Design has evolved fast — but its foundations haven’t changed. The books below have shaped how we understand usability, psychology, and interaction. Each one remains a cornerstone for anyone serious about building better user experiences.
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The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
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Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
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Universal Principles of Design by Lidwell, Holden & Butler
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100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk
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The UX Book by Hartson & Pyla
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Laws of UX by Jon Yablonski
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About Face (Cooper, Reimann, Cronin)
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Seductive Interaction Design by Stephen Anderson
Below, I walk you through each: what they teach, why they matter, and how they still influence modern UX work.
1. The Design of Everyday Things
— Don Norman | Formats: Book / Audiobook
Often called a foundational text in usability and design, this book digs into why everyday products frustrate us — and how better design can eliminate that friction.
Key Ideas & Influence
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Affordances & Signifiers: Norman popularized these terms in design. An affordance describes what an object allows you to do (e.g. a handle affords pulling); a signifier is the cue that tells you how to do it.
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Gulfs of Execution & Evaluation: The user faces two “gaps” — knowing how to act, and interpreting what the system did. Good design builds “bridges” to cross them.
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Seven Stages of Action: From goal → intention → action → execution → perception → interpretation → evaluation. Norman frames user behavior through these lenses.
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Principles: visibility, mapping, feedback, constraints, conceptual models: These operate as a design checklist so users don’t struggle.
Because it blends cognitive psychology, everyday objects, and interaction theory, many UX curricula treat this as required reading. Its influence extends beyond just UI — into physical products, interfaces, and the philosophy of user-centered design.
2. Don’t Make Me Think
— Steve Krug | Formats: Book / Kindle
If The Design of Everyday Things gives you theory and depth, Krug’s book is the practical companion that cuts through. Its guiding motto: don’t force users to think harder than necessary.
What It Teaches
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“Don’t make me think”: The first law of usability. Every design element should be clear enough that users don’t pause to interpret it.
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Design for scanning, not reading: People tend to scan pages rather than read every word. So your layout and hierarchy must support that.
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Make every click obvious: Each interaction should feel like a no-brain choice, not a gamble.
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Remove “happy talk,” cut words: Shorter copy, direct instructions, minimal fluff. Krug suggests cutting half the words on a page, then half again.
The book is intentionally brief and accessible, intended to be read in a couple hours. Over the years it’s sold hundreds of thousands of copies and influenced countless web designers.
Its strength lies in distilling usability into actionable rules. You’ll see its fingerprints in countless UI audits, heuristic reviews, and lightweight usability tests.
3. Universal Principles of Design
— Lidwell, Holden & Butler | Formats: Book / Kindle
This isn’t purely a UX book, but it’s a compendium of design heuristics, patterns, and principles drawn from psychology, architecture, industrial design, and more. Many UX designers keep it as a general reference.
It covers things like proximity, hierarchy, contrast, alignment, and mental models — all of which underpin interface design. The utility here is breadth: when you feel stuck, this book gives you different lenses to view a design problem.
4. 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People
— Susan Weinschenk | Formats: Book / Kindle
If you want to ground your UX decisions in behavioral science, this is one of the most practical bridges between psychology and design.
Highlights
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How people see: Focus, visual patterns, peripheral vs central vision, cues, gestalt effects, how color is perceived.
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How people read: Font legibility, line length, the difference between reading and comprehension.
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Memory & recall: Working memory is limited; recognition is easier than recall. Use repetition, reinforcement, contextual cues.
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Focus & attention: Salience, selective attention, how people filter what they see.
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Motivation & behavior: Intrinsic vs extrinsic motivators, reward systems, designing for progress.
One strength is its format — short, digestible “things” you can dip into or reference as needed. Many UX writers and designers refer to its "things" when debating design tradeoffs.
5. The UX Book
— Hartson & Pyla | Formats: Book / Kindle
This is more of a textbook than a popular read, but it remains one of the more complete and rigorous treatments of UX theory + process in a single volume.
It’s structured around the full lifecycle of UX: planning, user research, design, prototyping, evaluation, iteration. That makes it valuable when building or teaching process rather than only tactics.
6. Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services
— Jon Yablonski | Formats: Book / Kindle
A more recent addition to the UX canon, Laws of UX assembles key psychological principles and heuristics into a digestible visual format.
Yablonski collects about 21 laws (crowdsourced from psychology, behavioral theory, gestalt, cognitive biases) and frames them for designers.
Its appeal lies in compactness and visual reference: designers can quickly scan a law (e.g. Hick’s Law, Fitts’s Law, the Law of Proximity) and see how it applies to interface decisions. It’s not a deep text, but a practical tool for daily design decisions.
7. About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design
— Cooper, Reimann, Cronin | Formats: Book / Kindle
This is a heavyweight on interaction design and the behavioral side of software design. The About Face series (especially the 3rd edition) offers depth in interaction patterns, personas, state design, task models, and interface strategy.
It’s sometimes described as three books in one: principles, process, and patterns.
In modern teams, elements from About Face — like state transitions, interface feedback, consistency, and anticipatory design — still echo in design systems and pattern libraries.
8. Seductive Interaction Design
— Stephen Anderson | Formats: Book / Kindle
Where many UX texts focus on usability, Seductive Interaction Design addresses engagement: how to design for delight, curiosity, and behavioral triggers.
In modern product design, when your usability baseline is solid, the difference often lives in micro-interactions, surprise, and motivation. Anderson’s work helps you think about how to make a product not only usable, but compelling.
How These Books Work Together (and What to Read First)
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Start with Norman and Krug. Norman provides the foundational mindset and theory. Krug gives you quick, usable tactics you can apply immediately.
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Parallel read: 100 Things and Laws of UX are perfect as reference guides you can dip into when designing features or debating interaction choices.
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Move deeper: The UX Book and About Face can anchor you in full process and architecture thinking.
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Finally, sprinkle in Universal Principles for lateral thinking across design domains, and Seductive Interaction when your product needs emotional glue.
Final Thoughts
These books capture the evolution of design thinking:
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Norman anchored design in psychology and human behavior
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Krug made usability accessible
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Universal Principles and Weinschenk show the multidisciplinary core of design
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The UX Book and About Face turn theory into structured practice
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Laws of UX and Seductive Interaction push UX toward nuance, behavior, and delight
If you're compiling a blog, reading list, or internal training path, this isn’t just “books to check out.” These are reference points. Return to them when your tools change, your screen sizes shift, or your users evolve. Good design isn’t about knowing new techniques — it’s about grounding in fundamentals so you can adapt wisely.
