{"id":14548,"date":"2016-07-26T20:03:17","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T03:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/?p=14548"},"modified":"2020-04-22T06:36:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T13:36:07","slug":"27-non-ux-books-sharpen-ux-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uxpin.com\/studio\/blog\/27-non-ux-books-sharpen-ux-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"27 Non-UX Books to Sharpen Your UX Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

A relatively new discipline, UX design is greatly influenced by psychology, business, and architecture. <\/span><\/p>\n

UX does not live in a vacuum. <\/span><\/p>\n

As a psychologist-turned-designer-turned-entrepreneur, I\u2019d like to share with you all the books that helped define my current approach to UX strategy and process. As I\u2019ve learned in the past 6 years since cofounding <\/span>UXPin<\/span><\/a>, the right design solution is rarely linear – you might achieve surprising breakthroughs when you attack a problem from a completely new angle. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my favorite non-UX books for UXers. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Psychology<\/span><\/h2>\n

1.\u00a0The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness<\/a><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Who’s in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain<\/a><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience<\/a><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future<\/a><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded): 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School<\/a><\/p>\n

6.\u00a0Thinking, Fast and Slow: Daniel Kahneman<\/a><\/p>\n

7.\u00a0Human Information Processing: An Introduction to Psychology<\/a><\/p>\n

8.\u00a0Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition<\/a><\/p>\n

9.\u00a0The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Philosophy<\/span><\/h2>\n

1.\u00a0Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Wanting<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0The Mystery of Consciousness<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Marketing\/Sales:<\/span><\/h2>\n

1.\u00a0Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer’s Brain<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Predictable Revenue: Turn Your Business Into a Sales Machine with the $100 Million Best Practices of Salesforce<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Architecture:<\/span><\/h2>\n

1.\u00a0Eichler: Modernism Rebuilds the American Dream: Paul Adamson, Marty Arbunich: 0082552021849: Amazon.com: Books<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Building for Better Living<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Neutra: Complete Works<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Industrial Design:<\/span><\/h2>\n

1.\u00a0As Little Design as Possible<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Less But Better <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Keep It Simple: The Early Design Years of Apple<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Business\/Strategy:<\/span><\/h2>\n

1.\u00a0The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0The Hard Thing about Hard Things<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Top 5 of All Time Picks <\/span><\/h2>\n

And to make it easier for you, here\u2019s the top 5 I\u2019d start with.<\/span><\/p>\n

Psychology:<\/b> Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience <\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

\"image02\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Understanding human cognition is an essential to designing optimize solutions. This book by Goldstein is a decent introduction to the subject.<\/span><\/p>\n

Philosophy:<\/b> Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

\"image03\"<\/p>\n

Being a great UX designer requires a great thought discipline, organization and intellectual honesty. <\/span>Tractatus is a demanding lecture, but there\u2019s no better example of pure logic applied to the thought process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Marketing:<\/b> Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer’s Brain<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

\"image04\"<\/p>\n

I use Morin\u2019s framework almost every day. This is by far my favorite, and the most practical, book about the psychology of social influence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Industrial Design:<\/b> Keep It Simple: The Early Design Years of Apple<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

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 <\/p>\n

This book helps us digital designers, understand how industrial designers build truly mature design systems and how prototyping empowers them to quickly churn through multiple iterations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Business: <\/b>Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

\"image01\"<\/p>\n

Great and pragmatic lesson in building a strategy. Framework described by Rumel can (and should!) be applied to any product strategy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hope this list is helpful! Like I mentioned in the beginning, don\u2019t limit your knowledge and influence to only the world of digital design. And when you do return for more direct UX advice, we\u2019ve got you covered – check out some of my favorites from our <\/span>free e-book library<\/span><\/a> created and maintained by active designers. <\/span><\/p>\n