A primer on UX design for people who are completely new to UX

The pithy, go-to post you can share with that person who wants to learn about user experience design.

This is a compilation of the tools, resources, and recommended reading that I regularly share with those who are completely new to UX, and UX practitioners alike.

What is UX design?

The short: Empathetic problem-solving.

The less short: UX design is about aligning user needs with business objectives through a wide toolset of research, prototyping, testing, collaboration, and iteration.

But don’t just take it from me:

1. Hack Design
   An Introduction to User Experience Design
2. Smashing Magazine
   What Is User Experience Design? Overview, Tools And Resources
3. UX Mastery
   How to get start in UX design
4. Quora’s thread on Becoming a UX Designer
5. And
   Erik Flowers
   ’ 2012 post still resonates: UX is not UI

Some ways people get into UX:

1. General Assembly
   — well known for their 10-week immersive courses, and their presence in cities around the world
2. Tradecraft
   — great for the autodidact
3. Springboard
   — I think of Springboard as the online General Assembly. I think both have a solid curriculum and project list.
4. Whitespace
   — for graphic designers wanting to become product designers
5. GrowthX Academy — new but promising
6. HCI masters programs at universities like Carnegie Mellon University

And whoa — there are apparently 500+ UX Design Bootcamps now available, according to Course Report.

Er, but are UX bootcamps worth it?

The lovely

Nina Gannes

took it upon herself to find out (General Assembly-specific): Are UX Design Bootcamps Worth It

Tools of a young UX practitioner

At this point in my journey, here are the tools I find myself using every day all day, or at least quite regularly. Consequently, I recommend them to both friends and mentees.

Recruiting, research, testing

Craigslist, Userinterviews, Facebook poll,

Typeform

,

UsabilityHub

, Usertesting,

Optimal Workshop

Design

Sketch

, Sketch Mirror,

Balsamiq

,

InVision

,

Zeplin

,

Canva Team

, Coggle.it

Note: Craft by InVision Labs will likely consolidate the above list even further. I haven’t gone deep enough at this point to leave out Zeplin or Sketch Mirror though.

Communication and project management tools

Slack

,

Trello

,

Asana

And for your enjoyment, this is possibly the only list of UX design tools you’ll ever need to refer back to: SansFrancis.co

The online resources I refer to on the regular

My top three go-to online resources when I need a refresher or want to learn something new:

1. Nielsen Norman Group
2. InVision Blog
3. Usability.gov

Recommended reading:

As a primer

1. The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman. This is a classic for a reason, and it is also a favorite of mine — it was the book that made me want to be a designer, back in my teenage years. Teaches you about affordances and basic UX principles.
2. Don’t Make Me Think by
   Steve Krug
   . Another classic UX design book focused on the idea of human-centered design thinking.
3. The Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler

Once you get more into it

1. Articulating Design Decisions by
   Tom Greever
2. UX Strategy by
   Jaime Levy
3. Design Leadership by
   Richard Banfield
4. And if you want to peruse some more: The Only UX Reading List Ever

Whew, ok! I’m going to stop there. This is hopefully enough to get anyone started! :D. UX is always changing and growing, but what I provided here are tips and tools I keep coming back to.