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Beginner books
Books recommended for learning Game UX design, UX psychology and UXR
Game specific books
How to be a Game User Researcher
Run better playtests, reveal usability and UX issues, and make videogames better.
By: Steven Bromley
Game UX Designers should know the basics of how to prepare the material and conduct play tests, as well as how to analyse the results.
This short book gives you the UXR fundamentals and a lot of good tips and tricks! Skills you need to know as a UX designer, Game Researcher or Game Designer.
Focus: Playtest & User Research
Level: Beginner
Non-game specific design books
The Design of Everyday Things
By: Don Norman
Great fundamental book about design and how design should follow physical rules to tell us how to use them. Design is a language telling us how to use objects and what they are for. Don Normal is in many ways the "Father" of the Western design language.
This is also relevant in game design because we want the game world to tell us what objects and menus are for and how we should expect to use them.
Focus: Physical objects & Interaction design
Level: Beginner
Emotional Design
By: Don Norman
This book goes through some fundamentals of how emotions are important in design and how it impacts how we think and feel when using an item.
Thinking about the Emotional design of an experience is extra important in games because we play games to feel in many ways. The examples in the book are all physical items, so there is a bit of a leap needed to think about how this applies to video games, but I think it's a good book to get you started in Emotional Thinking in the products we use and play with.
Focus: Emotions to objects visual design
Level: Beginner
Why we love (or hate) everyday things
100 things
Every designer needs to know about people
By: Susan M. Weinschenk, Ph.D.
As UX designers, we should know how people work, think and behave, and this is a great book to build the fundamentals!
It is not specifically about games but the fundamentals of people are still the same, in or outside of playing a game.
Focus: How people behave & think
Level: Beginner
Universal Principles of UX
100 Timeless Strategies to Create Positive Interactions between People and Technology
By: Irene Pereyra
A great book with 100 rules and tips on the design of digital products. Short and to the point descriptions of each principle.
Not all of the principles listed apply for game design, but more often than not, it does because design is universal across all technology. This is one of my most recent favourites.
Focus: Design Rules
Level: Beginner
Gamify
How Gamification Motivates People to Do Extraordinary Things
By: Brian Burke
Read this if you want to learn about how to tap into the motivational side of design and player personas.
Even if the concept of "Gamification" is borrowed from
games and made to fit other products, it provides a clear introduction to how gamification can be used in all areas of design.
Focus: Motivating design
Level: Beginner
More Advanced books
For deeper learnings and more advanced UX
Game specific design books
The Gamer's Brain
How Neuroscience and UX Can Impact Video Game Design
By: Celia Hodent
Basically, this is the large version of 'The Psychology of Video Games', which goes more in-depth into each topic and study. It reads quite academic, so it is more of a slow and heavy read imo.
Focus: Game Psychology
Level: Advanced
Non-game specific design books
Actionable Gamification
Beyond Points, Badges and Leaderboards
By: Yu-Kai Chou
Why do some apps, workplaces, and experiences hook people while others fail? Actionable Gamification reveals how you can design experiences that motivate, engage, and drive real results.
This book is interesting for game UX design because it gives a structure to Gamification and what drives people to use a product or play a game.
Focus: Motivational design
Level: Advanced
The Elements of User Experience
User-centered design for the web
By: Jesse James Garret
The Elements of User Experience goes through the 5 layers of UX. From Strategy, scoping out the information needed, setting the structure, building the skeleton, to the last visual layer.
This book is in the Advanced section because it is good for expanding your view of UX when you gain seniority and need a wider view of UX and how to manage it.
The building blocks and layers of UX are the same is game design as well, so this is a good book to learn about the layers of UX that will level up your strategy and thinking.
Focus: UX Stradegy
Level: Advanced
Don't Make Me Think
By: Steve Krug
On the importance of designing products (and games) to make them easy to use and understand. Don't make people think too hard to understand what your design means and what they should do.
The examples used are for Mobile and Web designs, but the fundamentals and design thinking still apply to game UX design too.
Focus: UX/UI design
Level: Advanced
Hooked
How to Build Habit-Forming Products
By: Ryan Hoover
Read this if you want to learn about how to tap into the darker side of designs, where it can be used to hook people to your product and create a habit around it. But it is up to us as UX designers to use this power for good.
This knowledge applies to games too, because we all know how addictive games can become. There is a healthy level of design
Focus: Motivational design
Level: Advanced
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