I’m often asked which books to read about UX for complex systems. While there is no single book dedicated to this topic, here is a list of literature I find useful. Some of these books may appear rather old, but that simply means they have stood the test of time. Although the UI examples may not look particularly “fresh” today, the underlying concepts they present remain important; you just need to adapt them to your current tasks and context.
For beginners
- Jef Raskin. The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems. Addison-Wesley Professional, 2000
Very good, ever-actual focus on microinteractions design and thinking out of the engineering and “status quo” box. - Alan Cooper. About Face – The Essentials of Interaction Design. John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2014
- Don Norman. The Design of Everyday Things
- Jesse James Garrett. The Elements of User Experience
- Jenifer Tidwell. Designing Interfaces
Advanced topics
- Bill Hollifield, Dana Oliver, Ian Nimmo, Eddie Habibi. The High Performance HMI Handbook. PAS, 2008
- Neville A. Stanton. Human Factors in Alarm Design, CRC Press, 1994
Human factors and ergonomics
- Mica R.Endsley, Debra G. Jones. Designing for Situation Awareness, 2nd edition. CRC Press, 2012
Academic, but fundamental, probably there is still nothing better at this moment. - James Reason. Human Error. Cambridge University Press, 1990
Everything you want to know about humans making errors. Quite academic, but it also implies that there is probably nothing more fundamental. - Neville Stanton et al. Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics Methods, CRC Press, 2004
- D Norman, P. Lindsay. Human Information Processing. An Introduction to Psychology
- Dik Gregory, Paul Shanahan. Being Human in safety-critical organisations. TSO, 2017
Specific industries
Maritime industry
- Antonio Di Lieto. Bridge Resource Management. Hydeas Pty, 2015
Detailed and comprehensive overview of the Costa Concordia disaster with a strong focus on human factors and safety culture.
Aviation
- Wise, Hopkin, Garland. Handbook of Aviation Human Factors, 2nd edition. CRC Press, 2010
Systematic overview of human factors in aviation — from readability of gauges to the role of aesthetics. - Pamela S. Tsang, Michael A. Vidulich. Principles and Practice of Aviation Psychology. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003
- David Beaty. The Naked Pilot. The Human Factor in Aircraft Accidents. Airlife, 1995
Non-fiction, a pretty simple book, that highlights the role of human factors in aviation
Information visualization
- Edward Tufte. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd edition. Graphics Pr, 1997
- Jacques Bertin. Semiology of Graphics: Diagrams, Networks, Maps
- Eduard Imhof. Cartographic Relief Presentation
Philosophy and theory
- Victor Papanek. Design for the real world. Pantheon Books, 1971
Very good focus on the real design challenges and tasks. Probably, this book affected my current specialization more than anything else - Vilém Flusser. Vom Stand der Dinge. Eine kleine Philosophie des Design
- Stanisław Lem. Summa Technologiae
- R. Buckminster Fuller. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth
Fiction
- Robert Sheckley. Ask A Foolish Question
In my opinion, this short story is the best introduction to proper user and product research. And nowadays, it is also a good demonstration of the limitations of the blind usage of AI. - Peter Watts. Blindsight
Other
- Leslie Groves. Now It Can Be Told: The Story Of The Manhattan Project
One of the most interesting (and, in some sense, terrible) books about project management in conditions of uncertainty and limited time.