3 Powerful (non) UX Books to Boost Your UX Career
"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."
~ Dr. Seuss
If you really want to strengthen your UI / UX Career you should not just be reading books about UI and UX.
An odd statement given how many excellent UI / UX Books there are about the business and craft that every designer should read in their lifetime. Titles like:
- "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug
- "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman
- "Hooked" by Nir Eyal
- "How To" by Michael Bierut
- "100 Things Every Designer Needs To Know About People" by Susan Weinschenk
- "Lean UX: Designing Great Products with Agile Teams" by Jeff Gothelf
But reading these feels almost obvious. What other books should a designer read to be more well rounded?
Going Beyond Just UX Books
Beyond these UX Books there are some transformative reads that can greatly help to build yourself OUTSIDE of design. Being an amazing UX / UI Designer is imperative for finding work, but if the rest of your thinking and approach isn't as well developed you'll be limited in how far you can progress in your career. A stunning portfolio can only take you so far.
Here are 3 Powerful (non) UX Books to Boost Your UX Career:
The books I list here greatly helped me personally in my career by exposing me to concepts beyond pixels and allowing me to better connect to the users, businesses, and co-workers I was serving. They are all well known and widely available, giving everyone a chance to read and internalize their wisdom.
Getting To Yes
Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
“The ability to see the situation as the other side sees it, as difficult as it may be, is one of the most important skills a negotiator can possess.”
This is a book I've recommended to any UI / UX Designer I've mentored or worked with. On the surface it seems more applicable to sales or those running the business, but a look at the stated benefits on the back quickly tell a different story:
- Separate the people from the problem;
- Work together to create options that will satisfy both parties; and
- Negotiate successfully with people who are more powerful, refuse to play by the rules, or resort to "dirty tricks."
Certainly sounds like useful skills for a UX Designer who needs to navigate difficult problems with many stakeholders, right?
It's a concise read that gives practical guides for how to approach negotiating with peers and clients to arrive at solutions that are beneficial for everyone. It can also be highly useful for negotiating your salary, position, and helping you navigate managing other designers.
The War of Art
Break Through the Block and Win Your Inner Creative Battles
“The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”
A beautiful little play on words from the well known "Art of War" by Sun Tzu, reading this book can be a bit of a slap in the face (in a good way).
Steven Pressfield describes a force preventing creatives from completing their work call "the resistance". There are no magic solutions to overcome this beyond sitting down to "Do the work" (a title of another excellent book by the author).
UI and UX Designers can be tempted to derail themselves from output when they're "not inspired" or "not feeling it". This book helps to dismantle this notion and give us a stern reminder that "real artists ship" (as Steve Jobs said) and it's imperative to our careers to push through and produce.
How To Win Friends & Influence People
The Only Book You Need to Lead You to Success
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”
Originally released in 1936, the powerful lessons of this book still resonate today and keep it relevant. Though almost a cliche to see it listed in a must read book list, the subtle twist here is to see its application to a UI / UX Design Career.
This book primarily is about understanding human relationships and how to grow one's group with each interaction. These interpersonal skills are by far some of the most difficult to teach and practice, and this book gives a number of practical approaching to help improve your interactions with others.
Your career will be built on relationships and connections, and this book gives you the tools needed to thrive with others.
It can be tempting to only stick with reading UI or UX Books as we seek to build our careers and sharpen our design skills. But it pays massive dividends to go outside our discipline and become more well rounded in aspects beyond UI Design. Like learning how negotiate and create win-wins, understanding how important output is and not allowing ourselves to rely on the whims of "inspiration", and learning interpersonal skills to become someone other's want to work with.
Give the books in the list a read, and if you have any other suggestions I'd love to hear them.
Cheers to your well rounded UI / UX Design Career!
P.S. - I am a bit sheepish about having my own book listed below here amongst these true classics, but I would be honoured if you did check it out. In it I captured many points from the books above as I had learned them and applied them specifically to my design career.
Want to build your UI / UX Design Career?
Learn the simple but uncommon tactics to become an always in demand designer for Apps, Websites, and UI.