Recommended reading covers books and articles that have significantly influenced our thinking. Readings include the areas of user experience, the user-centered design process, the value of user experience. Feel free to add your feedback.

User Experience and User-Centered Design

Contextual Design Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt (1997). 1st edition paperback. A good primer on how to conduct field research data to understand whole systems and evironments. Topics include interdependencies between people, computer systems, environments, and objects (artifacts) people use to accomplish tasks. The book contains some useful chapters including one on how to understand and design work models.

The Inmates Are Running The Asylum, Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity Alan Cooper (1999). 1st edition hardcover. The inmates explains succinctly why a lot of software is not user friendly. Cooper describes traditional problems with software development, and how to develop solutions with the user in mind. Favorite discussions include goals versus tasks, user personas, and how developers are different from users. This favorite gets 5 stars.

	The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web Jesse James Garrett (2002). 3rd edition paperback. Azinno has been a fan of Jesse’s “Elements of User Experience” diagram (available here in .pdf) for years. This book lives up to expectations and accurately make distinctions between the UX process for web browsing and web applications.

	IDEO Method Cards: 51 Ways to Inspire Design IDEO (2003). Cards in a box. Method cards are a collection of easy to digest user experience and design methods (one method per card). IDEO presents the methods in a descriptive, non-technical language. For example, the card “Activity Analysis” is a good summary of a “High-Level Task Analysis”.

	GUI Bloopers 2.0. Common User Interface Design Don’ts and Dos Jeff Johnson (2008). Revised paperback. GUI Bloopers is highly recommended because it accurately conveys best practices in designing user interfaces, and is very entertaining. It covers both web and application errors.

The Art of Innovation Tom Kelley (2001). 1st edition hardcover. This book tops our 5 star recommendation list because we share it with every client and colleague. Everyone talks about innovation, but this book shows how to do with with examples, insights and stories. Chapters to live by include: Innovation Begins With An Eye, The Perfect Brainstorm, Prototyping Is The Shorthand Of Innovation, and Creating Experiences For Fun And Profit.

	Don’t Make Me Think Steve Krug (2006). 2nd edition paperback. A reference and how to guide for people that want to design usable web sites. This book does a great job of summarizing user experience data. For example the chapter Usability testing on 10 Cents a Day, is a useful overview for usability testing.

	Mobile Usability, How Nokia Changed the Face of the Mobile Phone Christian Lindholm, Turkka Keinonen (2003). Paperback. A must read for anyone involved in designing for mobile solutions or products that combine hardware and software. The book contains a balance of insights on research, case studies, cultures, design, and usability testing.

Designing Interactions Bill Moggridge (2007). 1st edition hardcover. Interactions is an awesome collection of stories and history of User Interface (UI) design. This book is a UI bible… In the beginning there was the mouse created by Doug Engelbart, then Bill Atkinson came along and designed the Apple Lisa with proportional fonts! Topics include the personal computer, play, the internet, multimedia, and leaders in the field.

	Usability Engineering Jakob Nielsen (1993). 1st edition book. The authoritative source for usability engineering, written by Jakob Nielsen who is probably the most quoted usability expert. This paperback includes excellent sections on usability heuristics and usability testing.

The Design Of Everyday Things Donald Norman (1990). Doubleday/Currency paperback reprint edition. The Design of Everyday Things shaped our careers as user expereince designers. This work has been published in several different forms for more than a decade, but it remains incredibly insightful and relevant. A key concept is the discussion of mental models and the relationship between the designers model, the users model, and the system image/technology.

	The Invisible Computer Donald Norman (1999). MIT paperback. This book clearly illustrates the case of how companies can (and should) move from making “technology-centered” to “human-centered” products and services.

Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers Colin Robson (2002). 2nd edition paperback. A manual on conducting “real world” research. It discusses strategies for designing any type of field research, how to collect the data, and how to analyze the data. Azinno especially likes the chapters covering case studies, ethnographic methods, and analysis of qualitative data.

Designing the User Interface, Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant, Maxine Cohen, Steven Jacobs (2006). 5th edition hardcover. This historic resource covers everything designers need to know about user interface design. It is an Azinno favorite because it begins with theory and principles. It give practical advice on the design process, user requirements collection, UI design, components, strategies, and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

	Envisioning Information Edward R. Tufte (1990). Hardcover. The authoritative word on information design. Tufte presents examples and explains information theory. The content is simultaneously visual and conceptually complete.

	Measuring The User Experience Tom Tullis and Bill Albert (2003). Softcover. Tullis and Albert provide insightful details on how to collect, analyze, and present usability metrics. The book is a must-read for usability practitioners, and has a useful chapter on selling the value of usability.

	An Introduction to Human Factors Engineering Christopher D. Wickens, John D. Lee , Yili Liu , Sallie Gordon-Becker (2003). 2nd edition hardcover. Everything you’ll need to know about human factors is in this book including: methods, human perception and cognition, displays and controls, biomechanics, physiology, safety, and specialized discussions about industries including transportation.

Related Topics

A partial list of books on business, leadership, branding, and entrepreneurship.

Good to Great, Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t Jim Collins (2001). 1st edition hardcover. Peter Drucker probably said it best, “This carefully researched and well-written book disproves most of the current managament hype”. Azinno agrees! It included invaluable concepts like finding the right people to be in an organization, then finding the best role for the “right people” and knowing the vision and strategy will fall into place.

	The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything Guy Kawasaki (2004). 1st edition hardcover. A how to guide for entrepreneurs starting up a product, service, or organization. This gem is chalked full of practical advice.

	A Whole New Mind, Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual AgeDaniel Pink (2005). 1st edition hardcover. Pink’s thesis is we are moving from a logical and linear information age to an empathic, inventive conceptual age. Pink presents “six senses” that are needed to make the transition.

	Word of Mouth Marketing, How Smart Companies Get People Talking Andy Sernovitz (2006). 1st edition hardcover. Sernovitz shares a potpourri of ideas on how to market anything using word of mouth techniques. The format is cool because anyone can start with an idea or two, test it, measure it, and then try out more ideas.