Top 5 must-read books for UX designers
Table of Contents
Updated October 2026. We checked every edition and year below on the publisher's or author's own page, corrected the Universal Principles of Design and Designing Interfaces entries, and added a UI design section and a reading list for research, psychology, writing and accessibility.
Quick answer
The best UX design books to start with are Don't Make Me Think, Revisited by Steve Krug and The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. Krug teaches usability in an afternoon. Norman explains the psychology behind it. For UI design, read Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger, then keep Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell and co-authors on the desk as a pattern reference. After that, choose by gap: Erika Hall or Steve Portigal for research, Jon Yablonski for psychology, Torrey Podmajersky for UX writing and Laura Kalbag for accessibility.
The list at a glance
The first five are our classic picks, in the order we cover them below. The rest are what to read next.
| Book | Author | Latest edition (publisher, year) | Best for | UX or UI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Don't Make Me Think, Revisited | Steve Krug | 3rd edition (New Riders, 2014) | Your first UX book; web and mobile usability basics | UX |
| Beautiful Visualization | Julie Steele and Noah Iliinsky (eds.) | 1st edition (O'Reilly, June 2010) | Designers working with data and dashboards | UI |
| Universal Principles of Design | William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler | Updated and Expanded 3rd edition (Rockport, 2023) | A reference of 200 design principles to dip into | Both |
| Designing Interfaces | Jenifer Tidwell, Charles Brewer and Aynne Valencia | 3rd edition (O'Reilly, December 2019) | UI patterns for web, mobile and desktop | UI |
| The Design of Everyday Things | Don Norman | Revised and Expanded Edition (Basic Books, 2013) | The psychology behind usability | UX |
| Refactoring UI | Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger | Digital book, PDF (refactoringui.com; no edition year given) | Developers who have to design screens | UI |
| The Non-Designer's Design Book | Robin Williams | 4th edition (Peachpit, 2014) | Layout and type basics for beginners | UI |
| Just Enough Research | Erika Hall | 2nd edition (A Book Apart, 2019) | Research on a small budget | UX |
| Interviewing Users | Steve Portigal | 2nd edition (Rosenfeld Media, 2023) | Running user interviews | UX |
| Laws of UX | Jon Yablonski | 2nd edition (O'Reilly, January 2024) | Psychology principles applied to design | Both |
| Strategic Writing for UX | Torrey Podmajersky | 2nd edition (O'Reilly, July 2025) | Interface text and voice | UX |
| Accessibility for Everyone | Laura Kalbag | 1st edition (A Book Apart, 2017) | Accessible design basics | Both |
If you only read one, make it Krug: it takes an afternoon. If you read two, add Norman. If your job is mostly screens, make the second one Refactoring UI.
The five classics, one by one
We’ve covered a ton of UX related resources in the past, but we thought we’d take the time to highlight the five must-read books for UX designers. These are books that have changed the way we approach our work, and they’ve done so in a way that’s almost universally applicable to almost any UX designer. It’s important to understand that not every designer will agree on the merits of each book, and that there are very valid criticisms of many of them. The most important part of reading these books is that you understand the critiques and, if you choose to accept them, then at least you know that you’re operating within a defined system, rather than just making it up as you go along.
1. Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
Don’t Make Me Think teaches web and mobile usability in a straightforward and approachable manner. The current edition is the third, Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited (New Riders, 2014). Krug says on his site that he may do another edition someday, but for now the third is the one to buy. Since its publication in the year 2000 it has become one of the industry’s defining publications and a vital resource for UX experts all around the world.
Steve Krug wrote Don’t Make Me Think to help individuals think like usability professionals. It was intended to be brief, succinct, and to the point. The concept is that if it can be read in under two hours and uncover all of the most essential principles of usability, it will be much simpler to convince individuals who don’t typically have responsibility for UX to support the ideas and promote them inside their companies.
2. Beautiful Visualization by Julie Steele and Noah Iliinsky
Many individuals who are interested in visualizations believe that it is only a question of learning a few tools, but there is more to it. You learn about data and what questions to pose and discover that if you don’t know what questions to ask, you’ll just wind up with a visualization that’s useless.
Design is also important in communicating the message you wish to send. So it’s useful to have a resource that gets you into the minds of the professionals. The book came out from O’Reilly in June 2010, so treat the tool examples as dated and read it for the thinking. (Yau, 2011)
3. Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden and Jill Butler
A book about design principles should be well-designed and easy to read, right? This book lives up to that promise. This book is laid out in a succession of two-page spreads (a written description on the left and visual examples on the right). It’s a delight to read because of the consistent format that is followed throughout the course of the book.
Rather than being restricted to a certain sub-practice, such as graphic or industrial design, the authors consider design as a comprehensive discipline with universal principles.
Buy the Updated and Expanded Third Edition (Rockport Publishers, May 2023). It covers 200 principles, including 75 new entries such as feature creep and gamification. Older editions are still sold second-hand, so check the cover.
4. Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell
The third edition (O’Reilly, December 2019) was co-written with Charles Brewer and Aynne Valencia and brings the patterns up to date for mobile apps, web applications and desktop software.
The book is full of useful information and subtleties that Tidwell brings to the subject. The patterns that Tidwell presents in her book aren’t only for the Web or the desktop. Any designer who works with interactions will find designing interfaces to be a valuable resource.
Tidwell begins each chapter with a review of the patterns covered in that chapter, as well as their connections to wider principles in interface design. These initial paragraphs assist us in better understanding her rationale and allowing us to determine whether or not her choices are reasonable.
5. The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
One of the most important ones among the must-read books for UX designers is Don Norman’s classic. Basic psychological ideas from fields such as cognitive psychology are introduced and linked to usability and design in this book. The book sheds light on how design acts as a conduit of communication between item and user and how to maximize that conduit to make utilizing objects a joyful experience. The current version is the Revised and Expanded Edition (Basic Books, 2013).
The book is an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of user experience design and how to understand the potential of creating products that connect with people. It also discusses user-centred design concepts, user experience best practices, and design thinking. (UXmatters, n.d.-b)
Best UI design books
The classics above lean towards UX: how people think and behave. If you searched for UI design books, these are the ones that deal with what goes on the screen: layout, type, colour, spacing and components.
- Refactoring UI by Adam Wathan and Steve Schoger. Written by the creators of Tailwind CSS for developers who have to design without a designer. The book is a 218-page PDF in 50 short visual chapters on spacing, hierarchy, colour and type. It is sold from its own site, not through bookshops.
- The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams. The fourth edition (Peachpit, 2014) teaches four principles: contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. It is about print and general graphic design, but the same four ideas fix most cluttered screens. The fourth edition added a chapter on typography.
- Designing Interfaces by Jenifer Tidwell, Charles Brewer and Aynne Valencia. Already in our top five. It is the best UI pattern catalogue in book form: navigation, forms, lists, data display and more.
- Universal Principles of Design by Lidwell, Holden and Butler. Also in the top five. Useful for UI work because many entries, such as alignment, hierarchy and colour, apply directly to screens.
- Beautiful Visualization. For data-heavy interfaces such as dashboards and tables. Pair it with our guides to table cell alignment and designing tables with lots of data.
What to read next, by topic
Once the five classics are done, pick the next book by the gap you want to close.
UX research
- Just Enough Research by Erika Hall. Short, funny and practical. The second edition (A Book Apart, October 2019) covers how to do useful research without a big budget or a research team, and adds a chapter on surveys. A Book Apart no longer sells it directly; the author sells it through Mule Books.
- Interviewing Users by Steve Portigal. The standard text on running user interviews, from recruiting to asking follow-up questions that get past polite answers. The second edition (Rosenfeld Media, October 2023) adds chapters on analysis and synthesis and on making research count in an organisation.
Psychology for designers
- Laws of UX by Jon Yablonski. Turns psychological principles such as Hick's law, Fitts's law and Jakob's law into design guidance. The second edition (O'Reilly, January 2024) adds concepts such as the paradox of choice and flow, plus sections on accessibility, personalisation and research techniques like contextual inquiry and eye-tracking.
- The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman (above) is still the best single book on this topic.
Content and UX writing
- Strategic Writing for UX by Torrey Podmajersky. How to write button labels, error messages and onboarding text, and how to build a voice for a product. The second edition (O'Reilly, July 2025) updates every chapter and covers AI-generated UX content.
Accessibility
- Accessibility for Everyone by Laura Kalbag. A short introduction (A Book Apart, 2017) to disabilities, laws and guidelines, and how to plan, evaluate and test accessible design. The guidelines it cites have moved on since 2017, so check current WCAG details on the W3C site. A Book Apart no longer sells it; the author sells it from her own site. For a practical start, see our resources for testing UI design for colour-blind users.
How we picked
We chose the five classics in 2021 because they changed how we work, and they still hold up. The newer picks fill the gaps the classics leave: UI craft, research, writing and accessibility. We do not list prices, because they change by format and country. Before you buy, check the edition: second-hand listings often show an older edition at the top.
If you prefer listening to reading, our podcasts for UX designers cover a lot of the same ground, and if you are thinking about formal study, see our list of grad schools for UX designers.
