5 UX Books that’ll change how you think about design

There’s so many mediocre business, design or technology books. I’ve read a lot of different “designer” books (closing in on a hundred as I’m writing this). Most of them are really not that amazing.

Sadly, I can safely say a lot of the authors are just repeating the same basic mantra.

Lean. Testing with users. Prototyping. Not wasting users’ time.
Actually, very few books ever introduce anything really original or astonish me with a totally different worldview on what design really is.

Except when they do…

Once in a while (usually about once a year), I find a book that just blows the subject wide open for me. A book that inspires me to be a better designer and a better human. That reminds me how much I love doing this arcane, crazy work of helping people understand technology and world around it.
It’s just brilliant.

Not all books on this list are inspiring philosophical works, some are just extremely precise how-to UX cookbooks that I keep coming back to. Or they might be hidden jewels in design thinking, company building or finance.

But mostly, I just wanted to share a list that I really wish I found nearly ten years ago when I was first starting out with this thing called human-centered design (or UX, or design thinking, or interaction design).

1. Change by Design, Tim Brown

“…they force us to keep people at the center of the idea, preventing us from getting lost in mechanical or aesthetic details. They remind us at every moment that we are not dealing with things but with what the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “transactions between people and things.”

“Changing the world” has become a bit of a cliché in a Silicon Valley. Well IDEO is one of those companies that really get their hands dirty and actually do just that.

I only read Change by Design recently and I really wish it was the first book I’ve ever read on design. Tim Brown opens with defining what design thinking really is, what challenges designers usually work against and gives a lot of case studies to awe and inspire.

The book is actually split into two parts, the first being the theoretical background on how design thinkers work to solve problems, the second part is basically what should they work for.

It briefly touches on environmentalism, social responsibility, service thinking and many other subjects. It nails most points it’s trying to make and at least for me, it was full of “I can’t believe IDEO designed that” moments. Really worthy read if you are a seasoned designer too, looking to rekindle your passion for world-changing design.

Book summary:
Excellent book by a visionary designer that helps you understand what is design thinking, what kind of company is IDEO, why does it do so much work in Africa and South America and that ultimately, we should be designing for the people, for life, and for the planet.

2. Lean UX, Jeff Gothelf

“As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”

This actually was a first book I ever read on design. Of course, I had to read it two times before most of its concepts started to make any sense to me. Jeff Gothelf obviously wanted to create a manual for designers switching to Lean startup or the agile environment. I think he succeeded.

Jeff managed to build on 3 main principles, design thinking (using design approach to innovate business and solutions for people), agile software methods (collaborating with coworkers on working software over documentation silos and quickly responding to change) and lean methodology (build, measure and learn cycle focused on getting rid of waste and optimizing process).

Book summary:
Great book if you need a crash course on Lean, agile or startup environment and want to see how abstract concepts of design thinking actually apply to working in a company. It will teach you how to set up your priorities, how to facilitate for your teams and how to introduce validation cycles into your sprints.

3. Rework, Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson

“It’s a beautiful way to put it: Leave the poetry in what you make. When something becomes too polished, it loses its soul. It seems robotic.”

The first time I read this book, I was on a flight from Sicily to Prague and I finished it before we landed. It’s that short. At the same time though, it’s packed with valuable insights into how to build a culture in your company, how is 37Signals, the company that created Basecamp different from other companies and how to prevent yourself from burning out.

The book focuses a lot on productivity and process in a sharp, concise way and every single chapter is absolutely spot on, complemented with really cool illustrations. If you spend any time working in an agency or software business, I’m sure this book will resonate with you.

If you come from the startup scene, you’ll also find something valuable here as Jason and David show a dark side of a Silicon Valley’s “build it to sell it” mindset.

Book summary:
Rework really shines if you’ve been in the trenches for a while and you really need that kick to remind you that working harder is not the same as working smarter — or building something that matters to you. I highly recommend it if you’re either thinking about building a business or you’re looking for a new home and want to find a company that will make sense to you and treats you like a human being.

4. Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Difficulty is what wakes up the genius.”

This is a bit of a departure from this list, as it’s not a book on design per se. I’m sure you’ve heard of Nassim Taleb, author of the Black Swan principle, one of the few Wall Street analysts who actually predicted the 2008 crash. The brilliant Antifragile is really hard to peg as it crosses between the realms of finance, design, and philosophy.

The book focuses on a central ideology of building systems that are not just robust (can withstand changes or outside force) but antifragile (they benefit from outside changes). It reconnects architecture and design with the world of nature and reminds us that we are just another social animal, trying to build our (digital) hives.

Especially intriguing is a comparison of natural evolution and human evolution of materials and design. Where humans usually build in spite of their environment, like a tough house to withstand the winds, the evolution “designs” to benefit from it, like a tree growing stronger on a windy hill.

When I think about the systems that we usually design, that is not really designed for anomalies and change, I think we still have much to learn from nature and this book is an excellent primer.

Book summary:
Nassim Taleb joins the world of mathematics, design, and philosophy to create an enticing new way of looking at things — creating systems that benefit from change and natural flows of time.

5. The User Experience Team of One, Leah Buley

“While passion and vision are what bring many people to user experience in the first place, it’s the successful practice of the craft that keeps them here.”

I’d like to end this list with the most practical design book I know. This was my bible when I was first starting as a designer and every time I felt lost, I grabbed the UX Team of One and found the way out. It’s an excellent introduction to the craft but will benefit a veteran UX designer as well.

I really love that one of the first points Leah makes is that UX in an organization without support is never going to be easy and she teaches how to lobby for that support. This is a hard-earned lesson as anyone who ever worked in a company without the proper UX process knows. By getting the much-needed advice on how to establish the right methods in a company, the author will save you mistakes you really don’t need to make.

The book’s second half is really filled with value, introducing the design thinking process and breaking it down into the divergent and convergent phases and their corresponding methods. It provides technical background on how to conduct interviews, facilitate workshops or lead design studio sessions.

Book summary:
Leah Buley provides us with much more than just a great manual for how to be a great UX designers. This book felt like a kind university professor that is always there for me and whenever I felt like a failure it helped to see the light at the end of the tunnel. With it, you can find your professional confidence and learn to trust the process. Yeah, it’s good.

In retrospect

Like I said, I’ve read a lot of books on design. Even though a lot of them were not that great, it was worth it to find those real gems, like the five I just listed. I highly recommend you give these a shot, but I also think a part of being a designer is exploration. Don’t be afraid to give a chance to a book that someone else hates. We are all different and in the end, you might just find your own gem.