Designing Interfaces

If you're looking for a beginner's guide, this book isn't for you. 'Designing Interfaces' is for people who already know basic UI terminology and core UI design concepts such as focus, usability testing, and user feedback. Rather than presenting complete, step-by-step descriptions on how to design an interface, or walk you through an entire set of design decisions, the book catalogs well-known solutions to common UI design problems and then expresses them as a collection of patterns. These patterns are features that improve the 'habitability' of something - a user interface, a web site, an object-oriented program, or even a building. Think of them a description of best practices within a given design domain. But that's not to say that 'Designing Interfaces' leaves you to fend for yourself. Each pattern contains concrete examples, recommendations, design alternatives, and warnings - so you understand exactly why these interfaces work as well as they do. Once you've mastered the concepts and learned to apply them, you'll leave mediocre interfaces far behind.