The Elements of User Experience
User-Centered Design for the Web and Beyond
I’m a big fan of most books I read, but I truly can’t praise this one enough. In my opinion, this book is the best intro to UXD (for interaction designers).
The book centers around a “Five Planes of UX” diagram that I’ve found so helpful in thinking about the components of interactive design. Stacked on top of the base plane, Strategy, are Scope, Structure, Skeleton, and Surface. The diagram even accounts for the difference between “product as functionality” and “product as information.”
A great UX is built on top of all these planes—without a single one treated with care (especially lower-level ones) the whole UX falls apart. This book has helped me keep the entire UX in mind while working on projects.