Top UX Design 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 UX Design books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of UX Design

Understanding the concepts of UX Design 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.

The Design of Everyday Things

One of the world's great designers shares his vision of "the fundamental principles of great and meaningful design", that's "even more relevant today than it was when first published" (Tim Brown, CEO, IDEO). Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious…

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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.

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Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rules

In this completely updated and revised edition of Designing with the Mind in Mind, Jeff Johnson provides you with just enough background in perceptual and cognitive psychology that user interface (UI) design guidelines make intuitive sense rather than being just a list or rules to follow. Early UI practitioners were trained in cognitive psychology, and developed UI design rules based on it. Bu…

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Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Since Don’t Make Me Think was first published in 2000, hundreds of thousands of Web designers and developers have relied on usability guru Steve Krug’s guide to help them understand the principles of intuitive navigation and information design. Witty, commonsensical, and eminently practical, it’s one of the best-loved and most recommended books on the subject. Now Steve returns with fresh pers…

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Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

As Product Manager, user engagement is always at the top of your mind. The best way to have engaged users is to create habit-forming products. Nir Eyal walks us through the inner workings of almost addicting social apps and boils down how you can use the same mechanisms for good.

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Don't Make Me Think

Hundreds of thousands of Web designers and developers have relied on usability guru Steve Krug's guide to help them understand the principles of intuitive navigation and information design. Witty, commonsensical, and eminently practical, it's one of the best-loved and most recommended books on the subject.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Additional UX Design Reading

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

UI is Communication: How to Design Intuitive, User Centered Interfaces by Focusing on Effective Communication

User interface design is a challenging, multi disciplinary activity that requires understanding a wide range of concepts and techniques that are often subjective and even conflicting. Imagine how much it would help if there were a single perspective that you could use to simplify these complex issues down to a small set of objective principles. In UI is Communication, Everett McKay explains ho…

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

It's been known for years that usability testing can dramatically improve products. But with a typical price tag of $5,000 to $10,000 for a usability consultant to conduct each round of tests, it rarely happens. In this how-to companion to Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Steve Krug spells out a streamlined approach to usability testing that anyone can easily appl…

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About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design

About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design, Fourth Edition is the latest update to the book that shaped and evolved the landscape of interaction design. This comprehensive guide takes the worldwide shift to smartphones and tablets into account. New information includes discussions on mobile apps, touch interfaces, screen size considerations, and more. The new full-color interior and uniq…

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The Pocket Universal Principles of UX: 100 Timeless Strategies to Create Positive Interactions Between People and Technology

Richly illustrated and easy to navigate, Universal Principles of UX pairs clear explanations of each concept with visual examples of the ideas applied in practice. The book is organized into six broad categories:

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The User's Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love

Like a good story, successful design is a series of engaging moments structured over time. The User’s Journey will show you how, when, and why to use narrative structure, technique, and principles to ideate, craft, and test a cohesive vision for an engaging outcome. See how a “story first” approach can transform your product, feature, landing page, flow, campaign, content, or product strategy.…

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Designing Interfaces

Designing good application interfaces isnâ??t easy now that companies need to create compelling, seamless user experiences across an exploding number of channels, screens, and contexts. In this updated third edition, youâ??ll learn how to navigate through the maze of design options. By capturing UI best practices as design patterns, this best-selling book provides solutions to common design pr…

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

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