7 books for becoming a better UX/UI designer.

We all know that designing a new product is about making a series of decisions. And that’s not all. These decisions have to address real people’s real problems.

But when it comes to making a decision, I always find a gap between my assumption about the world and the actual real world.

So I try to close this gap mostly by reading the wisdom of others.

So far, several books have helped my career and made me look smarter. I wanted to share them in this article.

Hoping that they can lead to a positive change in your career too.

(Note that there are NO affiliate links. You should google the titles if you want to purchase)

#1 The Moderator’s Survival Guide: Handling Common, Tricky, and Sticky Situations in User Research

by Donna Tedesco

“One of the most important principles in moderating is to let the participant do most of the talking, but when you do speak — whether it’s to provide direction, probe for more detail, or give neutral reassurance — you need to choose your words, and your tone, carefully.”

If you do any usability testing, you should definitely check out this one. The authors said that they had written this book for both beginners and expert user researchers. They’ve exceeded their goal.

The book starts with an introduction to a wide variety of situations that you might face. Then, it gives you practical advice on how to deal with specific problems during user research. The example stories may range from drunk participants to earthquakes.

At the very end, the authors bring everything together into useful checklists. I think these checklists are absolute. I intend to make use of them to identify my steps and react appropriately. Hoping that I can survive any challenge that comes the way.

#2 Designing with Data: Improving the User Experience with A/B Testing

by Rochelle King, Elizabeth Churchill, and Caitlin Tan

“One could believe that a designer or product person who doesn’t know the right answer must not have enough experience. Actually it’s almost inversely true. Because I have some experience, I know that we don’t know the right answer until we test.”

This is book takes A/B testing in the broader context of user research. It gives a good theoretical and practical guide on using the wealth of data to shape your product. Also, the book shows how much thinking and designing must be done before running the A/B test.

If you learn a new concept by the process of repetition, this book is for you. The authors provide a lot of great suggestions and references for some ideas repeatedly. Most of these examples are from data-driven companies like Netflix and Spotify.

I would recommend this one for my fellow designers to give this a quick read if you’re interested in learning how to use data to impact your design.

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

by Jeff Johnson

“UI design rules and guidelines are not simple recipes. Applying them effectively requires determining rule applicability and precedence and balancing trade-offs when rules compete. By understanding the underlying psychology, designers and evaluators enhance their ability to apply design rules.”

You should expect some great examples of psychological researches that had the most impact on UI design from this book. The contents are mostly focused on how the human vision and memory system work and how you can apply that knowledge to web design.

If you like the best-selling book Thinking, Fast, and Slow, you will definitely love this one, too. There are a lot of references and connections to it.

The first edition, the one in the picture, came out in 2010. It’s not the most friendly written book. But to me, it was worth the effort.

The latest edition came out in Oct 2020. And people say it’s easy to read, so you might as well check the updated version.

#4 Just Enough Research

by Erika Hall

“Research is simply a systematic inquiry. You want to know more about a particular topic, so you go through a process to increase your knowledge. The type of process depends on who you are and what you need to know. ”

Designers do research all the time. In the middle of research, sometimes I lose myself. Sometimes I don’t know what I’m looking for after consuming almost all the information out there.

But this book gives me guidelines. I learned that asking the right questions and being organized about the answers is just enough. That will always keep me on track and prevent wasting time and money.

If you’re starting as a UX designer or UX researcher, this book is a must-have.

You’ll get specific advice on what to ask and how to work on various types of research. If you have a product or target users in mind, you can test your assumptions based on what you learned.

#5 User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product

by Jeff Patton and Peter Economy

“ The way you approach a big software cake is to break it down into lots of little cupcakes. Each one is deliverable, and each one still has a similar recipe, with a little sugar, a little flour, an egg or two, and so on. “

This book will help you to take a product from an idea to a test. Lots of practical insights and examples. Also, the illustrations help understand how agile development feels like.

For me, there were two key takeaways. First, prioritize outcome and cut features if needed. Second, I was able to grasp a bigger picture of how user story maps drive software development.

It’s easy to read.

The book has been written in a friendly tone. I’m sure you can get a lot of valuable information on product planning and developments.

#6 Microinteractions: Designing with Details

by Dan Saffer

“Microinteractions are the single use-case features that do one thing only. They can be stand-alone apps or parts of larger features. The best of the perform with efficiency, humor, style, and an understanding of user needs and goals.”

You will definitely learn to pay special attention to details after reading Microinteractions. The book is well constructed and easy to read.

The author effortlessly introduces the key components of any microinteraction — triggers, rules, feedback, loops. He also provides a lot of real-life examples for explanation and inspiration.

Once you grasp all micro items individually, you’ll then see how they work together to provide an excellent user experience.

#7 Refactoring UI

by Steve Schoger and Adam Wathan

“When you need to create a lighter or darker variation of a color in your palette, don’t get clever using CSS preprocessor functions like “lighten” or “darken” to create shades on the fly. That’s how you end up with 35 slightly different blues that all look the same.”

This one is a must-have. Whether you're a well-seasoned designer in need of cheatsheets or a unicorn (designer & developer) working on a design project. It gives you all the practical tips on improving your designs with logic.

No repetition, no fluff, and 100% value.

You can find great practices on how to use color palettes and accents—also, tips on how and where to put what kinds of icons. And many more with colorful explanations in detail. This book is the one that keeps me coming back again and again.

The authors have written two articles on Medium.

You can find them here: