Designing Highly Useable Software [Paperback]

Jeff Cogswell (Author), Sybex (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0782143016 | ISBN-13: 978-0782143010 | Publication Date: February 12, 2004 | Edition: 1

Learn What Usability Really Is, Why to Strive for It, and How to Achieve It

"Highly useable" software is easy to use. It does what you expect it to. And it does it well.

It's not easy to build but as this book demonstrates, it's well worth the effort. Highly useable software is highly successful software—and everyone wins.
Inside, an accomplished programmer who has made usability his business systematically explores the world of programming, showing you how every aspect of the work is implicated in the usability of the final product. This is not just an "issues" book, however, but systematic, real-world instructions for developing applications that are better in every way. As you'll learn, there's no such thing as "intuitive" software. Instead, there are just the factors that make it highly useable: simplicity, consistency, the recognition of accepted conventions, and the foregrounding of the user's perspective. With these principles under your belt, you'll quickly discover dozens of ways to make your applications more useable:

• Making windows and dialog boxes easy to comprehend and use
• Designing software that is time- and resource-efficient
• Making your software easy to navigate
• Reducing the complexity of reports and other presentations of data
• Understanding how the wrong programming decisions can limit usability
• Ensuring smooth starts and stops
• Capitalizing on the usability advantages of object-oriented programming
• Understanding how usability affects your product's financial success
• Using the testing process to improve usability
• Promoting usability in training, installation, and online help
• Making management decisions that will benefit software usability

Some chapters are written primarily for programmers, one primarily for managers. Most are for everyone, and all are filled with illuminating, usually amusing examples drawn from both inside and outside the technical world. A helpful appendix provides information on standards, usability groups, and sources for more information.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Learn What Usability Really Is, Why to Strive for It, and How to AchieveIt

"Highly useable" software is easy to use. It does whatyou expect it to. And it does it well.

It’s not easy to build butas this book demonstrates, it's well worth the effort. Highly useable software ishighly successful software--and everyone wins.

Inside, anaccomplished programmer who has made usability his business systematicallyexplores the world of programming, showing you how every aspect of the work isimplicated in the usability of the final product. This is not just an"issues" book, however, but systematic, real-world instructions fordeveloping applications that are better in every way. As you'll learn, there's nosuch thing as "intuitive" software. Instead, there are just thefactors that make it highly useable: simplicity, consistency, the recognition ofaccepted conventions, and the foregrounding of the user's perspective. With theseprinciples under your belt, you'll quickly discover dozens of ways to make yourapplications more useable:

• Making windows and dialogboxes easy to comprehend and use
• Designing software that is time- andresource-efficient
• Making your software easy to navigate
• Reducing thecomplexity of reports and other presentations of data
• Understanding how thewrong programming decisions can limit usability
• Ensuring smooth starts andstops
• Capitalizing on the usability advantages of object-orientedprogramming
• Understanding how usability affects your product’sfinancial success
• Using the testing process to improveusability
• Promoting usability in training, installation, and onlinehelp
• Making management decisions that will benefit softwareusability

Some chapters are written primarily for programmers, oneprimarily for managers. Most are for everyone, and all are filled withilluminating, usually amusing examples drawn from both inside and outside thetechnical world. A helpful appendix provides information on standards, usability groups, and sources for more information.

About the Author

Jeff Cogswell has been an application developer and trainer for 13 years, with clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. He has developed and taught courses on Windows architecture, CORBA/C++ and CORBA/Java, and object-oriented programming. Jeff operates a consulting firm specializing in software design. He has written seven computer books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Sybex; 1 edition (February 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0782143016
• ISBN-13: 978-0782143010
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,205,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a software engineer and teacher by trade. I've been programming for years. Much of my day-job work has been in the telecom industry, although I remain active in the educational areas as well. I live in the Cincinnati area with Angie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, Useful, and Entertaining, April 23, 2005

By 

John Paul Mueller (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Designing Highly Useable Software (Paperback)

If you're looking for a book on general software design, this book won't help you much. This book is about creating usable software, not software in general. It's very hard to pinpoint what makes something usable, but Jeff does an outstanding job. I liked the fact that he often augmented a technical lesson using stories that make learning the details fun. The manner of presentation is interesting because Jeff doesn't rely on just one technique to present the information. The details are often illustrated using several methods, so it's easier to understand precisely what Jeff means. Unlike many theory type books, this one has source code examples--something that every developer can relate to.

The chapters that I liked best appear at the end of the book. They discuss topics that many developers really don't know about, but should. For example, Jeff takes time to point out a need for online help and tells you why training is important. Of course, someone could make an argument that developers do very little training, but if they don't understand what makes software easy to teach to users, the software will never become usable.

No, this won't be the only software design book on your shelf, but you owe it to yourself to make this book part of your collection. This is the book that every developer should read after reading a general software design book. The world could certainly use more usable software and Jeff shows you how.

9 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, April 20, 2004

By 

Ernest Friedman-Hill "JavaRanch Sheriff" (Gaithersburg, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Designing Highly Useable Software (Paperback)

If you've read Alan Cooper's excellent "The Inmates are Running the
Asylum", you're familiar with the format of "Designing Highly Useable
Software": the main text talks about broad useability issues, while
entertaining (or frightening) sidebars pillory the flaws in the design
of everyday things. But whereas I sympathized with Cooper, I had
trouble identifying with Jeff Cogswell. The sidebars, meant to be
amusing, are mostly distracting: they are rarely relevant to the main
topic being discussed on the same page. Worse, Cogswell goes much too
far in complaining about the difficulty of living in the world around
him; the reasonable reader won't recognize himself in these vignettes.
Worse still, whenever this book steps away from abstract useability
discussions and into coding specifics, technical errors appear that
shake the reader's confidence.

I had high hopes for this book. Perversely, I expect slimmer books to
be better than fatter ones. At a relatively slim 300+ pages, I looked
forward to a good read packed with useful advice. Instead, the book
dragged on. The last five or six chapters (on such topics as dynamic
libraries, OOP, management, and training -- all with a heavy emphasis
on an outdated, waterfall-like development methodology) feel precisely
like padding. The first half-dozen alone, with more specific
useability advice and fewer suggested implementation details, might
have formed the basis of a far better book. But as it stands, I can't
recommend this book.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for every programmer !, April 27, 2005

By 

Roop Uppal - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Designing Highly Useable Software (Paperback)

I definitely recommend the book to all programmers who want to make their software more useable to the end users, which hopefully is the goal of every programmer :). The tone of the book is casual yet informative making it very easy to read unlike the hoards of other books on the market. Best of all, the author is a real programmer, probably the reason why the content is very pertinent to situations encountered by programmers and the decisions that they have to make routinely. This book provides them the tangible points to consider while making those decisions as topics ranging from User Interface design to exception handling to libraries are discussed. The author uses various practical examples and humor to drive the point home. This book is a must read for any programmer!