A post in which I recommend a few UX books

5 Books: ‘Envisioning Information’, ‘The Elements of User Experience’, ‘The Laws of Simplicity’, ‘The Design of Everyday Things’, ‘The Elements of Typographic Style’

I’m occasionally asked for suggestions on how people might learn more about UX. Usually it’s a pretty general question, but sometimes it’s more specifically for reading recommendations. In order to make it easy for me to quickly answer such questions, I’ve decided to post a few of my suggestions here. And rather than trying to get this perfect, which would prevent my ever getting it done, I’ll treat this as a series of occasional posts.

The series isn’t meant to provide a definitive list, but rather a set of books that I’ve enjoyed and found helpful in my UX work. Some of them will be well known and already widely recommended. Others may be less so, though no less valuable to me. A few might even be eccentric choices for a list like this. And some of them might make for excellent beach reading this summer!

Let’s start with five and see how things go.

The Design of Everyday Things
by Donald Norman
This is the first UX book I ever read. Any of Norman’s books are well worth a look, but this one is, for me, his greatest.

The Laws of Simplicity
by John Maeda
Short and simple, as it should be.

Lean UX: Applying Lean Principles to Improve User Experience
by Jeff Gothelf and Josh Seiden (Editor)
Filled with practical guidance that you can start to act on right away, from a pair of Fluxible speakers.

The Elements of Typographic Style
by Robert Bringhurst
This might very well be may favourite book on typography. Smart, detailed, and eminently approachable.

Envisioning Information
by Edward R. Tufte
A beautifully printed book that, naturally, communicates Tufte’s ideas in a compellingly visual way.

Hey, look! Fluxible 2015 early bird registration is open!

Logo: Fluxible - A User Experience Event

Fluxible 2015 Early Bird registration is open now. That means that there’s some pretty great pricing available for not just our main program, but for some wonderful Friday workshops as well. As I mentioned previously, we’ve made a few changes to our programming this year, and it feels like we’ve found a fine balance that makes Fluxible available to more folks.

Check out the program, and then get yourself registered before we sell out! And feel free to ask me any questions Fluxible — try Twitter if you don’t have my email.

Fluxible 2015 program is now online

Logo: Fluxible - A User Experience Event

We’ve announced our Fluxible 2015 program and it’s going to be a terrific three days in September!

This year we’ve expanded things a little with the intent of making Fluxible available to more people. Read all about our changes for 2015, and then check out the details of the program. It’s another great lineup filled with insightful presentations from smart and generous speakers, along with fine food and more than a little music!

Early Bird registration opens next Monday, June 15, at noon EST. Now’s the time to start sorting out your budget and preparing to register. Hope to see you at Fluxible!