User Interface Design for Programmers Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. Edition

by Avram Joel Spolsky (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-1893115941

ISBN-10: 1893115941

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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―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―strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment, and incapable of doing UI design.

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. Spolsky's primary axiom, the importance of bringing the program model in line with the user model, is both rational and simple.

In a fun and entertaining way, Spolky makes user interface design easy for programmers to grasp. After reading User Interface Design for Programmers, 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.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

From the reviews:

"He picks apart commercial products from big companies, showing their UI mistakes. I love that."
Dr. Dobb's Journal

"The author of a popular independent website gives you a book about what programmers need to know about user interface design. Spolsky concentrates especially on the common mistakes that too many programs exhibit. Most programmers dislike user interface programming, but this book makes it easy, straightforward, and fun. It is written with an audience of programmers in mind, but does not assume any prior programming knowledge nor any specific programming language." (Amazon.co.uk, April, 2001)

"This book offers many useful pointers on designing user interfaces which even experienced programmers should need. The 18 chapters cover topics ranging from effective use of colour to metaphors and usability testing. Underlined throughout is the most fundamental principle that ‘a user interface is well designed when the program behaves how the user thought it would’. The style is informal, humorous and anecdotal. There are numerous examples of design at its worst, each with an explanation of why the design is poor." (Richard Avery, The Computer Bulletin, March, 2002)

About the Author

Joel Spolsky is a globally recognized expert on the software development process. His web site Joel on Software (JoelonSoftware.com) is popular with software developers around the world and has been translated into over 30 languages. As the founder of Fog Creek Software in New York City, he created FogBugz, a popular project management system for software teams. Joel has worked at Microsoft, where he designed Visual Basic for Applications as a member of the Excel team, and at Juno Online Services, developing an Internet client used by millions. He has written two books: User Interface Design for Programmers (Apress, 2001) and Joel on Software (Apress, 2004). Joel holds a bachelor's of science degree in computer science from Yale University. Before college, he served in the Israeli Defense Forces as a paratrooper, and he was one of the founders of Kibbutz Hanaton.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Most of the hard-core programmers I know hate user interface programming. This surprises me, because I find UI programming to be quintessentially easy, straightforward, and fun.

It's easy because you usually don't need algorithms more sophisticated than how to center one rectangle in another. It's straightforward because when you make a mistake, you immediately see it and can correct it. It's fun, because the results of your work are immediately visible. You feel like you are sculpting the program directly.

I think most programmers' fear of UI programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. They think that UI design is like graphics design: the mysterious process by which creative, latte-drinking, all-dressed-in-black people with interesting piercings produce cool looking artistic stuff. Programmers see themselves as analytic, logical thinkers: strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment. So they think they can't do UI design.

Actually, I've found UI design to be quite easy and quite rational. It's not a mysterious matter that requires a degree from an art school and a penchant for neon-purple hair. There is a rational way to think about user interfaces with some simple, logical rules that you can apply anywhere to improve the interfaces of the programs you work on.

This book is not 'Zen and the Art of UI Design.' It's not art, it's not Buddhism, it's just a set of rules. A way of thinking rationally and methodically. This book is designed for programmers. I assume you don't need instructions for how to make a menu bar; rather, you need to think about what to put in your menu bar (or whether to have one at all). You'll learn the one primary axiom that guides all good UI design, and some of the corollaries. We'll look at some examples from real life, modern GUI programs. When you're done, you'll know about 85% of what it takes to be a significantly better user interface designer.

-Joel Spolsky

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Apress; Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. edition (June 26, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 159 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1893115941
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1893115941
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.08 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.37 x 10.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #955,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #421 in Software Testing
- #431 in User Experience & Website Usability
- #626 in Computer Graphics

Customer Reviews:
53 ratings

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2 star		4%
1 star		11%

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Ryan

Excellent introduction

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2021

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I have known of this book for many years, but never purchased it because of the non-stellar reviews. I read a few chapters using O’Reilly Learning and really liked them. So, I purchased the physical book from Amazon and really could not put it down.

Some may consider the samples out of date, but I think they are timeless and a fun peak back at tech history. I highly recommend this book for everyone in the business of software.

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Amazon Customer

Disappointed

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2012

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Here is the most important thing to know about this book - it wasn't written by Joel Spolsky that many know and respect. It was written by Joel Spolsky who is yet to become the software/business guru many know and respect now.

It is entertaining, as a period piece - however, if you are not a Spolsky fan (like I am), do not know what Microsoft Bob is or never used VisiCalc, you are not going to enjoy it as much as I have.

The biggest problem of this book is that it is 11 years old. It doesn't make all of its contents irrelevant, but it does make a lot of it out of context and often griping about things that have since then been long gone or fixed in both Mac and Windows worlds. It also turns this book from one of the very few works on usability available in early 2000's to one among many other, stronger books such as Jeff Johnson's works.

Also, you are not getting the original ("IN FULL COLOR") book pictured here. You are getting the black and white print-on-demand, with cover art that I can't call anything but atrocious.

8 people found this helpful

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Aaron Hill

A little outdated, a few good gems, but overall mediocre

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2009

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The book started out promising -- it talked about things like "user models" and "progamming models"; But somewhere along the way the author veered away from things that sounded like "theory" and more into a "hey let's sit down at the pub and shoot the poop about user interface design and how it was back in the day."

I do feel like there were some good points raised, but only a couple of them in the 18 chapters were really innovative viewpoints. (The rest were things you would expect to hear in any book on UI design).

The book BADLY needs to be updated. It's quite obvious that it was released before Windows XP, since many of the gripes that the author has about Windows were addressed with XP (including the "start button is a few pixels from the corner" issue) -- and the author continuously refers to bandwidth / lag issues on the Internet; which, if you haven't been living under a rock the past 3 years, is pretty much a non-issue anymore as broadband becomes more and more ubiquitous.

The conversational tone of the book was nice, at times, but I felt it deviated from my expectations of the book based on the title. (my "user model" differentiated from the book's "program model" so to speak) There really wasn't anything about the book that involved programming -- very few actual examples were used, and really, I'm not sure that I'm taking home anything that is going to help my UI design at all. It would be like someone telling you ABOUT their experience fishing: ("Make sure you get a decent boat, use a good fishing rod, and bring lots of beer"), rather than telling you about how to fish BETTER: ("When you're baiting your hook, use live bait for ___ fish, and casting distance should vary proportionally with...." [i'm really not much of a fisherman])

In other words, there was a lot of "why" answers but not a lot of "how" answers, and so I felt a bit disappointed.

Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" is both current AND extremely helpful -- if you are looking for a book on Web Usability, I highly recommend that.

If you're looking for one specifically about HOW to improve the UI of your software... well, let me know if you find one, because I'm still looking too.

6 people found this helpful

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Chris Schleich

Special insights that are hard to find

Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2019

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Joel is an excellent writer. The technology and methods are somewhat out of date, but many of the insights are not. The best practices he discussed are not understood by most people. A gem.

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Joseph S.

Excellent, for me - if you are like me, buy this book

Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2005

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A previous reviewer wrote "I think this is a book that will only please the programmer who ... feels they do not have the time to devote to a better treatment of this subject." That describes me perfectly! I write mostly mathematical and control software. I don't get paid to design UIs. I do not claim to have studied graphic design, and I don't get paid to do so. Some of the components I write are for internal use and their only interface is their public (software) interface. But I find it is becoming more common that I am asked to design something that needs a UI that users will see. So I needed a short, clear introduction to good UI design that was engaging so I wouldn't fall asleep while reading it. This book is perfect for that! I really like Joel Spolsky's writing style. It's a great start - maybe all I need - with a (selective) bibliography at the end listing resources the author recommends for learning more.

6 people found this helpful

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David W. Wood

Eye Opener for Programmers

Reviewed in the United States on August 3, 2001

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I echo the comments from the other reviewers. This book is great! However, it is not quite what I expected, it's better! I expected an elaboration of the Windows User Interface Standards; instead it takes a general design approach to user interfaces like the books on product design in general but specific to the Windows User Interface or windowslike user interfaces. It was an eye opener for me because it brings up things I never thought about and which I'm already applying to my software development efforts: font type used in text boxes or input boxes in general (non proportional) which enables easier editing, use of metaphors (how to use and not to use), getting ALL of the user input prior to executing a time consuming process (and of course, warning the user), and easy to do usability testing (ask 3 to 5 people what they think). My favorite chapter is Chapter 14, Relativity: Understanding UI Time Warps. I think this chapter is worth the price of the book alone.

8 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Rixs

Experienced, Perceptive, and Easy to Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 26, 2002

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This is a great book. It is written for those programmers that know they don't know much about user interfaces, but also know they'll have to make the decisions because their employer doesn't have anyone else. From a mainly Windows point of view, it goes through common features in dialogue boxes, menus, task structure, and so on, discussing the common principles and things that are easy to fix.
It points out that users can't remember and can't use the mouse. Convention-following design is often better simply because it doesn't surprise users. Things that take you weeks to code may be experienced by the user in seconds, so they had better be clear.
The book is very easy to read, in plain English with plenty of screen shots. It says things that all application programmers should know. I think of it as being the desktop-application equivalent to "Don't Make Me Think" by Steve Krug, which is about web usability.

6 people found this helpful

IanA

Bought to learn...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 31, 2014

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but since then systems have changed to be more web based and there is much more user content available online these days.

Alla

Great book

Reviewed in Canada on November 29, 2017

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Great readings. Some examples might be a little outdated, but core concepts are applicable to any time of software evolvement. Highly recommend to read!

peter friend

User Interface Design for Programmers ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 7, 2016

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I dont remember buying this from Amazon, probably why I dont have it on my Kindle.

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User Interface Design for Programmers Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. Edition

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