Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Chris Oliver

A little over a year ago, I created The Monster List of UX Books by compiling every list of recommended UX books I could find into a Google spreadsheet. While a spreadsheet worked well enough in the beginning, updating the list was tedious and error prone (inaccurate tallies, duplicate books and authors, etc.). I had also received many requests from users for features like rating books, which Google Sheets could not support.

Moving to Airtable

Over the past few months I’ve been transferring the Monster List to Airtable, a web app for creating databases, as well as adding new lists, books, and categories. I’ve also added new features and functionality that are now possible using Airtable.

Overview of updates to the list:

Gallery view with book cover images
User ratings: sort the list by user ratings and submit your own ratings
Categorization: suggest new categories
Feedback form
179 new books, 24 new lists, and 13 new categories

Exploring the new list

You can explore the embedded list below or open it in a new tab.

<a href="https://medium.com/media/134746d172d67675cbc9f1ce547c9c17/href">https://medium.com/media/134746d172d67675cbc9f1ce547c9c17/href</a>

For those of you unfamiliar with Airtable, I also made a quick screen recording (no audio) to demonstrate how to navigate the list:

<a href="https://medium.com/media/a5830a6b6de71d53c2dcd1e5de7415b2/href">https://medium.com/media/a5830a6b6de71d53c2dcd1e5de7415b2/href</a>

How you can get involved and improve the list

Rate and categorize books

You can now rate and suggest categories for any book on the Monster List using this form:

<a href="https://medium.com/media/0d8492e427b1e9735aa745f5dfb424b9/href">https://medium.com/media/0d8492e427b1e9735aa745f5dfb424b9/href</a>

Submit feedback

Did you come across a new list or book not on the Monster List? Do you have suggestions for how to improve the list or other general feedback? Share it through the feedback form:

<a href="https://medium.com/media/59a0d96c469ed5a004bc6c3f034363b0/href">https://medium.com/media/59a0d96c469ed5a004bc6c3f034363b0/href</a>

Sign up for Airtable using my referral link

Thanks to all the new content I’ve added to the list, I’m already close to hitting the limits of a free Airtable account. The good news is that I receive $10 credit at Airtable for every person that signs up with my referral link below. Each $10 credit pays for one month of Airtable Plus, which allows me to store more books, authors, and user ratings.

Sign up for Airtable: https://airtable.com/invite/r/WbG5f7FB

Help maintain the list

If you have some time to spare and are feeling extra generous, I am looking for a few volunteers to help me maintain the list. This might include adding cover images to books, adding new lists and books, and updating book categories. Let me know in the comments if you’re interested.

Share the list

Last but not least, if you found this list helpful, please do clap for it and share it on your social network of choice.

<a href="https://medium.com/media/b85dfbb5286d8a25cf2e754b9462cf45/href">https://medium.com/media/b85dfbb5286d8a25cf2e754b9462cf45/href</a>

The Monster List of UX Books, 2nd Edition was originally published in Prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Monster List of UX Books, 2nd Edition

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