The Elements of User Interface Design [Paperback]

Theo Mandel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0471162671 | ISBN-13: 978-0471162674 | Edition: 1

". . . a book that should be forced on every developer working today.

If only half the rules in this book were followed, the quality of most programs would increase tenfold." -Kevin Bachus, praising Theo Mandel's The GUI-OOUI War

A total guide to mastering the art and science of user interface design

For most computer users, the user interface is the software, and in today's ultracompetitive software markets, developers can't afford to provide users and clients with anything less than optimal software ease, usability, and appeal.

The Elements of User Interface Design is written by a cognitive psychologist and interface design specialist with more than a decade's research and design experience. Writing for novices and veteran developers and designers alike, Dr. Mandel takes you from command-line interfaces and graphical-user interfaces (GUIs) to object-oriented user interfaces (OOUIs) and cutting-edge interface technologies and techniques. Throughout, coverage is liberally supplemented with screen shots, real-life case studies, and vignettes that bring interface design principles to life.

Destined to become the bible for a new generation of designers and developers, The Elements of User Interface Design

Arms you with a "tested-in-the-trenches," four-phase, iterative design process
* Analyzes well-known interfaces, including Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2 Warp, Microsoft Bob, Visual Basic, Macintosh, and the World Wide Web
* Schools you in object-oriented interface (OOUI) design principles and techniques
* Offers practical coverage of interface agents, wizards, voice interaction, social user interfaces, Web design, and other new and emerging technologies

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A total introduction to user interface (UI) design, Elements of User Interface Design covers theory and application with easy language and real world examples. Author Theo Mandel achieves an effective blend of theoretical consideration and practical utilization without leaving the less experienced user by the wayside. At the same time, even the most hardened applications developer will find abundant value in the discussions of user psychology and the analyses of popular UIs of the past and present.

Chapter topics include UI models, computer standards and UI guidelines, usability testing, command-line and menu driven interfaces, and graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The book also discusses intelligent agents and Internet interfaces at length. Each chapter contains examples from some of the most popular applications and operating systems complete with analysis and historical background.

The book itself has a fairly friendly UI; Mandel's writing is conversational and easy to follow, even when discussing complex topics. Throughout each chapter, "Key Ideas," such as tool tips, are broken out for clarification and quick reference on the current topic. Quotes at the beginning of each group of chapters are both topical and entertaining.

From the Publisher

With a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, author Theo Mandel knows how people act and interact with user interfaces. With this book, he covers the basics of effective user interface design and demonstrates different techniques. Divided into three parts, the book first teaches readers the foundations and fundamentals, then shows them how to use those basics to create interfaces, and finally discusses advanced topics and emerging technologies like object oriented user interfaces (OOUIs), voice activation, and Wizards. Mandel also covers different techniques with popular products like Windows NT, Windows 95, OS/2, and Visual Basic.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 21, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471162671
• ISBN-13: 978-0471162674
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #362,465 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Theo Mandel, Ph.D. is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker and consultant. He was invited to give a keynote address at the User eXperience Russia 2009 conference in Moscow.

Mandel's second book, "The Elements of User Interface Design" has been translated into multiple languages and has been widely used as an academic text.

Mandel was a member of the IBM team that wrote the landmark software guidelins book, "Object-Oriented Interface Design: IBM Common User Access Guidelines" in 1991. Mandel worked for IBM for 11 years, conducting research and developing guidelines and standards for software applications and operating systems. Mandel's IBM team designed and prototyped IBM's OS/2 object-oriented user interface (OOUI).

Theo speaks, writes and consults on making software/web applications and websites usable and enjoyable for users.

Specializing in healthcare software design, Mandel was the 2007 International Chairman for World Usability Day 2007. Mandel's Electronic Medical Records (EMR) software designs have been called "state of the art" in the EMS/Fire Rescue industry.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Read it to look busy on a lazy day, October 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Elements of User Interface Design (Paperback)

This book will not tell you how to create an intuitive and loyalty-inspiring interface for your company's applications. It won't help you create technologically cutting edge interfaces. It doesn't tell you how to design software or plan for change. It offers essentially no applicable guidelines for style or component choice. It doesn't have much to offer when it comes to the graphic design of icons or splash pages. And it won't tell you how to write the code to make a good UI happen.

What will it do? At best, it will open your mind to the field of human interface design, if you don't know it already. But there are no revelations and no surprises here.

If you have no previous knowledge of user interface design and/or have little knack for such things, Elements will break you in easily and comprehensively to the concepts. But with a little experience or common sense, you could gleam as much from a good twenty page tract as from this verbose tome. Skim it in an hour, or use it to feel vaguely productive during a lazy day at work, while you stare out the window. But don't count on much in the way of concrete benefits.

31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not what the world needs, February 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Elements of User Interface Design (Paperback)

On page 7: "[UI] must have complexity, be interesting, have intensity, depth and richness, and be distinctive. It must have length, in its finish and in our memory, engage our minds, make us think about it."

If all my software had a user interface as defined by the term above, I would get no work done. And with the number of software titles available, if they all tried to be complex and deep, and distinctive, surely users will suffer. This is just one example, but I strongly believe that this book starts off on the wrong foot. And it even says to come back to that chapter so to remind yourself which foot you are suppose to be starting from. This book is NOT going to improve interfaces.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ironically All Show and No Substance, January 7, 2005

By 

Brandon Tom (Honolulu, HI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Elements of User Interface Design (Paperback)

Some books can trick you into thinking that there is going to be something to say when there really isn't. Sadly, this book falls into that category. Bound between the covers are 400-plus pages of common sense, rants about Windows, praises for OS/2, and constantly repeated philosophies that are never truly demonstrated.

There is an interesting section on memory and the way people learn, which are important considerations for designing UIs, so it's not a complete loss, but when the book actually got down to putting something together, it doesn't really have much you can look to for guidance. The iceberg analogies and the perspective models weren't very helpful either.

At the start of every chapter, the author cites numerous quotes from people no one has ever heard of and doesn't give any context as to why we should listen to them.

The most ironic aspect, however, is that the book, at times, is poorly structured. The sections don't seem to have any logical ordering to them making whole portions sound like a rambling of loosely connected topics, and of the text will cite a table or figure and then display it in a completely different section or even two pages down the line from where it was cited, making the examples seemingly irrelevant to the text.

All-in-all, this is one you can easily avoid.