Moving my UX book list from Notion to here. Also my list of lists, and my read list - for me to cross check later, and so we can talk? Feel free to drop a comment or connect, etc.
I kept the list bare so there’s less to read and I’m also excluding productivity, business, general tech, philosophy, etc. because that is another massive list.
Haven’t read yet
Design
Designing for the digital age: how to create human-centered products and services, Kim Goodwin
Universal design principles, William Lidwell
Tapworthy: designing great iPhone apps, Josh Clark
Resonate, Nancy Duarte
Design is a job, Mike Monteiro
Badass: making users awesome, Kathy Sierra
Hyperfocus, Chris Bailey
Cruel optimism, lauren Berlant
The internet of things, Samuel Greengard
Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug
The user experience team of one: a research and design survival guide, Leah Buley
This is service design doing, Marc Stickdorn, Jakob Schneider, Adam Lawrence, Markus Hormess
Research
It's our research: getting stakeholder buy-in for user experience research projects, Tomer Sharon
Think like a UX Researcher: how to observe users, influence design and shape business strategy, David Travis, Philip Hodgson
Validating product ideas: through lean user research, Tomer Sharon
Observing the user experience: a practitioner's guide to user research, Elizabeth Goodman and Mike Kuniavsky
The persona lifecycle: keeping people in mind throughout product design, John Pruitt and Tamara Adlin
Universal methods of design, expanded and revised: 125 ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions, Bruce Hanington and Bella Martin
Quantifying the user experience: practical statistics for user research, Jeff Sauro and James R. Lewis
Mapping experiences: a complete guide to creating value through journeys, blueprints and diagrams, James Kalbach
Just enough research, Erika Hall
The field study handbook, Jan Chipchase
Data-informed UX design: 21 data tweaks to improve your UX design process, Christopher Kai Wong
Talk to the elephant: design learning for behavior change, Julie Dirksen
Thinking, fast and slow, Daniel Kahneman
100 things every designer needs to know about people, Susan Weinschenk
Rocket surgery made easy: the do-it-yourself guide to finding and fixing usability problems, Steve Krug
Strategy
The lean startup, Eric Ries
Build better products: a modern approach to building successful user-centered products, Laura Klein
Org design for design orgs, Peter Merholz and Kristin Skinner
The culture code, Daniel Coyle
Do lead, Les McKeown
Team of teams, Stanley A. McChrystal
Moments of magic: be a star with your customers & keep them forever, Shep Hyken
Reality is broken: why games make us better and how they can change the world, Jane McGonigal
Influence, Robert Cialdini
Yes!: 50 scientifically proven ways to be persuasive, Robert Cialdini
The negotiator’s fieldbook, Andrea Schneider and Christopher Honeyman
Strategic writing for UX, Torrey Podmajersky
Start with why: how great leaders inspire everyone to take action, Simon Sinek
Where good ideas come from: the natural history of innovation, Steven Johnson
Blue ocean strategy, expanded edition: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant, W. Chan Kim
List of lists
10 essential books for any/future UX Design Leaders
UX Design books, blogs, and podcasts: a 2025 resource list
12 best UX Design books every Designer should read in 2025
What UX Researchers are reading - 55 book recommendations
11 UX research books to streamline your process & improve your skills
6 Books for Product Managers about UX & Design
11 Outstanding books for UX Writers
12 books to fire up your brain
Read
(in the last 3ish years, not all UX)
Lean UX, Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden - did we all start here too?
Articulating design decisions, Tom Greever - good
Hooked, Nir Eyal
Atomic habits, James Clear - I’m already very organized, so this made me smug
Deep work, Cal Newport - it’s nice that men with families can just close the door
The 7 habits of highly effective people, Stephen Covey
Four thousand weeks, Oliver Burkeman - good
How to win friends and influence people, Dale Carnegie - good advice for men maybe
Artificial intelligence; a guide for thinking humans, Melanie Mitchell - good, but better to read than audio - hearing the diagram descriptions is rough
Getting things done, David Allen
$100 million offers, Alex Hormozi
No rules rules: Netflix and the culture of reinvention, Erin Meyer & Reed Hastings - I like the part about different cultures
The 4-hour work week, Tim Ferriss - I always confuse this with Four thousand weeks. Both are good
Stolen focus, Johann Hari
1/4 of Sapiens - sorry no, so boring, except for the part where grain enslaved us and we evolved because of gossip - neat
1/10 of The design of everyday things - I tried, I couldn’t, so boring
Range: how generalists triumph in a specialized world, David Epstein - good
Sprint, Jake Knapp
The E myth, Michael E. Gerber - a must read for new businesses owners
How to not die alone, Logan Ury - yeah, I won’t be doing any of this ha
Lifespan, Dr. David Sinclair - no. a few extra years, but at what cost?!
The boy, the mole, the fox and the horse, Charlie Mackesy - lovely
The plague, Albert Camus - feel like I lost 3 years of my life
The paradox of choice, Barry Schwartz
American dirt, Jeanine Cummins - so sad
Heartstopper vol 1-3, Alice Oseman - adorable!
Love in a dark time, Colm Tóibín - good art references
2025
Rainbow pie, Joe Bageant - mixed feelings
I can already tell it’s gonna be a slow reading year. Also think I’ll move back to fiction and classic sci-fi for a bit - to prepare for the inevitable apocalypse, etc. and because last year I exhausted myself on productivity and now I need to feed the other part of my brain.
Anyway, happy reading…