Written by 
Edited by 
Edited by 
When a client visits your website, you want them to stick around. And their initial user experience can influence whether they linger or leave. User experience, or UX, is one of the most important design elements you’ll want to incorporate when building out your website. A well-designed site that’s easy to navigate can increase conversions as well as help you build out your book of business. If you’re new to the realm of web design, reading UX books for beginners can help you understand the basics, so you can put them into practice.
SmartAsset’s Advisor Marketing Platform (AMP) offers financial advisors services like client lead generation, automated marketing and more. Learn about SmartAsset AMP today.
7 UX Books for Beginners Advisors Should Consider Reading
UX is a topic that’s been covered quite often, but some books are more read-worthy than others. We’ve handpicked a selection of UX books for beginners that can act as a guide for building a better financial advisor website.
“Don’t Make Me Think” is a short but impactful beginner’s guide to UX. It can be applied to all things digital, including websites, mobile apps and even PowerPoint presentations.
Krug’s approach is to take the “techiness” out of UX, and make it an approachable topic for anyone interested in design, including advisors. The tips he shares are concise and to the point, with plenty of illustrations to help you better understand how to shape your approach as you design your website.
Some of the most informative topics covered include:
- Usability and what makes for a good (or bad) experience
- How people access and use information on the web
- Usability testing
- Website accessibility
There’s a reason why it’s one of the most popular books on UX for complete beginners.
If you’ve read any books on behavioral finance, you know that psychology and money are intertwined. “Hooked” explores the role that psychology plays in product design, but there are a lot of valuable lessons that advisors can apply.
Specifically, the book examines what its author calls a hook model. This model explains the habits that drive someone to buy. First, there’s the initial trigger. This is followed by action, then reward, then investment.
You can apply this concept to your website UX to encourage engagement. For example, you may be using a lead magnet to steer prospects to your email list. If you’re not getting as many subscribers as you’d like, it could be because your lead magnet is not delivering the necessary psychological trigger to prompt people to sign up.
The hook model can, in the words of Eyal, “manufacture desire” for what you have to offer.
“Laws of UX” is another UX book for beginners that focuses on the psychology of design and how people interact with digital interfaces. Author Jon Yablonski offers a guide to applying psychological principles to create intuitive user experiences.
The updated second edition includes sections on tech advancements that are reshaping the way designers and non-designers alike approach UX. Specifically, the book looks at the role artificial intelligence (AI) plays in influencing user experience.
There are plenty of examples included to help you make connections between psychology and design concepts as you map out your site or mobile app.
If you’re looking for a straightforward read that covers UX from A to Z, “UX for Beginners” has it all. The book offers 100 lessons. It starts with a breakdown of the key elements of UX and wraps up with advice on A/B testing.
Some lessons, such as the ones covering how to find a UX job, won’t apply to advisors. But there’s enough information included in the book to make it a worthwhile read for advisors who need a quick and dirty guide to user experience.
Overall, this book is an excellent companion for any marketing books you might read to improve your practice.
Why do people buy certain products, but not others? That’s the question at the center of “The Design of Everyday Things.”
This often-cited book offers insight into the fundamentals of what makes a design compelling. It attempts to answer the question of what makes one product good and another product frustrating for customers.
Author Don Norman uses a psychology-based approach to identify common problems that arise in the design process. The book offers a guide to creating a good, usable design that directs buyers to the right action at the right time.
“User Friendly” tackles the idea that machines should be able to anticipate what people need. Authors Cliff Kuang and Robert Fabricant take you behind the scenes for a look at the hidden rules of design and how it’s impacted daily life over the last century.
This book isn’t a how-to guide to UX, but it does offer food for thought on what powers design and the numerous ways in which design affects us both consciously and unconsciously. You may want to add this to your shelf if you’re interested in the history of design and where it might be headed.
You take time to build a website for a reason: to get a response from or encourage engagement with the people who visit. That might mean signing up for your email list or scheduling an initial consultation call.
“100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People” is intended for anyone who’s struggling to achieve the desired response with their design. This book aims to help you increase your conversion rates by answering key design questions.
For instance, do you know what grabs attention on a screen, or what makes an image “sticky”? How do you motivate people to follow through on your call to action?
This book covers all of those topics and more to help you create designs that are user-friendly and actionable for the viewer.
Bottom Line
UX can seem like a complicated topic if you’re not a designer. But you’ll find that a lot of it is common sense. These UX books are a fantastic introduction to the worlds of design and user experience for total beginners.
Tips for Growing Your Advisory Business
- Whether you’re just getting started or you’re a seasoned advisor, marketing is integral to your growth plans. If you’re looking for a way to expand your brand’s visibility, you might consider partnering with an advisor marketing platform. SmartAsset AMP (Advisor Marketing Platform) is a holistic marketing service financial advisors can use for client lead generation and automated marketing. Sign up for a free demo to explore how SmartAsset AMP can help you expand your practice’s marketing operation. Get started today.
- Books are an excellent source of information, but there are other ways to expand your knowledge. You might consider reading financial blogs or tuning in to financial advisor podcasts for tips on marketing, client acquisition and the latest industry trends.
Photo credit: ©iStock/Jacob Wackerhausen, ©iStock/Wasan Tita, ©iStock/shapecharge