A comprehensive reading list for new designers
Want to learn UX design? Start here.
Every once in a while I get a request from a friend or design student* about which books to read or which blogs to follow in order to get started or just improve their craft as designers.
To give a definite answer for that question, here’s a comprehensive list of design books, blogs, authors and tutorials to read and follow.
I’ve certainly forgotten a bunch of talented people, but it should be more than enough to get the ball rolling if anyone’s feeling stuck with their current references.
Feel free to suggest additions in the comments, but this list is already heavily edited (and beginner-oriented), so let’s try not to make it too big ✌️
Nothing special about me, they just know I’m addicted to collecting references
Read This
If you just want one thing to read, see one of these:
Books
Don’t skip them.
- The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman
- The Elements of User Experience, Jesse James Garrett
- Universal Methods of Design, Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington
- Don’t Make me Think, Steve Krug
- Information Architecture for the WWW, Peter Morville & Louis Rosenfeld
- Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products, Nir Eyal
- How to Make Sense of Any Mess, Abby Covert
- Thinking with Type, Ellen Lupton
- Making and Breaking the Grid, Timothy Samara
- Design Is a Job, Mike Monteiro (and everything else from A Book Apart)
- The Shape of Design, Frank Chimero (read for free here)
- Want more books? See a monster list here
People
- Frank Chimero
- Julie Zhuo
- Paul Jarvis
- Adam Morse
- Catt Small
- Mike Monteiro
- Erika Hall
- Meg Robichaud
- John Saito
- Léonie Watson
- Ryan Singer
- Nick Babich
- Jen Simmons
Blogs
Team Blogs
Courses & Tutorials
- Hack Design
- Udacity Product Design course
- Cousera's Interaction Design Specialization
- Codecademy
- Bentobox.io
- Treehouse (Paid)
Pattern Libraries & Visual Inspiration
Thanks to Rodrigo Muniz, Zeh Fernandes and the rest of the VTEX team for suggestions. This article is also available in portuguese here.
