User Interface Design for Programmers (Paperback)

~ Joel Spolsky (Author)
Key Phrases: usability test, usability lab, user model, Microsoft Word, Inbox Delivery Dec, Microsoft Excel (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Scripting News Blogger of the Year, 2001" -- Scripting News,January 11,2002

Product Description

<p>Most programmers' fear of user interface (UI) programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. They think that UI design is like graphic design&emdash;the mysterious process by which creative, latte-drinking, all-black-wearing people produce cool-looking, artistic pieces. Most programmers see themselves as analytic, logical thinkers instead&emdash;strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment, and incapable of doing UI design. </p>

<p>In this brilliantly readable book, author Joel Spolsky proposes simple, logical rules that can be applied without any artistic talent to improve any user interface, from traditional GUI applications to websites to consumer electronics. Spolky's primary axiom, the importance of bringing the program model in line with the user model, is both rational and simple. </p>

<p>In a fun and entertaining way, Spolky makes UI design easy for programmers to grasp. After reading <i>User Interface Design for Programmers</i>, you'll know how to design interfaces with the user in mind. You'll learn the important principles that underlie all good UI design, and you'll learn how to perform usability testing that works.</p>

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Product Details

• Paperback: 159 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1st edition (June 26, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893115941
• ISBN-13: 978-1893115941
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #239,477 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Programmers, find out why UI designers have it tough!, July 29, 2001

By	Andrew Otwell "heyotwell" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

Joel is a good writer who happens to be a programmer. That alone is enough to reccommend this one-of-a-kind book. His website contains tons of insightful, opinionated essays, and most of the time he's right, whether his topic is design, business stragegy, HR, or coding techniques. He's an ex-Microsoft employee who's saavy enough to know what MS does right and what they don't.

In this book, much of which is available at his site, he's taking an approach that I don't think anyone else has: why UI design matters to programmers. He's not talking to experienced visual desingers, or HCI people, or interaction desingers or what have you. He's talking to programmers, the folks who will actually write lines of code. This book, in a quick 150 pages, shows programmers why interaction designers will spend, say, two days worrying about a couple of words or the placement of two buttons.

Like Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think", it's a somewhat lightweight treatment of the topic for an experienced UI desinger, but you'd be foolish to pass it up for that reason. This, along with Krug would be a great book for Project Managers or senior staff wondering what all the fuss about "usability" really means. Where Jakob Nielsen's preachy fussiness can bore you to tears, Joel and Krug will make you eager to put their ideas into practice.

Any company that can get its programmers, managers, and designers on the same page about the still under-appreciated value of UI design (and the analysis that goes into it) will find they can make better products faster.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable from Start to Finish, October 4, 2002

By	Kent Anderson (Cypress, CA USA) - See all my reviews

It was a pleasure to read this book. Joel has an amazing writing style that is friendly, upbeat, funny, and insightful. While he clearly isn't the world's definitive expert on UI design, his years of real world experience and wealth of examples make this book both valuable and enjoyable. This has to be one of my favorite technical books.

Joel's irreverent, tell-it-like-it-is, approach is part of the charm of this book. For example, chapter 10 is titled, "People Can't Control the Mouse" and chapter 13 is titled, "Those Pesky Usability Tests". From my years of software development in the games industry, many of his points on UI design hit home in a big way. I was actually shocked at how applicable the entire book was to game development. As a professional programmer, I felt the book was talking my language and completely in agreement with my own experiences.

The truth is that there are so many boring and questionable technical books out there, it's refreshing to read something that is so honest and dead-on right.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for every software designer, July 12, 2001

By	Keith Platfoot "kplatfoot" (Wapakoneta, OH USA) - See all my reviews

UI Design for Programmers is an excellent guide to creating intuitive, usable software interfaces for the real world. The light tone and frequent anecdotes make it a pleasure to read, I finished the book the day after it arrived. Very refreshing compared to the dry, technical style of most other computer books. I would highly recommend it to anyone who designs interfaces for any type of software or web-based application.