Our UX books at Digital Science
At Digital Science, we organise the work of our central UX team into UX project work and UX excellence work. Excellence work covers a wide range of activities, such as UX reviews, UX talks, UX days, UX newsletters, and many more. These activities are aimed at engaging our portfolio companies on topics such as prototyping, accessibility, metrics, etc.
Most recently, we’ve decided to share our library of excellent books about UX, design, process & methods by listing them on the wiki and hopefully increasing usage of that valuable resource.
I’ve also decided to share this list of UX books below for 2 reasons:
- to give a starting point to people (reasonably) new to UX who are looking for ways to educate themselves in a more traditional manner — by reading a really good book.
- to encourage discussion about the value of the list below and to crowdsource further excellent books that I haven’t come across yet or that have slipped my mind.
So please go ahead, browse the list below and share your thoughts…
Jesse James Garrett
The Elements of User Experience by Jesse James Garrett
This book is a classic. It can be seen as one of the corner stones for the field of UX. Garrett coined the term Ajax and is one of the co-founders of UX strategy and design firm Adaptive Path.
When to read this book?
This book is excellent for the novice, but always a good refresher even for experienced UX professionals.
About Face (4th edition) by Alan Cooper
This book is one of the primary texts used to each Human-Computer Interaction, or Interaction Design at universities around the world. Cooper is the author of many books and the “father of Visual Basic”. He’s also the founder of interaction design consultancy Cooper.
When to read this book?
This book is good choice when trying to broaden your knowledge of the UX field and striving to deepening your understanding of relevant UX concepts.
Designing the User Interface by Ben Shneiderman & Catherine Plaisant
This book is another primary text used to each Human-Computer Interaction, or Interaction Design at universities around the world. Shneiderman is one of the most well-known and respected academics in the field of Human-Computer Interaction. He teaches at the HCI Lab at the University of Maryland and contributed fundamental ideas, methods and tools to the field. His co-author Plaisant is another senior academic at the HCI Lab at UoM.
When to read this book?
This book is good choice when trying to broaden your knowledge of the UX field and striving to deepening your understanding of relevant UX concepts.
Cennydd Bowles & James Box
Undercover User Experience Design by Cennydd Bowles & James Box
This book is another primary text used to each Human-Computer Interaction, or Interaction Design at universities around the world. Box is Director of UX Design at Clearleft, one of the best know design agencies in the UK (based on Brighton).
When to read this book?
This book is good choice when trying to do great UX work with tiny budgets, no time, and limited support.
Jill Butler, Kristina Holden & Will Lidwell
Universal Principles of Design by Jill Butler, Kristina Holden & Will Lidwell
This book does a great job at explaining fundamental principles of design — such as the golden ratio, 80/20 rule, attractiveness bias, etc.
When to read this book?
This book is good choice when trying to improve your UX design skills or simply when trying to understand why some things feel nicer and easier to use than others.
Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson & Melissa Rach
When to read this book?
This book is good choice when trying to create an effective content strategy for your product or service.
Designing the Conversation: Techniques for Successful Facilitation by Russ Unger, Brad Nunnally & Dan Willis
This book covers agenda setting, dealing with personalities, group facilitation, one-to-one facilitation and one-to-many facilitation
When to read this book?
This book is good choice when trying to improve the quality of your interviews, workshops or even internal meetings through effective facilitation techniques.
User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton
This book provides an in-depth overview of how to embed user story mapping into your development process to build the right product. In Alan Cooper’s words, this book is the “Rosetta Stone” for our digital age.
When to read this book?
This book is good choice when trying to improve your agile process such that the whole team stays focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features.
Communicating the User Experience by Richard Caddick & Steve Cable
This book covers personas, task models, user journeys, content requirements, sitemaps, wireframes, test reports and funnel diagrams. Caddick and Cable both work at CXPartners, one of the big design agencies in the UK.
When to read this book?
This book is good choice when trying to improve the UX artefacts generated as part of your process or more generally when trying to identify how artefacts you’re not currently generating may benefit your development process.
Quantifying the User Experience by Jess Sauro & James R. Lewis
Sauro is the founder of quantitative research firm MeasuringU.
When to read this book?
This book is a great resource for the more advanced UX professional trying to understand statistical concepts for user research.
Institutionalization of UX by Eric Schaffer & Apala Lahiri
Schaffer is founder and CEO of Human Factors International, one of the largest UX companies in the world.
When to read this book?
This book is good choice when trying to improve the UX practice in your organisation. It is a helpful guide when trying to identify pitfalls in the current UX strategy and culture.
