30 UX Design Resources You Should Know About

We’re all stuck at home right now. If you’re like me, you’re probably using this time to spring clean, organize your bookmarks bar, write letters to friends and family, and maybe even learn something new.

As someone who’s fairly new to the field of UX design, I reached out to other Designlab team members, mentors, students, and community members, for advice on which UX design resources to look to for learning. 

These UX resources span books, blogs, podcasts, videos, newsletters, and more! Check them out, and let us know what we’ve missed 🤓

Podcasts

#1: Design Matters Podcast by Debbie Millman

The world's first podcast about design, and an inquiry into the broader world of creative culture through wide-ranging conversations with designers, writers, artists, curators, musicians, and other luminaries of contemporary thought.

#2: UI Breakfast Podcast

Conversations about UI/UX design, products, marketing, and much more. 

#3: Design Better Podcast by InVision

Listen to chats with design leaders to uncover how they achieved success, and hear stories and insights from the best in product design.

#4: The Futur Podcast

The Futur is an online education platform loaded with content and tools to help you build better design skills.

Interested in learning more about the role of a UX designer? Discover what’s in a UX designer’s job description.

Websites & Blogs

#5: Inside Design by InVision

InVision’s official blog, discussing design thinking, design teams, and design inspiration.

#6: Adobe XD Ideas

Find inspiration for your own projects on the website of this powerful UI/UX design and collaboration tool from Adobe.

#7: UX Planet

UX Planet is a one-stop resource for everything related to user experience, with a whole section dedicated to UX for beginers. 

#8: Nielsen/Norman Group

The UX/UI consulting firm, founded in 1998 by Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman, continues to be a true leader in the field, and regularly publishes groundbreaking usability research. 

#9: Prototypr.io

Prototyping, UX design, front-end development and more can be found on this site.

#10: Muzli

Muzli provides design inspiration, news, and trends, curated from over 120 sources.

#11: Sidebar

Sidebar collects and showcases the best links each day about UI/UX design, typography, CSS, user research, and more.

The role of UX designer has evolved considerably over the past decade. Curious about what skills a UX designer needs today? Here are the 12 essentials. 

Videos & Films

#12: Gary Hustwit’s Documentaries

The creator of acclaimed design films like Helvetica and Rams is streaming a new free movie every week during the Covid-19 crisis.

#13: Abstract: The Art of Design

There are now two seasons of this acclaimed Netflix original series, which explores computer design and modern contemporary design with some of the world's most highly regarded designers.

#14: The Creative Brain

In this 2019 Netflix original film, neuroscientist David Eagleman taps into the creative process of various innovators while exploring brain-bending, risk-taking ways to spark creativity.

#15: Sarah Doody

Sarah Doody is a UX Design & Research Consultant, Founder, Writer, and Speaker. Her YouTube channel is full of valuable wisdom for new designers—from imposter syndrome to how to get a job in UX design.

#16: AJ&Smart

This design agency is constantly updating their YouTube channel with educational content on UX/UI design, design sprint methodologies, product design, and product strategy.

Looking for more art and design viewing? Check out 10 Design Documentaries You Should Watch.

Books

#17: Ruined By Design by Mike Monteiro

Monteiro showcases how designers destroyed the world—and what we can do to fix it. It’ll make you both furious and hopeful.

#18: How to Make Sense of Any Mess by Abby Covert

This book outlines a step-by-step process for making sense of messes made of information (and people), and is equipped with a hyperlink enabled indexed lexicon and worksheets to complete while reading.

#19: Don't Make Me Think Revisited by Steve Krug

This classic—originally published in 2000—argues why a good app or website should let users accomplish their intended tasks as easily and directly as possible.

#20: The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

This best-selling book by cognitive scientist and usability engineer Donald Norman talks about how design serves as communication between object and user, and how design can make experiences delightful.

#21: Lean UX by Jeff Gothelf

In this insightful book, Gothelf teaches sets out valuable “lean UX” design principles, tactics, and techniques—like how to rapidly experiment with design ideas, validate them with real users, and continually adjust your design based on what you learn.

#22: Sprint by Jake Knapp et al

 Designer and author Jake Knapp teaches readers how to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days through a method he invented while working at Google Ventures.

#23: Just Enough Research by Erika Hall

In this book, Mule Design co-founder Erika Hall distills her experience into a brief cookbook of research methods. Learn how to discover your competitive advantages, spot your own blind spots and biases, and understand and harness your findings.

#24: Conversational Design by Erika Hall

Get to know the human interface, and learn why conversation is the best model for creating more human-centered design.

#25: 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) by Susan Weinschenk PhD

Dr. Susan Weinschenk shows how to apply the latest research in cognitive, perceptual, and social psychology to create more effective UX/UI designs.

Newsletters

#26: Typewolf

A short and sweet roundup of the latest type news and typeface releases delivered to your inbox every Tuesday.

#27: UX Design Weekly

A curated list of the best user experience design links every week.

#28: HeyDesigner

Design news for product people, UX designers, product managers and frontend developers.

#29: Web Designer News

A collection of the best news for digitaldesigners ranging from apps, business, design, typography, tech, UX design, web design, and more.

#30: The Designlab Digest

Here at Designlab we send out a monthly newsletter with posts from our blog, articles from friends around the web, free video training, and heaps more UX/UI design goodness. If you’re not already subscribed, you can sign up at the bottom of this page!

Ready to build your UX Design skills, and switch to a new creative career? Check out our UX Academy program, which combines 1-on-1 mentoring with rigorous curriculum and group design critiques.