introduction
As someone spending their time mentoring people in User Experience (UX) and the Human centred design (HCD) industry in general, I noticed that a lot of the same questions kept re-appearing. I have a core set of resources I have been giving out, copied and pasted from a word doc somewhere - not a very helpful way to store these really useful bits of info! So I've done my best to collate them all here.
Note: This is not meant to be one massive "list to end all lists" - this is a highly curated "cream of the crop", designed to not overwhelm the new starter, and to give them the best accelerator into their learning in human centred design. I've also tried to include resources for those that are switching careers - another common route into HCD.
Note: This is not meant to be one massive "list to end all lists" - this is a highly curated "cream of the crop", designed to not overwhelm the new starter, and to give them the best accelerator into their learning in human centred design. I've also tried to include resources for those that are switching careers - another common route into HCD.
general resources and primers to the field
Resource |
Author |
Good for |
Nielsen Norman Group in general, and their explanation of UX here |
Multiple |
The definitive source for all things usability and UX design. |
Multiple |
Excellent courses and articles. |
|
IDEO |
Methods to try out in your process. |
|
FutureLearn |
Learning UX at your own pace. |
|
Marvel App |
Granular detail on UX methods, processes and background. |
|
Matt LeMay |
A great storytelling approach to how to get user experience wrong |
Soft skills
Resource |
Author |
Good for |
Rachel McConnell |
Understanding a great breadth of soft skills, how to learn them |
|
Seung Chan Lim |
Why empathy is important to UX and HCD |
|
Indi Young |
Putting empathy and listening into practice |
|
Brene Brown |
A quick video short |
|
Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman for HBR |
Understanding levels of listening |
Books
Resource |
Author |
Good for |
Don Norman |
A good grounding of what user experience is and our interactions with the designed world |
|
Joe Dumas and Beth Loring |
How to set up and run your own usability testing |
|
Jeffrey Rubin and Dana Chisnell |
How to set up and run your own usability testing |
|
Jesse James Garrett |
The famous layers of experience diagram |
|
Steve Krug |
A great intro to HCD |
|
Daniel H Pink |
Understanding what motivates people |
|
Warren Berger |
How to ask great questions |
|
Steve Portigal |
Improving your research and usability testing questions |
|
Chip and Dan Heath |
Understanding the importance of moments in the experience "narratives" |
|
Matthew Engelk |
Transferable thought processes from anthropology to research |
|
Erika Hall |
What research method to use, how much and when |
|
Jeff Gothelf |
Great for product teams trying to explore how to embed design into a digital and technical process |
|
Marc Stickdorn |
Getting started with service design - also see his two follow up books SD Doing and SD methods. |
|
Peter Bazalgette |
Understanding empathy in humans |
|
Indi Young |
Understanding what mental models are and how to work out users models |
|
Leah Buhley |
Practical advice for lone UX-ers to get started and get buy-in |
Articles, newsletters and publications
Resource |
Author |
Good for |
Multiple |
Current UX news |
|
Kai Brach |
A breadth of design articles |
|
Multiple |
Whats popular in design right now - every Monday |
|
Multiple |
It's community |
|
Leisa Reichelt |
Intelligent and thoughtful articles |
|
Adrian Howard |
Variety of product and design related news |
|
Paper Giant |
Intelligent opinion on HCD |
|
DScout |
Great practitioner advice and guides |
understanding your level, interviewing & career progression
This section is all related to breaking into the industry, then measuring how you're doing once you're there. This includes interview and portfolio tips, courses, and what to do if you're changing career.
Resource |
Author |
Good for |
Jason Mesut |
Career progression, understanding the difference between different HCD disciplines |
|
Clearleft |
The different skills expected at different career levels |
|
NN Group |
Great examples of portfolio content approaches |
|
Sarah Doody |
Sarah specialises in UX portfolios and coaching - check out her free resources and articles |
|
UX Beginner |
If you have no relevant experience but want to get into UX |
|
Dave Hora |
Visualising a path for your research career |
|
Rikke Friis Dam plus lots of hiring managers |
Rikke has collected up lots of hiring managers opinions and strategies when hiring UX practitioners. |
Getting buy-in from stakeholders for hcd
Resource |
Author |
Good for |
Sarah Doody on Hackernoon |
Knowing where to start with getting buy in |
|
Userzoom |
A collection of techniques from thought leaders in the field, great examples. |
|
Alireza Mogharrab |
Practical and actionable advice on persuading other people to listen to research. |
|
Jared Spool |
Step by step methods from a respected thought leader |
podcasts
Resource |
Author |
Good for |
Jason Ogle |
Hearing from the thought leaders in design |
|
Roman Mars |
Unusual and non-obvious design around you |
|
David and Andrew |
A sideways look at usability |
|
NPR |
A deeper look at humans and what makes us tick |
setting up a ux/hcd process
Resource |
Author |
Good for |
Nadeeka Athukorala |
Learning the basic UX process steps |
|
Career Foundry |
Those starting out from scratch in UX |
|
Indi Young |
Insights on how to frame a research study |
|
NN Group |
The "at a glance" quadrant diagram of methods |
|
Sarah Doody on InVision |
How to create a bit of documenting what you did, and what to document |
communities and collectives
Resource |
Author |
Good for |
Multiple (originator: Kate Towsey) |
The slack group, meeting new people, learning up to date info on the operations side of research. |