Seeing Data: Designing User Interfaces for Database Systems Using .NET [Paperback]

Rebecca M. Riordan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321205618 | ISBN-13: 978-0321205612 | Publication Date: July 26, 2004

“Rebecca provides an invaluable resource to help developers focus on a commonly overlooked but vital part of an application—the user experience.”
         —David Sceppa, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

“Rebecca Riordan takes UI programming and practices to new heights. She has gone byond simply explaining the theory behind UI programming practices, providing code samples that are practical, well-documented, and can be immediately incorporated into a development project.”
         —Wendy Chun, AVP/Product Development, SunGard Insurance Systems

“Riordan has produced what is THE reference guide on user interface design in .NET. Serious developers and beginners alike will learn both design techniques that can put applications over the top and pitfalls to avoid.”
         —Kelly J. Martens, Manager, Information Systems and Development, JJ Koepsell Company

Build Outstanding User Interfaces with .NET: Principles, Techniques, and Code

Nowadays, users and clients demand exceptionally usable software. But few developers are trained to create high-quality user interfaces, and few .NET books offer much help—until now.

In Seeing Data, Microsoft MVP Rebecca M. Riordan shows how to use .NET’s advanced UI tools to build applications that reflect today’s interface design best practices. She offers visual examples, code, and techniques for every .NET project.

Writing for experienced .NET developers, Riordan introduces core principles of effective interface design—including focus, flow, alignment, proximity, contrast, and consistency. She demonstrates how to architect databases for better usability, and how to build more effective form layouts. Next, she systematically tackles user interaction, showing how to:

• Help users navigate DataSets, manipulate data, and generate reports
• Utilize menus, toolbars, buttons, and Help systems
• Enforce data integrity
• Simplify installation and customization

Riordan covers essential technical underpinnings ranging from GDI+ Managed Classes to ADO.NET data binding. She presents dozens of Visual Basic .NET examples—all designed for easy, quick reuse, and downloadable from the book’s companion Web site, along with C# equivalents.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

“Rebecca provides an invaluable resource to help developers focus on a commonly overlooked but vital part of an application—the user experience.”
         —David Sceppa, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

“Rebecca Riordan takes UI programming and practices to new heights. She has gone byond simply explaining the theory behind UI programming practices, providing code samples that are practical, well-documented, and can be immediately incorporated into a development project.”
         —Wendy Chun, AVP/Product Development, SunGard Insurance Systems

“Riordan has produced what is THE reference guide on user interface design in .NET. Serious developers and beginners alike will learn both design techniques that can put applications over the top and pitfalls to avoid.”
         —Kelly J. Martens, Manager, Information Systems and Development, JJ Koepsell Company

Build Outstanding User Interfaces with .NET: Principles, Techniques, and Code

Nowadays, users and clients demand exceptionally usable software. But few developers are trained to create high-quality user interfaces, and few .NET books offer much help—until now.

In Seeing Data, Microsoft MVP Rebecca M. Riordan shows how to use .NET’s advanced UI tools to build applications that reflect today’s interface design best practices. She offers visual examples, code, and techniques for every .NET project.

Writing for experienced .NET developers, Riordan introduces core principles of effective interface design—including focus, flow, alignment, proximity, contrast, and consistency. She demonstrates how to architect databases for better usability, and how to build more effective form layouts. Next, she systematically tackles user interaction, showing how to:

• Help users navigate DataSets, manipulate data, and generate reports
• Utilize menus, toolbars, buttons, and Help systems
• Enforce data integrity
• Simplify installation and customization

Riordan covers essential technical underpinnings ranging from GDI+ Managed Classes to ADO.NET data binding. She presents dozens of Visual Basic .NET examples—all designed for easy, quick reuse, and downloadable from the book’s companion Web site, along with C# equivalents.

About the Author

Rebecca M. Riordan has more than fifteen years of experience designing and developing databases and other applications. She is a Microsoft MVP and a frequent speaker at conferences, including Microsoft TechEd. She is the author of many books, including Seeing Data: Designing User Interfaces for Database Systems Using .NET (Addison-Wesley, 2005). Her other highly respected books include Designing Relational Database Systems (1999), Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Programming Step by Step (2000), and ADO.NET Step by Step (2002), all published by Microsoft Press.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (July 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321205618
• ISBN-13: 978-0321205612
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,921,816 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic discussion of UI development for WinForms projects, October 10, 2004

By 

Jason A. Salas (Dededo, Guam Guam) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seeing Data: Designing User Interfaces for Database Systems Using .NET (Paperback)

The one quality that makes this book a clear winner is the quality of the content and clarity of author Rebecca Riordan's writing. She uses a friendly, humorous, often bitingly sarcastic voice that eases the normal tension accompanying such a complex topic as UI design for Windows applications with .NET technologies. You'll appreciate this tone as Riordan takes you through some very challenging scenarios in developing winning desktop apps.

The main focus is on presentation tier technologies and techniques used to create great programs that customers will really enjoy using. The book starts out with five phenomenally-written chapters on GDI+, typography, color, and image programming that every developer working with .NET should read, whether they're examining UI design for desktop applications, or otherwise. It also includes a helpful glossary of development terms mentioned throughout the text that you'll enjoy and refer to often.

Riordan also attempts to demystify the many complexities of .NET databinding within Windows Forms. as do most Addison-Wesley texts, the book's physical properties are to be appreciated, using sturdy binding and thick paper, making the book close and sit easily after a session open on your lap (and who hasn't wrecked at least book doing so?).

The only downside to this book (and a minor one at that) is the exclusive presentation of code in Visual Basic .NET, which would make the book largely one-dimensional to programmers working with that language (or liberal minded C# readers). But programming language semantics aside, this is a real gem, and one you'll want to pickup for your WinForms team projects.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars UI with complex SQL data, August 22, 2004

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seeing Data: Designing User Interfaces for Database Systems Using .NET (Paperback)

A formidably detailed and comprehensive attack on the problem of user interfaces and data visualisation. Riordan tackles this in the context of Microsoft's .NET platform. Notice the two topics. There are books on pure UI design, for various operating systems. Nothing wrong with that. But they tend to concentrate on the strict visuals and how the user interacts with various widgets. Usually, any data to be displayed or modified is general and lacks much structure.

There are certainly elements of this approach here. Like where Riordan discusses the various properties of fonts and faces, or colours or different image types.

But she goes further. She shows how to make UIs customised for SQL data. To make your SQL Server easily accessible. A full workout. From using the widget families that come with .NET and hooking these all the way back to a SQL Server. In, for example, a four tier architecture. Unusual to see all this in one book. PLus, she makes VB seem very easy to design and program in.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book for Windows Forms Developers., September 9, 2004

By 

Douglas J. Reilly (Brick, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Seeing Data: Designing User Interfaces for Database Systems Using .NET (Paperback)

Seeing Data: Designing User Interfaces for Database Systems Using .NET is an amazing book for anyone designing a user interface (UI) to allow users to display and edit data. It is very specifically focused on .NET WinForms development, however much of the information is useful for all developers.

Starting with coverage of the basics, like fonts, colors, etc., the book moves on to how to display and allow proper editing of various data types. This is very much a needed book, since the Microsoft User Interface standards book has not been updated since 1999. A lot has happened since 1999 in the Microsoft world, and the advice Rebecca offers comes from a lot of hard-won experience.

I do not do a great deal of Windows Forms development, but when I do, I will keep this book nearby.