Designing Interfaces Author: Amazon Prime | Language: English | ISBN:
1449379702 | Format: PDF
Designing Interfaces Description
Despite all of the UI toolkits available today, it's still not easy to design good application interfaces. This bestselling book is one of the few reliable sources to help you navigate through the maze of design options. By capturing UI best practices and reusable ideas as design patterns, Designing Interfaces provides solutions to common design problems that you can tailor to the situation at hand.
This updated edition includes patterns for mobile apps and social media, as well as web applications and desktop software. Each pattern contains full-color examples and practical design advice that you can use immediately. Experienced designers can use this guide as a sourcebook of ideas; novices will find a roadmap to the world of interface and interaction design.
- Design engaging and usable interfaces with more confidence and less guesswork
- Learn design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color
- Get recommendations for specific UI patterns, including alternatives and warnings on when not to use them
- Mix and recombine UI ideas as you see fit
- Polish the look and feel of your interfaces with graphic design principles and patterns
"Anyone who's serious about designing interfaces should have this book on their shelf for reference. It's the most comprehensive cross-platform examination of common interface patterns anywhere." --Dan Saffer, author of Designing Gestural Interfaces (O'Reilly) and Designing for Interaction (New Riders)
- Paperback: 576 pages
- Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Second Edition edition (January 6, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1449379702
- ISBN-13: 978-1449379704
- Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
WHAT THIS BOOK *IS*:
This book is a complete overview of about 100 UI patterns. Each pattern is given 2-5 pages where the "What", "Use When", "Why", "How", and "Examples" are discussed and illustrated. The presentation is very elementary. For example, if you know when and why to use pagination, alphabet scrollers, toolbars, date pickers, progress indicators, local zooming, multi-selection trees, or sharing widgets (a new pattern in 2ndEd), you probably won't find much value in this book.
The physical quality of the book is excellent. You will most likely be disappointed if viewing this title on a B&W Kindle. Literally, half the book is loaded with full-color, real-life examples of every pattern. The paper pages are thick and heavy.
WHAT THIS BOOK *IS NOT*:
This book will not provide implementation details or overall design concepts (i.e. effectively combining patterns to achieve some targeted overall user experience).
I primarily purchased this book for Chapter 8, "Getting Input from Users: Forms and Controls." I'm currently in the process of redesigning our shopping cart and checkout forms and thought this book may provide some value in my research. As a web developer (front-end & back-end), I was disappointed. I found much more useful information on modern, standards compliance, UI design blogs.
WHY 4 STARS?
I believe the author accomplishes her goal of documenting, with several examples, every conceivable UI pattern in use today, thus the 4 stars. The book is great for the right audience. However, and I quote the author from her own References section, "If you're looking for more depth than this book can provide, the following list can offer some good starting points." She then lists 24 titles, several of which I own.
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