Microsoft Windows User Experience (Microsoft Professional Editions) (Paperback)

by Microsoft Corporation (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Useful for anyone who designs Windows software, the Microsoft Windows User Experience is the official guide to creating UIs that take full advantage of Windows 2000. Part style guide and part user interface design how-to, this book provides a worthwhile reference for understanding the larger philosophy and details needed to create effective interfaces for Windows-based software.

This title is first and foremost a style guide for Windows 2000, listing principles for creating effective user interfaces. It is chock-full of examples describing successes and failures in UI design (for example, how to give effective feedback to users for error messages and how to design visually appealing software that fits in with the rest of the operating system). Besides enumerating common UI features (from windows to menus to working with the mouse and keyboard), this book also explores the essential nitty-gritty details that will help your team create software that works effectively with Windows. (For instance, this text lists the Registry keys required while installing--and uninstalling--software, along with important Windows shell conventions and APIs.) Additional material on localization will help your software adapt to worldwide markets.

Sure, the best way to learn Windows conventions is to use the interface firsthand. But the Microsoft Windows User Experience goes further with an essential, easy-to-comprehend guide that details what today's applications must do to be good citizens of the Windows desktop. Every software team will need to have at least one copy on hand to see what's available for interfaces on the latest Microsoft platform. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Windows 2000 and Windows 98 user interface guidelines, tips for good interfaces, user-centered design principles: directness, consistency, forgiveness, simplicity, usability, iterative design cycles, data-centered design, objects as metaphors, the Windows desktop and taskbar, icons, windows, mouse and keyboard input, general interaction techniques, navigation, selection, direct manipulation, window attributes and operations, menus and toolbars, standard and common Windows controls, secondary windows, property sheets, dialog boxes, message boxes, single document and multiple document interface (MDI) applications, Web-application interfaces, the Windows file system, installation and the system registry, using the Windows shell, OLE embedded and linked objects, help systems and HTML Help, designing wizards, visual design guidelines, tips for accessibility for users with disabilities, tips for internationalization and localization.

Product Description
Since the publication of Windows Interface Guidelines in 1995, the Windows user experience has continued to evolve. The new releases--Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Internet Explorer 5 require precise documentation so developers can understand them and optimize their work accordingly. This book delivers the only print version of official Microsoft guidelines for creating well designed, visually and functionally consistent Windows user interfaces (UIs). It includes both mandatory specifications and practical design suggestions, and will be extensively cross-referenced. New to this edition will be a top-level summary that will call out common UI mistakes and point developers to the sections of the book that describe optimal user experience.

Product Details

• Paperback: 594 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (September 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735605661
• ISBN-13: 978-0735605664
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #137,575 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Style Guide, November 18, 2001

By	Bob Carpenter (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This book is a frame by frame, widget by widget, menu item by menu item prescription for "proper" Windows application etiquette. By following this book's advice, your applications will look and feel just like a member of Microsoft Office. You'll learn everything from how many units to space a button from the border of a box to how to select multiple discontinuous pieces of text and then copy and paste them across applications. There's even instructions on editing the registry so that your documents can be printed from the explorer.

It's essentially a style guide for Windows GUIs the way the Chicago Manual of Style is a style guide for writing English. It won't make you a good writer, but no one will correct your punctuation.

I actually found this book useful from a Windows user perspective. It tells you how all the controls are supposed to work. If you use MS apps a lot, you've probably intuited a lot of this, but it's interesting to see it all laid out.

This book does not explain how to use the Windows APIs to create GUIs. Get a book on Visual C++ or VB for that. This book does not explain how to design a usable application. Read Jeff Johnson's GUI Bloopers or Alan Cooper's About Face. This book does not teach you to be a visual designer.

This book is about as interesting to read as a typical user's manual. It's one unforgiving piece of advice and description after the next without a single case study in the entire 500+ pages.

Even so, if you want to understand how Windows apps are "supposed" to behave or you have to write such applications yourself, this book is a must-have.

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent reference book, October 25, 1999

By A Customer

A great reference book that makes it easy to follow the Windows interface standards. Microsoft has come a long way with their user interfaces, and this book lets you learn from their efforts.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Looks very promising!, May 17, 2000

By	D. Pilgrim (Naperville, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I haven't finished this book yet, but so far I'm very pleased. It's very comprehensive, and contains many screenshots. It also contains information about integration w/ Internet Explorer, which is important to me. The only downside is that it's written by Microsoft, so some of Windows' shortcomings aren't really discussed.