5 Awesome UX books every Designer should read
There are a lot of books on UX Design. Designers are always thinking and coming up with real solutions to problems. I came up with this list that might be helpful if you are overwhelmed to decide on your next read.
Nir Eyal beautifully walks you through the ‘Hook model’. These four steps lead to forming new habits around a product.
Step 1: Trigger Behavior
Step 2: Perform Action
Step 3: Variable Reward for Action
Step 4: Commitment to Product
This excellent book is not just about user story mapping. Jeff Patson’s book is a revelation for Agile practitioners. You will learn what stories really are, what mistakes you have been doing and how to put them in the right context for maximum success.
3. UX Strategy
If you have mastered all technical skills and starting to learn about ‘UX strategies’, this book is a great start. Great examples and techniques such as how to approach a competitor analysis can be put to practice right away. Another useful section, e.g. how to adapt a customer development tool called a ‘funnel matrix’ to UX content can be used to track levels of customer engagement and various aspects of the customer experience provided by different internal teams.
4. The Design of Everyday Things
Don Norman’s insights and principles are worth reading and useful. Throughout the book the emphasis is on good design. He clearly explains the difference between the three main designs- experience design, industrial design and interaction design.
5. Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited
Steve Krug highlights the most important issue in website design which is usability. He rightly says “The basic principles are the same even if the landscape has changed, because usability is about people and how they understand and use things, not about technology. And while technology often changes quickly, people change very slowly.” He is wise, funny and persuasive. Worth read!
