| OverviewDesigning a good interface isn't easy. Users demand
software that is well-behaved, good-looking, and easy to
use. Your clients or managers demand originality and a
short time to market. Your UI technology -- Web
applications, desktop software, even mobile devices -- may
give you the tools you need, but little guidance on how to
use them well.
UI designers over the years have refined the art of
interface design, evolving many best practices and reusable
ideas. If you learn these, and understand why the best user
interfaces work so well, you too can design engaging and
usable interfaces with less guesswork and more
confidence.
Designing Interfaces captures those
best practices as design patterns -- solutions to common
design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each
pattern contains practical advice that you can put to use
immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full
color. You'll get recommendations, design alternatives, and
warnings
on when not to use them.
Each chapter's introduction describes key design concepts
that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual
hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color.
These give you a deeper understanding of why the patterns
work, and how to apply them with more insight.
A book can't design an interface for you -- no foolproof
design process is given here -- but Designing
Interfaces does give you concrete ideas that you
can mix and recombine as you see fit. Experienced designers
can use it as a sourcebook of ideas. Novice designers will
find a roadmap to the world of interface and interaction
design, with enough guidance to start using these patterns
immediately.
Editorial ReviewsProduct DescriptionDesigning a good interface isn't easy. Users demand software that is well-behaved, good-looking, and easy to use. Your clients or managers demand originality and a short time to market. Your UI technology -- web applications, desktop software, even mobile devices -- may give you the tools you need, but little guidance on how to use them well. UI designers over the years have refined the art of interface design, evolving many best practices and reusable ideas. If you learn these, and understand why the best user interfaces work so well, you too can design engaging and usable interfaces with less guesswork and more confidence. Designing Interfaces captures those best practices as design patterns -- solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical advice that you can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color. You'll get recommendations, design alternatives, and warnings on when not to use them. Each chapter's introduction describes key design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color. These give you a deeper understanding of why the patterns work, and how to apply them with more insight. A book can't design an interface for you -- no foolproof design process is given here -- but Designing Interfaces does give you concrete ideas that you can mix and recombine as you see fit. Experienced designers can use it as a sourcebook of ideas. Novice designers will find a roadmap to the world of interface and interaction design, with enough guidance to start using these patterns immediately. |
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Reader Reviews From Amazon (Ranked by 'Helpfulness') Average Customer Rating: based on 43 reviews. More Practical Concepts, Less Psychology, 2008-04-11 Reviewer rating: While I don't own a physical copy of this book, I had used an electronic form of it in the course of my studies.
I will first forewarn those who are interested in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) that this text does not heavily focus on the science of Psychological principles such as Gestalt Perception, nor does it concern itself with techniques/methodologies such as Threading and Model-View-Controller (MVC) to improve the performance of programs. The focus of this text falls strictly on the layout and/or graphical design in regards to interfaces and web pages.
As well, each principle has certain uses depending on the medium used, which the text does a good job of elaborating (for example, cell phone programs would not be designed the same as a full Windows Application).
A word to the wise though: Requirements must come before Design. There are certain design principles outlined in this text that cannot be realized if the very requirements of the program do not allow for it - For example, Microsoft Office 2007 has in many ways disregarded the principle of habituation/familiarity (as it looks much different from typical Windows Applications in general). One will still need the skill of compromise in order to apply the information presented here effectively in the real world. | Intelligent and Invaluable, 2008-04-06 Reviewer rating: Jenifer Tidwell's pattern based approach is amazingly good! She carefully organizes and enumerates a wide variety of effective user interface options for both small screen (ie: Blackberry, cell phones) and larger screen forms. I am not an expert in UI design by any means (I have read Donald Norman, Tagnazzini, Shneiderman and Mayhew but I have no background in graphic design), but I do project reviews and this book has given me some insight into problems and potential fixes in a few areas. I was also able to pick up on a couple of "hidden" features in some of the software tools that I do use and to label and critique several "features" that weren't working well.
The style is easy to read. Tidwell explains, illustrates and covers the merits of each user interface. The research is solid. For example she notes that the Fisheye menu, while slightly favored by programmers and experienced users is considered confusing by and less effective for casual users and recommends a hierarchical approach.
I recommend this book for corporate libraries and as a reference for individuals and groups working on what might become overly complicated design. | nice and comprehensive writing, 2008-03-28 Reviewer rating: the book covers all the major issues of its title.
it does not however gives you solutions for unique cases - those you have to think of by yourself. very "to the point" writing.
a bit puzzling the choice to write some of the examples as if the general user is a woman.
all in all , a much recommended title. | Good but not user-friendly, 2007-06-15 Reviewer rating: This book does to UI design what the well-known "Design Patterns" did for software design. Many readers, specially those experienced in graphical and UI design will find much of the content familiar, when not trivial, but the purpose of a "pattern language" book is not to break new ground but to formalize and explain a well known language.
The book is beautifully laid out and illustrated. The amount of theory preceding each group of patterns seems right on the mark.
¿Why the low star rating?
The book's binding broke before I finished reading it, something that's completely not user-friendly. If you're not in a hurry I'd wait for a second edition that fixes the problem.
| A good reference and prefab pattern library., 2007-04-30 Reviewer rating: I found this a bit shallow as a read-through textbook or handbook, but it should make a very useful reference and may serve well as a prefab pattern library. I think it will serve best for those working on web sites and web apps, though it also covers desktop apps. |
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