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Most programmers' fear of user interface (UI) programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. They think that UI design is like graphic design-the mysterious process by which creative, latte-drinking, all-black-wearing people produce cool-looking, artistic pieces. Most programmers see themselves as analytic, logical thinkers instead-strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment, and incapable of doing UI design.
In this brilliantly readable book, author Joel Spolsky proposes simple, logical rules that can be applied without any artistic talent to improve any user interface, from traditional GUI applications to websites to consumer electronics. Spolsky's primary axiom, the importance of bringing the program model in line with the user model, is both rational and simple.
In a fun and entertaining way, Spolky makes user interface design easy for programmers to grasp. After reading User Interface Design for Programmers, you'll know how to design interfaces with the user in mind. You'll learn the important principles that underlie all good UI design, and you'll learn how to perform usability testing that works.
Rule No. 1, Spolsky says, is this: "A user interface is well designed when the program behaves exactly how the user thought it would." So how do you figure out what users expect, realizing that (as a programmer) you aren't one of them? Ask a few (it doesn't have to be many). And think more clearly about what you're doing.
For example, should users really have to decide how big the Help database index ought to be, when she merely wants to know how to turn an image upside down? No choice is often better than interrupting the user's workflow with a decision that's irrelevant to their goals.
Spolsky shows how to use metaphors (including when to use them, and how to avoid bad ones.) You'll see why tabbed dialogs work (except when they start jumping around "like restless children on Class Photo Day"); and why other metaphors, such as My Briefcase, were screaming failures.
Spolsky advocates designing as if your users can't read, can't use a mouse well, and "have such bad memories they would forget their own name if it weren't embossed on their American Express." (As Spolsky emphasizes, they're rarely that dumb, but are often preoccupied with more important matters.) He also offers practical guidance on using heuristics (why it's OK for Word to replace "teh" with "the," but never to tell you "It looks like you're writing a letter"?)
Spolsky offers quick introductions to the process of effective user interface design, and the realities of user interface testing (what you can legitimately discover via up-front testing, what you can't, and why you'd better make sure the developers are watching through the one-way glass). The book concludes by applying its principles to web design, with its added challenges -- the limitations of HTML, and time delay associated with round-trips to a server, which tend to make web interfaces feel clunky at best. You'll learn why less web user interface is usually better (it means users will rely on hyperlinks and their browser controls, which they might actually understand by now.)
User Interface Design For Programmers is a pleasure to read. It doesn't just demystify user interface design, it humanizes the subject. Heck, even makes it fun.(Bill Camarda)
--Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced products and services. He served for nearly ten years as vice president of a New Jersey-based marketing company, where he supervised a wide range of graphics and web design projects. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000
| Foreword | ||
| Introduction | ||
| Acknowledgments | ||
| Ch. 1 | Controlling Your Environment Makes You Happy | 1 |
| Ch. 2 | Figuring Out What They Expected | 7 |
| Ch. 3 | Choices | 15 |
| Ch. 4 | Affordances and Metaphors | 23 |
| Ch. 5 | Broken Metaphors | 33 |
| Ch. 6 | Consistency and Other Hobgoblins | 43 |
| Ch. 7 | Putting the User in Charge | 49 |
| Ch. 8 | Design for Extremes | 57 |
| Ch. 9 | People Can't Read | 61 |
| Ch. 10 | People Can't Control the Mouse | 67 |
| Ch. 11 | People Can't Remember | 75 |
| Ch. 12 | The Process of Designing a Product | 81 |
| Ch. 13 | Those Pesky Usability Tests | 89 |
| Ch. 14 | Relativity: Understanding UI Time Warps | 103 |
| Ch. 15 | "But ... How Do It Know?" | 109 |
| Ch. 16 | Tricks of the Trade | 115 |
| Ch. 17 | Designing for the Web | 121 |
| Ch. 18 | Programming for Humans | 133 |
| Shockingly Selective Bibliography | 135 | |
| Index | 137 |
Anonymous
Posted January 6, 2005
When you press the brakes of a car...you dont get a little dialog box that pops up and says ' Stop Now? (Yes/No)'...or do you? Aren't we really happy that everything is not really based on windows (as yet). When i picked up this book (well...got it as an Xmas present), I expected it to be more from a graphical perspective. But it was not to be. The small size of the book and its author certainly persuaded me to go ahead and read the book...and seriously...it was worth my time. To summarize: - Not always really sensible to write a windows based program which completely contradicts the way Microsoft places controls on the form. - While designing web-programs, try minimizing frequent trips to the server...(some apps do it even now ... damn). Use applets dude. - Know thy user......damn......Joel presents so many examples of how stuff should not be made. - While designing UI's for users, creativity should take the back-seat and 'common-sense and intuition' takes the drivers seat. - Users are duh....really..so...design for duh people. - And for the myths vs facts (my favs) - Flash sucks and kills the web-page ... Joel says YES....so do I - Frames are stupid and are misleading ... I agree ...and so does Joel. - And I disagree with one thing....Color coding does not really help. I am tempted to say that color coding is a matter of user-preference....(considering that you are not too color-bling)...and it certainly helps to have color coding for stuff you use on a daily basis. Maybe...its for the overly-organized folks...but still....if someone is trying to use a computer for something other than games,movies or programming, he/she is using it for organizing stuff...period. Overall...an excellent read.... My rating for the book.....Four on Five.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted September 29, 2003
User Interface Design is a topic which I have always been interested in. I believe it was PCWorld Magazine that used to have a column dedicated to improving the design of a submitted interface, and there were many things I learned from that column. This book seems to work from the basis of that column, but doesn¿t go as far as I would have liked it to. There are many anecdotes included in the book, and they were very illustrative as to the problems people encounter when working with a badly designed interface. I especially liked the concept of the mile-high menu bar that Mac users have, and how that compares to the small footprint that a Windows user must target to open a menu. Still, I was left wanting more. The book serves as a great introduction, but if you¿re already done some UI Design, you might already be familiar with most of what is explained in the book. The anecdotes are what really make the book appealing, but I wouldn¿t recommend purchasing the book just for those. It¿s a good book, it just falls short of what it could have been.
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Posted October 15, 2010
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Overview
Most programmers' fear of user interface (UI) programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. They think that UI design is like graphic design-the mysterious process by which creative, latte-drinking, all-black-wearing people produce cool-looking, artistic pieces. Most programmers see themselves as analytic, logical thinkers instead-strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment, and incapable of doing UI design.
In this brilliantly readable book, author Joel Spolsky proposes simple, logical rules that can be applied without any artistic talent to improve any user interface, from traditional GUI applications to websites to consumer electronics. ...