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Further Reading

A collection of articles and books on UI design, design systems, and accessibility.

Why it matters

The field of UI/UX design is constantly evolving. Staying updated with foundational theories and modern trends is crucial for growth. Learning from established experts helps you avoid common pitfalls and build better products.

Essential Books

Refactoring UI

By Adam Wathan & Steve Schoger. A practical guide to designing beautiful user interfaces from a developer's perspective.

The Design of Everyday Things

By Don Norman. The bible of cognitive engineering and usability. Essential for understanding human-centered design.

Don't Make Me Think

By Steve Krug. A common sense approach to web usability. Short, fun, and incredibly valuable.

Atomic Design

By Brad Frost. The methodology behind creating robust design systems by breaking interfaces down into smaller components.

Thinking with Type

By Ellen Lupton. The definitive guide to using typography in visual communication. Crucial for understanding grids and hierarchy.

Laws of UX

By Jon Yablonski. A collection of best practices that designers can consider when building user interfaces.

Inclusive Design Patterns

By Heydon Pickering. A coding accessibility manual that teaches you how to write inclusive, robust, and efficient interfaces.

About Face

By Alan Cooper. The comprehensive guide to interaction design, covering goals, personas, and interface behavior.

Sprint

By Jake Knapp. How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days.

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People

By Susan Weinschenk. Combines psychology and design to explain what motivates people to click, read, and buy.

Lean UX

By Jeff Gothelf & Josh Seiden. Applying lean principles to improve user experience and collaboration.

Designing Interfaces

By Jenifer Tidwell. A classic pattern library for interaction design, capturing best practices for common UI problems.

Must-Read Articles

10 Usability Heuristics

By Jakob Nielsen. The most widely used heuristics for user interface design. A checklist for usability.

7 Practical Tips for Cheating at Design

By Adam Wathan. A tactical guide to improving your designs immediately with simple tweaks.

Responsive Web Design

By Ethan Marcotte. The original article that coined the term and changed the web forever.

Optical Effects in UI

By Slava Shestopalov. An in-depth look at visual balance, optical corrections, and why mathematically centered isn't always visually centered.

The 8-Point Grid System

By Bryn Jackson. A comprehensive guide to using 8pt grids for consistent spacing and sizing across your designs.

Design Systems 101

By Nielsen Norman Group. The foundational concepts behind building, maintaining, and scaling design systems.

Color in UI Design

By Erik D. Kennedy. A practical framework for choosing and applying colors effectively in user interfaces.

Designing for Empty States

By Nielsen Norman Group. Why empty states matter for onboarding and retention, and how to design them to be helpful.

Microinteractions

By Nielsen Norman Group. How small animations and feedback loops improve the overall user experience.

7 Things About Accessibility

By Salesforce Design. Essential accessibility principles that every UI designer should know and implement.

7 Basic Rules for Button Design

By UX Planet. A deep dive into button states, hierarchy, placement, and best practices.

Touch Targets on Touchscreens

By Nielsen Norman Group. Research-backed guidelines for sizing interactive elements on mobile devices.

Design Blogs

Smashing Magazine

Quality articles on web design, coding, and UX. A go-to resource for professionals.

UX Collective

Curated stories on user experience, visual, and product design. Diverse perspectives.

Sidebar

The five best design links, every day. A great way to keep up with the industry without noise.

A List Apart

Explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a focus on web standards.

CSS-Tricks

A daily updated site about all things front-end development and design implementation.

Nielsen Norman Group

Evidence-based user experience research. The gold standard for UX data and usability guidelines.

UX Planet

A one-stop resource for everything related to user experience, from beginner guides to advanced concepts.

Prototypr

Daily design news, tools, and resources. Great for keeping up with new prototyping tools.

Muzli

Design inspiration, news, and trends curated for designers. Visual heavy and inspiring.

Design Better

Essential books and podcasts on product design and design operations from InVision.

The A11Y Project

A community-driven effort to make digital accessibility easier to understand and implement.

Google Design

News, articles, and resources from the design teams at Google. Material Design updates and more.

Essential Websites

Growth.design

In-depth case studies on product design, presented in a fun, comic-book format.

Baymard Institute

Years of large-scale research into e-commerce UX. The go-to for checkout and product page best practices.

UI Patterns

A library of user interface design patterns for solving common design problems.

Design System Checklist

An open-source checklist to help you plan, build and grow your design system.

Checklist Design

A collection of the best design practices.

Component Gallery

A repository of interface components from real-world design systems.

GoodUI

A/B tested UI patterns and ideas to increase conversion.

UserOnboard

In-depth teardowns of user onboarding flows from popular apps.

Typewolf

Trending typography, site of the day, and font recommendations.

Humane by Design

Guidance for designing ethically humane digital products.

Design Principles

An open source collection of design principles and methods.

Screenlane

A library of the latest mobile and web UI design patterns for inspiration.

Inspirational Websites

Awwwards

The awards for design, creativity and innovation on the Internet.

siteInspire

A showcase of the finest web and interactive design.

Godly

Astronomically good web design inspiration.

Lapa Ninja

The best landing page design inspiration from around the web.

One Page Love

Curated collection of unique One Page websites.

Commerce Cream

Curated e-commerce design inspiration.

Httpster

A showcase of tasty typography and simple, effective design.

Minimal Gallery

A curated gallery of the best minimal website designs.

Brutalist Websites

In its ruggedness and lack of concern to look comfortable or easy.

SaaS Landing Page

The best SaaS landing page examples for design inspiration.

Dark Mode Design

A showcase of beautifully designed dark mode websites.

Best Website Gallery

A visual bookmark collection of websites by David Hellmann.

Learning Habits

  1. Analyze Daily

    Look at the apps you use every day. Ask yourself *why* they made certain design decisions.

  2. Read Case Studies

    Learn how other designers solve problems. Sites like Nielsen Norman Group offer deep dives into usability research.

  3. Practice Copywork

    Try to recreate designs you admire pixel-for-pixel to understand spacing, typography, and layout.

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