# Usability books

> A reading list on usability: Norman’s Design of Everyday Things, Nielsen, Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, Beyer & Holtzblatt on contextual design and more.

- Page: https://www.elasticspace.com/2003/08/usability/
- Author: Timo Arnall (https://www.elasticspace.com/)
- Section: Notes (https://www.elasticspace.com/notes/)
- Published: 2003-08-11
- Updated: 2026-07-04
- Tags: Books, Interaction Design, Research, Usability
- Site map for agents: https://www.elasticspace.com/llms.txt

---

This is one of a series of reading lists I put together between 2002 and 2004 when I was starting out in interaction and experience design, building out a personal canon from books I was buying, borrowing from libraries, or lending to students. The lists are grouped by topic. This one is on usability, the discipline that gave interaction design its empirical grounding.

Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things is the foundational book, and still the one to read first. Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think is the approachable practitioner’s companion. Beyer & Holtzblatt’s Contextual Design is the canonical research-methods book, the one that taught a generation of designers how to watch users in their actual contexts. Nielsen is the dominant figure of the era, for better and worse; both his books are worth knowing even where you disagree.

The Amazon links below are what I had at the time, most will be dead now, but the ISBNs will find you a copy.

### The Design of Everyday Things

Donald Norman.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262640376/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0262640376/elasticspace-20)

### Things That Make Us Smart

Donald Norman.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201626950/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201626950/elasticspace-20)

### The Design of Sites: Patterns, Principles, and Processes for Crafting a Customer-Centered Web Experience

Douglas K. Van Duyne, James Landay, Jason I. Hong.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/020172149X/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/020172149X/elasticspace-20)

### User-Centred Web Design

John Cato.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201398605/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201398605/elasticspace-20)

### Contextual Design: A Customer-Centered Approach to Systems Designs

Hugh Beyer, Karen Holtzblatt.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558604111/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1558604111/elasticspace-20)

### User and Task Analysis for Interface Design

Joann Hackos, Janice Redish.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471178314/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471178314/elasticspace-20)

### Shaping Web Usability: Interaction Design in Context

Albert N. Badre.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201729938/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201729938/elasticspace-20)

### Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Websites

Andrew Chak.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735711704/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735711704/elasticspace-20)

### Handheld Usability

Scott Weiss.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470844469/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470844469/elasticspace-20)

### Web Accessibility for People With Disabilities

Michael G. Paciello.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929629087/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1929629087/elasticspace-20)

### Design by People for People: Essays on Usability

Russell Branaghan.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970227205/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0970227205/elasticspace-20)

### Designing Web Usability

Jakob Nielsen.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/156205810X/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/156205810X/elasticspace-20)

### Usability Engineering

Jakob Nielsen.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0125184069/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0125184069/elasticspace-20)

### Web Site Usability

Jared M. Spool.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/155860569X/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/155860569X/elasticspace-20)

### Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Steve Krug.
[amazon.co.uk](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789723107/elasticspace-21) / [amazon.com](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789723107/elasticspace-20)