Pretty much every single day I get a tweet, email, or in person request for information on how to get started in the field of user experience. I’ve recently had a few people reach out to me even asking me to mentor them throughout the process. Given that I often find myself repeating the same answers over and over again, I decided to put all of my resources in a single blog post so that folks could easily access a consolidated version of my advice.
So you wanna be a user experience designer?
The best way to learn a new language is to go to a country where it’s spoken and immerse yourself in the confusion. Soon the unfamiliar will become familiar, and before you know it you’ll be fluent.
If you’re interested in getting to know more about user experience, I recommend doing the same. You may choose to simply understand the terminology, or become conversant. You might later decide to tackle some of the more complex concepts.
There are many steps to the process, but I am starting with Resources because I believe you need a great arsenal before kicking off any journey. In future posts I’ll discuss:
- Guiding Principles
- Process
- Tools
- Transitioning from other careers
- Practice Landscape
…as well as any other topics that come up along the way.
I have organized the resources below in what I perceive to be lightest to deepest engagement — publications and blogs, books, local events, organizations, mailing lists, webinars, workshops, conferences, and schooling.
DISCLAIMER: These are my personal recommendations, and plenty of people will disagree with me on many points, I’m sure. But this is what has worked for me — the people/places/events/organizations that have kept my interest throughout my schooling and career — and where I believe anyone who wants to immerse themselves in user experience should start their journey. Please feel free to add your suggestions in the comments.
UX Books
UX Primer
- The Design of Everyday Things
by Don Norman
- Don’t Make Me Think
by Steve Krug
Design Thinking
- Sketching User Experiences
by Bill Buxton
- Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
by Don Norman
- The Inmates Are Running the Asylum
by Alan Cooper
Strategy
- Subject To Change
by Peter Merholz, Todd Wilkens, Brandon Schauer, and David Verba
Process
- The Elements of User Experience
by Jesse James Garrett
- About Face 3
by Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann, and David Cronin
- A Project Guide to UX Design by Russ Unger and Carolyn Chandler
Principles
- Designing for the Social Web
by Joshua Porter
- Designing Interfaces
by Jenifer Tidwell
- Designing Visual Interfaces
by Kevin Mullet
- Information Architecture for the World Wide Web (the Polar Bear book)
by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville
- Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web by Christina Wodtke and Austin Govella
- Designing Web Navigation by James Kalbach
- Web Form Design by Luke Wroblewski
Activities
- Usability Engineering
by Jakob Nielsen
- Handbook of Usability Testing by Jeffrey Rubin and Dana Chisnell
- Observing the User Experience by Mike Kuniavsky
Documentation
- Communicating Design
by Dan Brown
Extra Credit
by S. M. CaseyUX Blogs
- Konigi by Michael Angeles
Tips, tools and techniques for being a better user experience designer
- Disambiguity by Leisa Reichelt
The ins and outs of designing a product with an existing, and passionate, community
- EverydayUX by Alex Rainert
A fresh look at the world around us through UX-tinted glasses
- Graphpaper by Christopher Fahey
Critical analysis of some of the toughest issues facing UX designers today
- inspireUX by Catriona Cornett
Cubical-wall worthy quotations from a variety of practitioners on how and why to create positive user experiences
- Bokardo – Social Design by Joshua Porter
For everything you need to consider when designing socially-focused stuff
- Logic + Emotion by David Armano
Reusable visualizations and valuable synthesis at the intersection of user experience design, marketing and business
- Putting People First by Experientia
A great resource for all things UX from around the globe
- Brain Sparks by User Interface Engineering (UIE)
Inside the brilliant minds of user research pioneer Jared Spool and his team
- Design for Service by Jeff Howard
Insights into all the ways companies need to be communicating with their customers, outside of their websites
- UX Booth by Redd Horrocks, Matthew Kammerer, David Leggett, and Andrew Maier
A group blog written by up-and-coming designers and developers with fresh perspectives on user experience design. They represent the next generation of our community
UX Publications
- Boxes and Arrows
Journal dedicated to discussing, improving and promoting the work of the information architecture community
- interactions
Magazine including timely articles, stories, and content related to the interactions between experiences, people, and technology, published by the Association for Computing Machinery
- UXmatters
Insights and inspiration for the user experience community written by many distinguished practitioners
- Core77
Industrial Design content and community site – articles, discussions, interviews and resources
Local Events
- UX Book Club
- IxDA chapters
- UPA chapters
- IAI Local Groups
- SIGCHI chapters
- User Experience Meetups
- Information Architecture Meetups
- Lots more events listed at UXnet.org
Organizations
- Information Architecture Institute (IAI)
- Interaction Design Association (IxDA)
- Usability Professionals Association (UPA)
- User Experience Network (UXnet)
- Special Interest Group – Computer Human Interaction (ACM/SIGCHI)
Mailing lists
Webinars
- UIE’s Virtual Seminars
A monthly series of online seminars giving you the chance to hear the latest perspectives in the world of design from the field’s premier experts.
$129 each. 90 minutes. - Rosenfeld Media’s Future Practice Webinars
The cutting edge of contemporary user experience research and design methods and practices.
$99 each. 60 minutes. - Adaptive Path’s Virtual Seminars
$129 each. 75 minutes.
- Smart Experience online material
Workshops
- UIE Roadshow
In this full-day, in-depth seminar you’ll discover the key experience-design factors, analyze your team’s strengths and weaknesses, create an experience vision, and learn the role of delight.
- AdaptivePath’s UX Intensive
This four-day workshop series is for experienced professionals wanting to take their practice to the next level.
- Cooper U
A practical collection of courses that help product team members improve their effectiveness from early planning all the way through implementation.
Conferences
Inspirational
- Good Experience Live (GEL)
A conference and community exploring good experience in all its forms — in business, art, society, technology, and life.
- IDEA Conference
The world’s foremost thinkers and practitioners sharing the big ideas that inspire, along with practical solutions for the ways people’s lives and systems are converging to affect society.
- Adaptive Path’s Managing Experience (Mx)
Thought leaders from major corporations show you how smart and visionary management will help you successfully compete in a difficult economy.
Practical
- UIE’s User Interface Conference
Examining the biggest issues in the world of web design, information architecture, and usability.
- NN/g’s Usability Week
A three-day usability camp, a three-day intensive session on interaction design, and several specialized, day-long tutorials on core usability topics. Come for as few or as many days as you want.
- UPA
Tutorials, workshops, Experienced Practitioners program, then two and a half days packed with presentations, Idea Markets, and opportunities to network with other user experience professionals.
Mixed
- IxDA Interaction Conference
Three days of inspirational and tactical sessions geared at anyone who practices Interaction Design, as well as a day of pre-conference workshops.
- IA Summit
The premier gathering place for information architects and other user experience professionals. Two days of pre-conference sessions, two keynotes and over 50 presentations.
- Adaptive Path’s UX Week
A mix of inspiring talks from recognized thought leaders and hands-on workshops delivering takeaway skills, this event delivers for user experience professionals at all levels — directors, managers, and practitioners.
- UIE’s Web App Summit
The four-day Summit includes two days of intensive full-day workshops and two more days of featured presentations from world-renown experts, to give you fresh perspectives and new insights on today’s web app design challenges.
- UX Australia
3-day user experience design conference, with inspiring and practical presentations, covering a range of topics about how to design great experiences for people.
- UX London
A unique three-day event combining inspirational talks with in-depth workshops presented by some of the industry’s biggest names.
Academic
- ACM’s CHI
The premier international conference for the field of human-computer interaction.
Schooling
Human Computer Interaction
- Human Computer Interaction Institute
at Carnegie Mellon University
(where I received a bachelor’s and master’s degree) - Master of Science in Information – HCI Specialization
at University of Michigan
- Full list of HCI degree programs
Interaction Design
- Master of Design in Interaction Design
at Carnegie Mellon University
- Master of Fine Arts in Interaction Design
at School of Visual Arts
(starting fall 2009) - Undergraduate minor in Interaction Design
at Savannah College of Art and Design
Misc
- Interactive Telecommunications Program
at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts
- Institute of Design
at Illinois Institute of Technology
Related Posts:
- So you wanna be a user experience designer — Step 2: Guiding Principles November 23, 2009 | 54 comments
- Follow-up to “You’re not a user experience designer if…” June 7, 2011 | 8 comments
- The User Is Not Like Me May 4, 2012 | 20 comments
- Interaction-design.org’s Encyclopedia is live! February 1, 2011 | 3 comments
- Silver Winner of the Inaugural User Experience Awards June 7, 2011 | 1 comments
Is it possible to be a successfull user experience designer with only a bachelors degree? I was looking into getting a bachelors in a program that specializes in Human-Computer Interaction.
Maddie, absolutely! There are many successful UX practitioners without any formal education in HCI, interaction design or human factors. This is very much a career you can create for yourself and many have before you. Craft your own curriculum with books, blogs, webinars, workshops, conferences, networking events and side projects where you put it all into action. Best of luck and enjoy the wild ride!
Well, what’s your criteria for “successful”?
I actually didn’t finish and worked my way up to where I am now which is a Sr Interaction Designer @ Intuit. My major at a CSU college didn’t involve HCI. It only involved graphic design with a minor in illustration but I did quite a bit of work as a designer working with B2B & B2C companies that gave me a lot of hands-on experience over the years. I also learned a lot from books, UX podcasts and websites that Whitney has listed on this page including Brain Sparks, Boxes & Arrows, Designer Matters, etc.
So to answer your question, YES! It’s totally possible. The space is still so new so there’s no set path to success. Just make sure you have a simple portfolio (showing only your best works), solid process, and be able to present yourself well. That’ll come in handy since you need to convey your ideas & decisions clearly in the interviews you may come across that involve getting drilled with scenarios =)
BTW Whitney, I’m a big fan =) Your blog is a quite the UX resource. Keep it up and pls give us more audio discussions and workshops to listen to! U rock. I enjoyed your talk “Evangelizing Yourself: You Can’t Change the World if No One Knows Your Name” and your video on Design Principles.
Hey Whitney, just listened to your podcast on the Big Web Show with Jeffrey Zeldman and it was really interesting and inspiring. I am looking to focus my career more towards UX and was wondering if having an Agile Product Owner certification would help? Also, I am not a young man anymore so do you think that makes a difference?
Is there a specific reason you haven’t included “research methods in anthropology”?
My girlfriend strongly recommended it to me. I have started reading and it seems to be the bible for qualitative anthro/ethnography, and ties in beautifully with a lot of the ideas in your blog (Einstein’s 55 minutes) and it compliments your suggested reading list.
hey Whitney i must say you doing a great job. you rock girl ! sending warm regards from israel :)
hey Whitney are you aware that EverydayUX is in chines. or maybe you meant to post another link ?
I just ordered a couple of books off of the list…thank you for this amazing resource! Great post.
Thank you for sharing!
I appreciate the list of resources, but do each of those books teach something completely different? is it really beneficial to read all of them?
Curious, I wouldn’t have listed any that were redundant of others. I find the overlap between them to be minimal, and necessary. Tell me where you’re at and I’ll recommend the best first one.
Hey Whitney! I just came across your blog, seems really interesting. I’m quite confused at the moment and needed some help deciding my next step towards a successful career. I got out of college last year(bachelor’s in CS) and have been working for a year. I want to become a UI/UX Developer and at present I’m nowhere close to becoming one. I recently wrote GRE, didn’t really get a satisfactory result. I’m in a dilemma. Can I switch my career in a year’s time by learning about UI design myself or is it better to get a Master’s degree in a reputed college first?
Thank you for your help. But I have a little bit confused.
I have to read all resources above before going to step 2 or just read some of that ?