While almost everything around us is becoming digital, including meetings, whiteboards, even sticky notes, books still carry a certain charm. Yes, you can download them to a Kindle or skim summaries online, but sitting with a physical book, turning pages, underlining ideas, and pausing to think does something different. It slows you down just enough to actually learn.
And for product teams, that pause matters. After all, great products are built with a better understanding of users.
At Onething Design, we’ve always been a bit obsessed with reading about UX, product thinking, and human behavior. Many of the principles we apply in research, usability, and product strategy come from books we constantly return to and discuss as a team.
So we put together this guide… a curated list of the best UX books for product teams. Not just what to read, but what problem each book helps solve, and when it becomes useful in the product lifecycle. Whether you’re a product manager, designer, developer, or founder, these books can help your team move from building features to building products people actually want to use.
1. Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
Image Source: Amazon Marketplace Just Enough Research explains how product teams can understand users without heavy research processes, large budgets, or dedicated research departments. Erika Hall argues that many product decisions fail not because teams lack data, but because they rely on assumptions.
The book reframes research as an everyday product activity rather than a specialized discipline. It shows how small, consistent research efforts can dramatically improve product decisions. Instead of academic theory, the book focuses on practical discovery. That is, how to ask the right questions, identify bias, and turn user insights into clear product direction.
“You can optimize everything and still fail, because you have to optimize for the right things. That's where reflection and qualitative approaches come in. By asking why, we can see the opportunity for something better beyond the bounds of the current best.
Even math has its limits.”
― Erika Hall, Just Enough Research
What You Learn:
- How to plan lightweight user research
- Conduct effective user interviews and stakeholder interviews
- Observe user behavior and mental models
- Run usability testing on early prototypes
- Perform competitive and comparative analysis
- Avoid common research mistakes like biased surveys and leading questions
What Problem It Helps Solve:
- Building features users don’t need
- Roadmap debates driven by opinions
- Low product adoption after launch
- Misunderstanding user behavior or motivations
- Stakeholder conflicts about product direction
When in the Product Lifecycle to Read It
- Before building an MVP
- During product discovery and validation
- While prioritizing features and roadmap decisions
- When adoption or engagement is low
- Before running usability testing or user interviews
In simple terms, this book helps teams move from guessing what users want to systematically learning what they actually need, and that is often the difference between a shipped product and a successful one.
2. The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman
Image Source: Amazon MarketplaceThe Design of Everyday Things is widely considered the foundation of modern UX thinking. Don Norman explains that when people struggle to use a product, it is almost never because users are careless or “not smart enough”. In fact, it is because the design fails to match how humans naturally think and behave. Using everyday examples like doors, switches, appliances, and controls, the book shows how humans form mental models, rely on visual cues, and expect immediate feedback from systems.
Norman introduces core principles such as affordances, signifiers, feedback, constraints, and mapping, and demonstrates how good design communicates how something works without instructions. The book shifts the team’s perspective from blaming user error to identifying design error, helping product teams understand that usability is not aesthetics but clarity of interaction.
“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible.”
― Donald A. Norman, The Design of Everyday Things
What You Learn:
- How users form mental models while interacting with products
- The difference between good design and good-looking design
- Affordances and signifiers, that is, how interfaces communicate actions
- Feedback and system visibility
- Mapping between controls and outcomes
- How to reduce cognitive load in interfaces
What Problem It Helps Solve:
- Users feeling confused while navigating the product
- High onboarding drop-offs
- Frequent user errors or mistakes
- Interfaces requiring training or documentation
- Complex workflows that users cannot complete easily
When in the Product Lifecycle to Read It:
- During early product design and concept stage
- While designing workflows and interactions
- Before usability testing
- When onboarding or task completion rates are poor
- During redesign or usability improvement efforts
This book helps teams understand that usability is a fundamental part of product design that determines whether people can successfully use the product at all.
3. About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design by Alan Cooper
Image Source: Amazon Marketplace About Face is a comprehensive guide to interaction design and one of the most influential books in shaping how modern digital products are structured. Alan Cooper introduces the concept of goal-directed design, the idea that products should be built around what users are trying to accomplish, and not around features or business assumptions.
The book explains how poorly designed software often happens when teams design for themselves, power users, or edge cases instead of real users. Cooper emphasizes understanding user behaviors, motivations, and contexts through personas and scenarios, and then using those insights to design clear workflows and interactions.
“Define what the product will do before you design how the product will do it.”
― Alan Cooper, About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design
What You Learn:
- Goal-directed design and behavior-focused product thinking
- Designing task flows and user scenarios
- Structuring complex workflows into understandable steps
- Reducing cognitive overload in multi-step processes
- Aligning business goals with user goals
What Problem it Helps Solve:
- Products that feel complicated despite many features
- Confusing workflows and task completion failures
- Feature-heavy software that users struggle to learn
- Teams designing around edge cases instead of real users
- Enterprise products with steep learning curves
- Poor alignment between user needs and business goals
When in the Product Lifecycle to Read It:
- During product architecture and workflow design
- Before defining major features
- While planning large or complex systems
- During the redesign of legacy or enterprise software
This book helps teams realize that designing the behavior of the product is important so users can accomplish their goals efficiently and confidently.
4. Don’t Make Me Think (Revisited) by Steve Krug
Image Source: Amazon Marketplace Don’t Make Me Think is one of the most practical and accessible books on usability and web experience. Steve Krug’s core principle is simple – when people use a product or website, they shouldn’t have to stop and figure out how it works. The interface should be immediately understandable.
If navigation, buttons, or actions require effort to interpret, users get frustrated or leave. The book explains how clarity, visual hierarchy, and intuitive navigation reduce cognitive effort and improve task completion. Krug also introduces simple usability testing methods that any team can run regularly without specialized training. Rather than focusing on design theory, the book teaches teams how to make products obvious, predictable, and easy to use.
“Nothing important should ever be more than two clicks away.”
― Steve Krug, Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
What You Learn:
- How to design self-explanatory navigation and menus
- Creating clear labels and calls to action
- Visual hierarchy and page layout principles
- Common usability mistakes in web and app interfaces
- Identifying friction in user flows quickly
What Problem It Helps Solve:
- Users getting lost in navigation
- High bounce rates or drop-offs
- Confusing onboarding flows
- Low conversion rates
- Interfaces requiring explanation or training
- Support tickets caused by usability issues
When in the Product Lifecycle to Read It:
- During initial product design
- Before launching a website or app
- When improving onboarding and conversion
- During usability optimization or redesign
- When users struggle to complete tasks
This book helps teams internalize a critical usability principle and that is – if users have to think about how to use the interface, the design is already failing.
5. Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley & David Kelley
Image Source: Amazon MarketplaceCreative Confidence is a book about developing the mindset that enables good design and innovation to happen in the first place. Written by the founders of IDEO and leaders behind the Stanford d.school, the book argues that creativity is not a talent limited to designers or artists but a skill anyone in a team can build. Many product teams struggle not because they lack ideas, but because they fear being wrong, rely too heavily on analysis, or avoid experimentation.
The authors introduce design thinking as a practical approach to problem-solving: empathizing with users, generating ideas, prototyping quickly, and learning through feedback. Through real case studies, the book shows how teams can overcome hesitation, collaborate better, and test solutions early rather than debating them endlessly.
“It turns out that creativity isn’t some rare gift to be enjoyed by the lucky few—it’s a natural part of human thinking and behavior. In too many of us it gets blocked. But it can be unblocked. And unblocking that creative spark can have far-reaching implications for yourself, your organization, and your community.”
― Tom Kelley, Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All
What You Learn:
- The principles of design thinking and human-centered problem solving
- How empathy drives better product decisions
- Rapid prototyping and experimentation
- Brainstorming and ideation techniques
- Turning abstract ideas into tangible solutions
What Problem it Helps Solve:
- Teams stuck in analysis paralysis
- Fear of proposing new ideas
- Over-reliance on meetings and discussions instead of testing
- Lack of innovation in product direction
- Stakeholders rejecting unfamiliar solutions
- Difficulty aligning cross-functional teams around user needs
When in the Product Lifecycle to Read it:
- During ideation and concept development
- At the beginning of a new product initiative
- While defining product vision
- Before running design sprints or workshops
- When teams need collaborative problem-solving
This book helps product teams move from debating ideas to experimenting with them, encouraging a culture where learning from users becomes part of everyday product development rather than a separate design activity.
6. 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan M. Weinschenk, Ph.D.
Image Source: Amazon Marketplace This book brings psychology directly into product and interface design. Susan Weinschenk explains how human perception, attention, memory, and decision-making actually work. Instead of focusing on design trends or UI patterns, the book translates research from cognitive psychology and behavioral science into practical guidance for building usable and engaging products.
Each chapter presents a specific human behavior principle (such as how people scan screens, remember information, form habits, or respond to rewards) and connects it to interface decisions like layouts, forms, navigation, and notifications.
“To design a product or Web site that persuades people to take a certain action, you need to know the unconscious motivations of your target audience.”
― Susan M. Weinschenk, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People
What You Learn:
- How people visually scan screens and process information
- Limits of attention and working memory
- Decision-making behavior and choice overload
- Motivation, rewards, and habit formation
- Why people trust certain interfaces more than others
- How emotion influences product usage
- Designing layouts and flows that reduce cognitive effort
What Problem it Helps Solve:
- Users abandoning onboarding flows
- Forms and checkout processes failing
- Low engagement or feature usage
- Overloaded interfaces with too many options
- Poor retention despite useful functionality
- Designs that look good but feel hard to use
When in the Product Lifecycle to Read it:
- While designing onboarding experiences
- During UX optimization and conversion improvement
- When improving engagement or retention
- While refining interface layouts and interactions
This book helps teams understand that usability involves designing in a way that matches how people naturally think, decide, and behave.
7. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal
Image Source: Amazon Marketplace Hooked explains why some digital products become part of a user’s daily routine while others are forgotten after the first visit. Nir Eyal introduces the “Hook Model,” a behavioral framework that describes how products create repeat engagement through a cycle of triggers, actions, rewards, and investment.
The book connects product design with behavioral psychology, showing how motivation, anticipation, and small user commitments gradually turn occasional use into habit. Rather than focusing on interface aesthetics or usability alone, it explores how product experiences, say, notifications, progress, personalization, and feedback loops, encourage users to return without constant marketing reminders. The book also emphasizes ethical use, warning teams to create value for users rather than manipulating attention.
“The ultimate goal of a habit-forming product is to solve the user’s pain by creating an association so that the user identifies the company’s product or service as the source of relief.”
― Nir Eyal, Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products
What You Learn:
- Internal vs external triggers and user motivation
- Designing feedback loops that encourage repeat usage
- Habit formation and behavioral psychology in digital products
- Role of rewards, progress, and personalization
- Balancing engagement with responsible product design
What Problem it Helps Solve:
- Users signing up but not returning
- Low daily or weekly active usage
- Weak feature adoption
- High churn rates
- Dependence on paid acquisition to bring users back
- Products that users like but don’t regularly use
When in the Product Lifecycle to Read it:
- After MVP validation
- During growth and retention stage
- When optimizing engagement and repeat usage
- While designing notifications, reminders, and user journeys
- When improving long-term product value and loyalty
This book helps teams move beyond usability and delve deep into user behavior.
Creating Shared UX Understanding
Some books in this list help you understand usability, others teach research, some guide product strategy, and a few focus on behavior and engagement. Together, they create a shared language inside a product team. You don’t need to read all of them at once. Start with the problem your product is facing today and pick the book that addresses it. The real value comes when teams discuss and apply the ideas imbibed from the book.
At Onething Design, many of the approaches we use in research, usability, and product strategy are rooted in these learnings and the experience of applying them to real products. If you’re trying to understand users better, improve adoption, or align your team around product decisions, we’d be happy to help. Feel free to get in touch and start a conversation!