Topic awaiting preservation: Books on (web?) UI-Design (Page 1 of 1)

Odly, my work-life and my school-work have seemed to smash together and both require the same thing out of me at the moment, which is kinda handy But regardless...

- I need to find some good information (books, websites, articles, whatever) on effective-UI design/engineering and not quite sure where to look. True, there is allways google which I have used, but also from my general expereince, there's alot more out there that you cant easily find on google

So, just wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction for UI-design stuff? a good book(s), articles/etc?

thanks

The ones in my library are the following.

Designing Web Usability; By, Jakob Nielsen, The volume I own is a bit outdated now, but something don't change. I would guess there may be a newer edition out there. I did find it a little boring, but it is a text about web usablity which is not the most intersting of web topics.

Essential Guide To User Interface Design; By Wilbert O. Galitz which is basicly a programming text book geared to to user interface design. Lots of useful info but a typical textbook and not light reading. I do suppect it is out of print but there are several books by the same author on Interface design and useablity that might be worth looking into.

CodeNotes, for Web Based UI, By Gregory Brill for Random House. Basicly quick guide to UI technology, Brief notes on theory and interface methods from simple roll overs, complex dhtml and CSS drop downs. It's an excellect resource of diffent methods of designing user interfaces. Example code included, with explanations and advice. Nothing realy indepth, it does requires some pre-knoledge of html and javascript. It feels very much like a Cliff notes on interface design, which I assume is it's intent. I liked it a lot, when I was trying to brush up the diffrent possiablities for interface design for the web. I highly recommend this book it's cheap and very useful. There are several in the series.


J. Stuart J.

[This message has been edited by jstuartj (edited 03-23-2004).]

Webpages that Suck -- Do not be put off by the name. Both the site and the book by Vincent Flanders is very good! Check into both books Webpages that Suck and Son of Webpages that Suck.

W3 Schools -- For all of your programming tutorial needs.


Sanity is optional... (and so is clothes!)

Wolfen's Sig Site

here is one from my bookshelf that I highly recommend:


Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

a good website is www.coolhomepages.com

UI design is a huge subject as it covers Usability and general Design concepts as well as needing the proficiency to actually produce what you design with rather restricting and limited technology. Many of the resources I'm about to recommend will conflict with each other, but knowing a little about each is probably a good thing.

First, the boring stables.
http://www.useit.com/ -- Jackob Nielson's usability website. Its dead boring material and his website is but ugly, but he knows his shit and he knows it well. Then there's the W3Cs Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), some of which you must comply with by law (up to level 1.0 I believe), others are simply recommendations. But because some of these aren't really negotiable you should probably start here.

I'd also recommend something that approaches this on a much higher level than just focusing on the technology you're working with. As such, I'd highly recommend The Art of Interactive Design: A Euphonious and Illuminating Guide to Building Successful Software (Amazon link) by Chris Crawford, one of the old school game designers. His other book, "On Game Design" is also a good read, but probably not as useful in terms of web design. The design of everyday things (Amazon link) by Donald Norman is also a good read for pretty much anyone doing anything design related period.

Off Topic: Saw this book on Amazon whilst looking those up, "The Inmates Are Running the Asylum" how odd.

One of my favourite sites in this regard is Apple's User Experience site. Face it, their OS interface works because they have some really switched on people devoted to this shit, they tell you why, so listen -- http://developer.apple.com/ue/. I know it's not strictly web design, but I've read many UI focused books that just get lost in the particulars of being a slave to the technology without focusing on the concepts that should be guiding your decisions.

Lastly, resources like www.alistapart.com, www.digital-web.com and www.webstyleguide.com/interface/ whilst largely technology dominated, are also important when it comes to actually realising what you need to do.

I'd recommend against using websites like cool home pages as research for such things. The majority of those sites are voted for by other designers whom already have quite polished visual literacy and computer usage skills, something the every day person isn't likely to be overly practiced in. Remember, we're trained to be observers and we understand the technology on a rather intimate level, the average person isn't and as such websites that most designers like aren't generally liked by the average web user due to those exact reasons.

Edit: I fuxed up the UBB code...

[This message has been edited by Cameron (edited 03-22-2004).]