Top User Experience books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite User Experience books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of User Experience

Understanding the concepts of User Experience starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

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

Build Better Products is a hands-on, step-by-step guide that helps teams incorporate strategy, empathy, design, and analytics into their development process. You’ll learn to develop products and features that improve your business’s bottom line while dramatically improving customer experience.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Prioritizing Web Usability

After more than a decade of Web usability research, we literally have thousands of guidelines for making better websites. But what are the most important ones that all designers need to know? That's what Prioritizing Web Usability is about. A second goal of the book is to update the early Web usability guidelines we published in the 1990s. All the guidelines found since 2000 continue to hold, …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

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

Rocket Surgery Made Easy by Steve Krug is a practical guide to usability testing. It provides step-by-step instructions and valuable insights on how to conduct effective tests to improve the user experience of your website or product.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web

Web design is more than just creating clean code and sharp graphics. A site that really works fulfills strategic objectives while meeting users needs. Even the best content and the most sophisticated technology won't help you balance those goals without a cohesive, consistent user experience to support it. The Elements of User Experience cuts through the complexity of user-centered design for …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

UX for Beginners: A Crash Course in 100 Short Lessons

Follow the real-life UX process from start-to-finish and apply the skills as you learn, or refresh your memory before the next meeting. UX for Beginners is perfect for non-designers who want to become designers, managers who teach UX, and programmers, salespeople, or marketers who want to learn more.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Why are certain products or services so addictive while others fail? In this book, Nir Eyal explains the role of habits in successful products/services, and how you can use the 4-step Hook Model to shape customer behaviors and habits.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Additional User Experience Reading

These books are not required for you to learn User Experience, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide

The User Experience Team of One prescribes a range of approaches that have big impact and take less time and fewer resources than the standard lineup of UX deliverables. Whether you want to cross over into user experience or you're a seasoned practitioner trying to drag your organization forward, this book gives you tools and insight for doing more with less.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click?

Neuro Web Design applies the research on motivation, decision making, and neuroscience to the design of Web sites. You will learn the unconscious reasons for people's actions, how emotions affect decisions, and how to apply the principles of persuasion to design Web sites that encourage users to click.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

This list is curated by MentorCruise and can include Amazon affiliate links. Have any other suggestions? Add here.

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As a senior user researcher with over 15 years of experience running international research projects for global companies such as PlayStation, Spotify, and in the finance industry, I have developed a keen eye for what makes a successful UX researcher. Through my experience as a mentor, I have helped many …

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15+ yrs exp, 10+ as CEO/Exec, leading teams, raising capital, building tech, scaling, investing and advising companies. Hey there! I'm Aly, a Canadian-based entrepreneur, investor and advisor who has spent over a decade building, investing and advising companies. I've had the opportunity to build both bootstrapped and venture-backed companies, learning …

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Ciao! I’m a Senior Product Designer at Microsoft in Prague, where I help shape the future of meetings for Microsoft Teams. With over 7 years of experience as a design consultant working with international clients across diverse industries, including automotive and tobacco, I’ve honed my skills in every phase of …

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Hi! I’m an engineer, founder, and product leader passionate about designing technologies that improve women’s lives. With a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, I’ve spent the last decade building at the intersection of tech, health, and impact. I co-founded Lilu, a women’s health company developing groundbreaking, …

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The UX job market is tough, but I’m here to help! 92.3% of my 200+ mentees land their next job or promotion within 6 months of mentorship. My mentoring stats: • 85% of my mentees receive interview callbacks within 1 month of updating their portfolios • 76% of my mentees …

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Student or Junior UX Designer? I can help you refine your CV and portfolio, create new case studies to showcase your skills, and more generally help you grow as a designer. Additionally, I can share valuable insights and advice to help you navigate the workplace, whether you're just starting or …

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