Top UX Design books curated by experts

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

  • Curated by industry experts
  • Proven learning resources
  • Updated annually
Top UX Design books recommended by experts
User Check

Did you know?

We have over 3,000 mentors available right now!

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.

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

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 …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

A Project Guide to UX Design: For User Experience Designers in the Field Or in the Making

A Project Guide to UX Design: For User Experience Designers in the Field Or in the Making

“If you are a young designer entering or contemplating entering the UX field this is a canonical book. If you are an organization that really needs to start grokking UX this book is also for you. " -- Chris Bernard, User Experience Evangelist, Microsoft User experience design is the discipline o…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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

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

Smart organizations recognize that Web design is more than just creating clean code and sharp graphics. A site that really works fulfills your strategic objectives while meeting the needs of your users. Even the best content and the most sophisticated technology won't help you balance those goal…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

The User's Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love

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” appro…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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

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…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

The Design of Everyday Things

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…

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.

Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience

Writing Is Designing: Words and the User Experience

Without words, apps would be an unusable jumble of shapes and icons, while voice interfaces and chatbots wouldn't even exist. Words make software human–centered, and require just as much thought as the branding and code. This book will show you how to give your users clarity, test your words, an…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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

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.

Bottlenecks: Aligning UX Design with User Psychology

Bottlenecks: Aligning UX Design with User Psychology

Learn the psychological constrictions of attention, perception, memory, disposition, motivation, and social influence that determine whether customers will be receptive to your digital innovations. Bottlenecks: Aligning UX Design with User Psychology fills a need for entrepreneurs, designers, an…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Just Enough Research

Just Enough Research

Design research is a hard slog that takes years to learn and time away from the real work of design, right? Wrong. Good research is about asking more and better questions, and thinking critically about the answers. It’s something every member of your team can and should do, and which everyone ca…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience

Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience

The Lean UX approach to interaction design is tailor-made for today’s web-driven reality. In this insightful book, leading advocate Jeff Gothelf teaches you valuable Lean UX principles, tactics, and techniques from the ground up—how to rapidly experiment with design ideas, validate them with rea…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Thinking, Fast and Slow

*Major New York Times Bestseller
*More than 2.6 million copies sold
*One of The New York Times Book Review's ten best books of the year
*Selected by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best nonfiction books of the year
*Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient
*Daniel Kahneman's …

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.

Augment your UX Design books

There is no better source of accountability and motivation than having a personal mentor. What used to be impossible to find is now just two clicks away! All mentors are vetted & hands-on!

Still not convinced? Don't just take our word for it

We've already delivered 1-on-1 mentorship to thousands of students, professionals, managers and executives. Even better, they've left an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for our mentors.

Find a UX Design mentor