Customer Reviews

Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Developing User Interfaces for Windows should be within reach of every Windows developer who will have some UI developing to do. Along with the Windows User Experience, also from Microsoft Press, this book is an invaluable aid.

Each chapter is short and precise, but, avoiding any cliché's, explains the Windows UI and developing for it in great details. The Book is relatively long, but it needs to be in order to cover in detail the task of developing Windows UI applications, which it does well.

The book is slightly geared towards 'C' developers, but I am a VB developer and find it easy to convert and 'C' idioms into VB. The book is in a real-world 'hands-on' style. Not too much theory and analysis exists (unlike other books on UI design), which lends it to being excellent both for reading and for reference afterwards.

I Highly recommend this book.

This is by far one of the most interesting and informative books on creating effective user interfaces. It offers real world examples on the "right way" and the "wrong way". My favorite thing about this Microsoft book is that they spare no detail on how each Microsoft product has incorrectly done a user interface. The author then explains how it could have been done better. A great section in the book is on Q&A, giving suggestions on what to look for concerning the UI. As a Windows developer, this book has helped me correct the most subtle of mistakes in my programs. If you want to make a good program better, buy and read this book.

This book is well written and contains a helpful CD with a great set of sample guidelines that acts as a terrific cheat sheet of the book's main points.

This book is a very interesting read. The author gathers a lot of information from very diverse sources and presents it in a thoughtful and well-ordered manner. This book covers a very wide range, from high-level methodologies to lower-level design advice. The sample User Interface Guidelines were particularily useful to me in getting a leg up on starting to define Guidelines for my organization.

This is by far one of the most interesting and informative books on creating effective user interfaces. It offers real world examples on the "right way" and the "wrong way". My favorite thing about this Microsoft book is that they spare no detail on how each Microsoft product has incorrectly done a user interface. The author then explains how it could have been done better. A great section in the book is on Q&A, giving suggestions on what to look for concerning the UI. As a Windows developer, this book has helped me correct the most subtle of mistakes in my programs. If you want to make a good program better, buy and read this book.

This book's smart! It teaches that computer software interfaces are no different, really, than those of other devices people use. Referring often to "The Design of Everyday Things," this book teaches a lot about how software ought to fit with humans' preferences rather than make the humans conform.

This one's definitely worth reading if you build UIs, particularly for Windows.

This is a good book. It is long, but so are most comprehensive books and the style is conversational and easy to read. The chapters are independent, so readers can read just the parts they are interested in.

The book covers just about every aspect of a gui including design and testing and is full of practical advice.

I am using a very useful section entitled 'Sample User Interface Guidelines' as a checklist for testing gui's. And, of course, I keep it nearby as a handy reference.

Ever wonder why your software isn't as intuitive as something from Microsoft? Me too.

I've been browsing through different user interface books for months (and drinking plenty of Borders coffee) without any luck. Finally, something readable comes along.

McKay's book is well-organized and focused on specific user-interface issues (instead of blather from other authors like, "think about your customers first"). It's perfect for the small software company that doesn't have experts in user interface, technical writing, or quality assurance. It's also great for the programmer who does have access to a large team, but wants to make his life easier.

My only quibble is that it has a slight focus on C (and it would be nice if it had equivalents for visual basic).

The chapter "Learn from the Web" is *almost* worth the price of the book. It lays out clearly and concisely the differences between web and windows interfaces, and why the web interface is the way it is.

The rest of the book, unfortunately, is less informative. It's somewhat painful to read, as the author repeats himself incessantly. That is, he says the same thing over and over. Many times. One has the impression he was paid by the word: each chapter ends with a couple pages of recommended reading, frequently with the same books. The author rambles endlessly about which features he does and does not like about different windows applications. No attempt is made to compare his personal preferences with real user reactions or usability studies. Frequently in order to provide a 'bad' example, he shows how an existing dialog could have been made even worse. No such dialogs exists. It's the old straw-man approach. There are no examples of how an existing dialog might have been made better.

In between repeating himself, rambling, referring to other authors and building straw men; the author manages to convey a reasonable collecton of user interface basics. Emphasis on basic. Repeated many times, of course.

If you are trying to bring your interface *up to* Windows levels, then this may still be a useful book to you. However, if you consider Windows way behind in the art of the user interface, or if you have any UI experience at all, you will not find further enlightenment here. (Except perhaps the first 4 pages of the Web chapter.)

Also usefull is the Windows User Experience book, also from the microsoft press. It compliments this book nicely with Win2000 guidelines.