User Interface Book Reviews

Programmers sometimes think of the user interface as a skin on top of their program. To the user, the user interface is the program. This page reviews books that explain how to create better user interfaces.

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman: A Top Ten Book List selection.; If you have ever struggled to get the shower temperature right in an unfamiliar hotel, you’ll love this book. Design shows how to look at the world of things (including software) as a user. If you are involved in software development, this book should inspire you to create simpler-to-use software. Highly recommended. Review added June 2000.
Designing Visual Interfaces by Kevin Mullet and Darrell Sano: A Top Ten Book List selection.; This book argues forcefully for user interfaces designed for maximum clarity and ease of use. The authors explain and illustrate the visual design principles and techniques needed to create effective interfaces. Highly recommended. Review added 1998.
The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams: If you are clueless about graphic design, this book will help you within twenty minutes. It describes, illustrates, and shows how to apply basic principles of graphic design. If you are not a designer, this book can help you communicate with designers, or improve your own reports, proposals, ads, Web pages, and other designs. If you are a designer, you may want to give this book to some of your customers to improve discussions about designs. At $12 you can’t go wrong. Most highly recommended. Review added June 2000.; Note: I do not recommend Robin Williams The Non-Designer's Web Book, reviewed on the Web Design Book Reviews page.
Visual Interface Design for Windows by Virginia Howlett , Director of Interface Design for Microsoft Windows: This book is a great introduction to the place of visual design in the software development process. I highly recommend this book even to programmers who are not building Windows based systems. Review added 1998.; Note: About 1/3 of this book is based directly on Designing Visual Interfaces.
The Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines by Apple Computer: A classic. The guidelines are worth reading or rereading regularly even if you hate the Mac.; You can download the guidelines in PDF format (about 10 MB) from Apple. Review added 1998.
The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design by Microsoft Press: This book is an essential reference for Windows developers. Even if the book includes no surprises, it is helpful to have an authoritative reference to how each interface object should work. Review added 1998.

If you need more general information on usable system design, check the Usability Book Reviews page.
If you want to read more about usability on the Web, check the Usability Links page.
If you are interested in Web usability and design, check the Web Design Book Reviews page.

Read a great book lately? Send an email to dpadams@island-data.com.

User Interface Book Reviews

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