Resources

Books on User Interface Design and Related Topics

Links on each title go to a site where you can get the book or document. Most book-links are to Amazon.com.

The criteria for inclusion of books in the list are explained following the list.

On This Page:

• Favorites
• General Design
• Platform-Specific Official GUI Style-Guides
• Platform-Independent GUI Guidelines
• Hybrid Design/Process Guidelines
• UI Process Guidelines
• College Textbooks
• Web UI Design
• Graphic Design
• Task-Analysis, Contextual and Participatory Design
• Universal UI Design
• Usability Testing, Evaluation, Engineering
• HCI Collections Pertaining to UI Design
• Business Analysis

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Favorites

• Jeff's five favorite UX Design books (other than his own) at Shepherd.com

General Design

• Johnson and Finn: Designing User Interfaces for an Aging Population: Toward Universal Design, Morgan Kaufmann, 2017
• Johnson: Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Guidelines (3rd Ed.), Morgan Kaufmann, 2020
• Norman: The Design of Future Things, Basic Books, 2009
• Norman: Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things, Basic Books, 2005
• Norman: Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes In The Age Of The Machine, Perseus Press, 1994
• Norman: The Design of Everyday Things, Basic Books, 1988

Platform-Specific Official GUI Style-Guides

• Apple Computer: Apple Human Interface Guidelines
• Microsoft: Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines
• Sun Microsystems (Oracle): Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines

Platform-Independent GUI Guidelines

• Johnson and Finn: Designing User Interfaces for an Aging Population: Toward Universal Design, Morgan Kaufmann, 2017
• Fowler, Stanwick: Web Application Design Handbook: Best Practices for Web-Based Software, Morgan Kaufmann, 2004
• Marcus, Smilonich, Thompson: The Cross-GUI Handbook: For Multiplatform User Interface Design, Addison-Wesley, 1994

Hybrid Design Guidelines and Process Guidelines

• Bailey: Human Performance Engineering: Designing High Quality Professional User Interfaces for Computer Products, Applications and Systems, 3rd Ed., Prentice-Hall, 1996
• Barfield: The User Interface: Concepts and Design, 2nd Ed., Bosko Books, 2008
• Borchers: A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design, Wiley, 2001
• Chapanis: Human Factors in Systems Engineering, Wiley, 1996
• Collins: Designing Object-Oriented User Interfaces, 2nd Ed., Pearson Technology Group, 2008
• Cooper, Riemann, Cronin: About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design, Wiley, 2007
• Galitz: The Essential Guide to User Interface Design: An Introduction to GUI Design Principles and Techniques, 3rd Ed., Wiley, 2007
• Hix, Hartson: Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability Through Product & Process, Wiley, 1993
• Johnson: GUI Bloopers 2.0: Common User Interface Design Don'ts and Dos, Morgan Kaufmann, 2007
• Johnson: GUI Bloopers 2.0: Chinese Edition, China Machine Press, 2008
• Johnson and Henderson: Conceptual Models: Core to the Design of Interactive Applications, Springer, 2024
• Mandel: The Elements of User Interface Design, 2nd Ed., Wiley, 1997
• Mayhew: Principles and Guidelines in Software User Interface Design, Facsimile Ed., Prentice Hall, 2008
• Mayhew: The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design, Morgan-Kaufmann, 1999
• Mirel: Interaction Design for Complex Problem Solving: Developing Useful and Usable Software, Morgan Kaufmann, 2003
• Moggeridge: Designing Interactions, MIT Press, 2007
• Olsen: Developing User Interfaces, Morgan Kaufmann, 1998
• Raskin: The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems, Addison-Wesley, 2000
• Tidwell: Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design, O'Reilly, 2005

UI Process Guidelines

• Buxton: Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design, Morgan Kaufmann, 2007
• Constantine & Lockwood: Software for Use: A Practical Guide to the Models and Methods of Usage-Centered Design, ACM Press, 1999
• Kuniavsky: Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User Research, Morgan Kaufmann, 2003
• Snyder: Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces, Morgan Kaufmann, 2003
• Treu: User Interface Design: A Structured Approach, Springer, 1994
• Wood (ed.): User Interface Design: Bridging the Gap from User Requirements to Design, CRC Press, 1997

College Textbooks

• Sharp, Rogers, Preece: Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction, 2nd Ed., 5th ed., Wiley, 2007
• Shneiderman, Plaisant: Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction, 5th ed., Addison Wesley, 2009
• Stone, Jarrett, Woodroffe, Minocha: User Interface Design and Evaluation, Morgan Kaufmann, 2005

Web UI Design

• Brinck et al: Usability for the Web: Designing Web Sites that Work, Morgan Kaufmann, 2001
• Goto, Cotler: Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works, 2nd Ed., Peachpit Press, 2004
• Jarrett: Forms that Work: Designing Web Forms for Usability, Morgan Kaufmann, 2008
• Krug: Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Ed., New Riders Press, 2005
• Krug: Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems, New Riders Press, 2009
• Lynch, Horton: Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites, 3rd Ed. Yale U Press, 2009; Web version
• Nielsen: Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, New Riders, 1999
• Redish: Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works, Morgan Kaufmann, 2007
• Rosenfeld, Morville: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites, 3rd Ed., O'Reilly, 2009
• Travis: E-Commerce Usability: Tools and Techniques to Perfect the On-Line Experience, CRC, 2002
• Van Duyne et al: The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, 2006
• Weinschenk: Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click?, New Riders, 2009
• Wodtke, Govella: Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, 2nd Ed., New Riders, 2009

Graphic Design

• Cleveland: The Elements of Graphing Data, 2nd Ed., Hobart Press, 1994
• Cleveland: Visualizing Data, 2nd Ed., Hobart Press, 1993
• Few: Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data, O'Reilly, 2009
• Harris: Information Graphics: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference, Oxford University Press, 2000
• Mullet & Sano: Designing Visual Interfaces: Communication Oriented Techniques, SunSoft Press/Prentice Hall, 1994
• Tufte: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd Ed., Graphics Press, 2001
• Tufte: Envisioning Information, Graphics Press, 1990
• Ware: Visual Thinking: for Design, Morgan Kaufmann, 2008

Task-Analysis, Contextual and Participatory Design

• Beyer, Holtzblatt: Contextual Design: A Customer-Centered Approach to Systems Designs, Morgan-Kaufmann, 1997
• Holtzblatt, Wendell, Wood: Rapid Contextual Design: A How-to Guide to Key Techniques for User-Centered Design, Morgan-Kaufmann, 2004
• Bodker (ed): Through the Interface: A Human Activity Approach To User Interface Design, CRC Press, 1990
• Greenbaum & Kyng (eds): Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems, CRC Press, 1991
• Hackos, Redish: User and Task Analysis for Interface Design, Wiley, 1998
• Kirwan, Kirwan & Ainsworth (eds): A Guide To Task Analysis, CRC Press, 1992
• Kyng, Mathiassen (eds): Computers and Design in Context, MIT Press, 1997
• Schuler & Namioka (eds): Participatory Design: Principles and Practices, Erlbaum 1993

Universal UI Design

• Del Galdo & Nielsen (eds): International User Interfaces, Wiley, 1996
• Lazar: Universal Usability: Designing Computer Interfaces for Diverse User Populations, Wiley, 2007

Usability Testing, Evaluation, Engineering

• Dumas, Redish: A Practical Guide to Usability Testing, Intellect, Ltd, 1999
• Head: Design Wise: A Guide for Evaluating the Interface Design of Information Resources, Information Today, 1999
• Krug: Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems, New Riders Press, 2009
• Nielsen: Usability Engineering, Academic Press, 1993.
• Nielsen & Mack (eds): Usability Inspection Methods, Wiley, 1994.
• Rubin, Chisnell, Spool: Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests, 2nd Ed., Wiley, 2008
• Schaffer: Institutionalization of Usability: A Step-by-Step Guide, Addison-Wesley, 2004

HCI Collections Pertaining to UI Design

• Adler, Winograd (eds): Usability: Turning Technologies into Tools, Oxford University Press, 1992
• Baecker, Grudin, et. al. (eds): Readings in Human-Computer Interaction: Toward the Year 2000 (Interactive Technologies), Morgan-Kaufmann, 1995
• Dix, Finlay, Abowd, Beale (eds): Human-Computer Interaction, 3rd Ed., Prentice Hall, 2003
• Gram, Cockton (eds): Design Principles for Interactive Software, Chapman and Hill, 1996
• Jacobson (ed): Information Design, MIT Press, 1999
• Nielsen (ed): Coordinating User Interfaces for Consistency, Morgan Kaufmann, 2002
• Norman & Draper (eds): User Centered System Design, Erlbaum, 1986
• Rudisill, Lewis, Polson, McKay (eds): Human-Computer Interface Design: Success Stories, Emerging Methods, and Real-World Context, Morgan-Kaufmann, 1996
• Winograd (ed): Bringing Design to Software, Addison-Wesley, 1996

Business Analysis of Usability and User-Centered Design

• Bias, Mayhew: Cost-Justifying Usability, Second Edition: An Update for the Internet Age, 2nd Ed., Morgan Kaufmann, 2005
• Cooper: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity, SAMS/Pearson Education, 2004
• Landauer: The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity, MIT Press, 1996
• Norman: The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer Is So Complex, and Information Appliances Are the Solution, MIT Press, 1999

Criteria for Inclusion in this List of UI Design Books

The books in this list are intended primarily for user-interface designers, software graphic designers, and UI programmers, i.e., UI practitioners. These books can be about any aspect of the UI design process: design guidelines, design process, evaluation and testing, benefit analysis. UI design books are a small subset of all books on Human-Computer Interaction.

This list excludes books written primarily about research topics for research-oriented readers. I don't consider those to be UI design books, even though some designers may read some of them for grounding in theory, methodology, and results. Similarly, the list excludes books that are intended as broad introductions to the entire field of Human-Computer Interaction, or that are explorations of future HCI technologies. A third type of book I have excluded are books specifically about how to implement user-interfaces using a particular GUI toolkit, e.g., "Developing GUIs with AJAX". I consider those UI implementation books, not design books.