3 Essential Reads for User Experience Students

You can find lists like this one all over the internet, but most include a daunting list of 10-20 books. This is great for anyone already entrenched in UX design, but for the uninitiated it’s a bit heavy handed. So let’s break it down to just three books:

1. The Design of Everyday Things - Donald Norman

This is a great intro for anyone interested in design, period. Norman writes in a friendly tone that will set you up to start thinking about real design problems.

2. Don’t Make Me Think - Steven Krug

This is another well written, warm, and friendly book. Krug’s read is more web-focussed than The Design of Everyday Things, and will whet your appetite for diving into more specific web-based problems.

3. The Inmates are Running the Asylum - Alan Cooper

This book builds off of Don’t Make Me Think by explaining the ideal working conditions as a UX designer – the challenges you will face, the organization structure that creates the best products, and the users you will be creating for.

This list is short and sweet, but there may be better books out there that I’ve skipped. If you know of any leave a comment or shoot me a tweet @iamtec

Edit: After much cajoling, I’ve added Amazon links for each book.