. If it’s been a while, you might miss out on great reads that could help you brush up on your skills, understand new ideas, and unlock innovative research practices.

Free UX books

The author, Annie Jean-Baptiste, the Head of Product Inclusion at Google, shares the inclusive design processes used at Google to create user-centric award-winning and profitable products. If you would like to design products that motivate people to take the actions you want, 100 Things is the book you need. The author, Susan M. Weinschenk, a behavioral science leader, shares 100 insights on human perception and behavior to help you design better products.

• Steve Krug presents a common-sense approach to mobile and web usability with his engaging writing style.
• Each book has something unique to contribute toward making you a well-rounded designer.
• The book builds on every chapter that passes with new info and insights.
• Each entry is supported by a brief history and description of key characteristics of the typeface.

William Lidwell, a Houston-based researcher and university professor, published Universal Principles of Design back in 2003. Despite being 20 years old, Universal Principles of Design is still one of the most recommended books on UX design because it focuses on core design principles that create good user experience. This is one of the best books to read on UX design because it focuses on the relationship between target audiences and product design and how you, as a designer, can design with the user in mind.

To Cagan’s credit, Inspired is well-structured, with 67 micro-chapters. I appreciated the heavy-handed use of lists because they make everything easier to grasp. It’s possible to read this book in one sitting, but you can also spread it out through a few days, especially if you take notes. I found “Continuous Discovery Habits” a smooth read since Torres doesn’t take unnecessary detours.

It’s OK to feel overwhelmed by the number of things every designer needs to learn. The best approach I’ve found to move past imposter syndrome is to embrace it and adopt a mentality of incremental improvement—make a habit of improving your skills by 1% every day. Once you realise you’re not Jack and you’re never going to be a master of all of these trades, you can instead focus on becoming a life-long learner. Use these books to build your professional vocabulary and your understanding of the product design process. 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.

Laws of UX: Design Principles for Persuasive and Ethical Products by Jon Yablonski

I’m a UX coach that supports other designers and have completed design projects in finance, tech, and the public sector. The first two books are also part of my essential UX booklist, as discussed above. After its initial release, the book received a significant update in 2013. Because of this, the book is relevant for every UX designer today.