User Interface Design is a very complicated subject. This colossal book mimics closely a telephone book with a large amount of text-heaviness. If you get over the fact that there are a wall of words on most pages, the book actually has some great content and ideas. It generally talks about user interfaces, as opposed to web interface/design. It talks more about the distinction between them and what their purposes are. It talks about different controls and the best solution for a problem that a client has. You find out a lot of things that are like, "Wow, I never thought about that, but that makes so much sense".

I am mostly a web designer, but knowing the purpose of GUIs is a great skill since there is going to be a boom in RIAs(Rich Internet Applications) in the coming years. It probably could have been condensed quite a bit, but there is a lot more good than bad, so I give it four stars.

I was dissapointed by this book. This book is too wordy, using repetition until you get exasperated and wording the paragraphs the longest. At the end you get tired of reading but nothing is left, only fatigue.

Besides the book doesn't have enough examples, and the ones it has are outdated. The book itself is by now outdated although it was written in 2000. The author did made a great investigation on certain subjects but for a designer and programmer like me it doesn't help at all, because I want concrete conclusions.

I don't recommend this book at all unless you like to read literature.

Bill,

In regard to "The Essential Guide to User Interface Design", 2nd Ed, please note the following:

1) Subject matter poorly organized. No chapter summaries, and the "overview" of the chapter is wordy, and doesn't directly link itself to details in the chapter, but rather vaguely talks about the chapter in ambiguous terms.

Action needed: Concise summaries and overviews, bulleted, using the same terminology as the chapter body.

2) Section and paragraph headings use the same font type and nearly the same font size. Distiguishing between a main heading and a subheading is nigh impossible. Juxtaposing the thick lines for sub headings and thin lines for main headings give the impression of similar importance, and destroys the coherency of each main subject.

Action needed: Double under-lines for main headings. Make them thicker as well. Single thin underlines for subheadings. A significant font size change between headings, subheadings, and lists. Italicize the list headings.

3) Repetitous material. The division of your topics, rahter than taking a top-down view and noting similarities of each component, you have taken a bottom up view and established a need to repeat material that applies to all topics. As an example, you have (paraphrased) said "control a can needs consistency. THis is how it is achieved." Rather than "All controls need consistency. here is how to acieve it in all situations"

Action needed: Divide the theory from the practice. Place general information (consistency, symmetry, readability, standardization, etc.) in one discinct portion of the book. Place the control explanations and tips in another. Also, quit utilizing synonyms as separate topics. Symmetry is Balance. Standardization is consistency. Stop taking single topics, finding synonyms, and writing on each one.

4) The lack of cited material in your text is disturbing. Your references pages are extensive, but no real effort has been made to link the material to the references.

Action needed: Put in-text citations.

5) Use the power point presentations to hightlight the text, not repeat it word for word.

I bought you book in new condition (never used) for less than ten dollars. I have no idea why the instructor chose it. It is painfully obvious that the instructor has no real world programming experience. It is also obvious that while you have a pedigree printed in your introduction, you have little actual coding or direct design experience. For someone that is supposed to specialize in media communications, your text is very poorly done.

Sincerely,

Jared Davis

There is useful information in this book but it
could have been said in about 1/10 of the space.
Concept are repeated ad nauseum. And author uses
ancient GUI styles for examples instead of current
ones. Extremely painful to read.

The field of interface and interaction design is formally known as Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). It is significant that a large amount of HCI deals with non-programming issues such as psychological approaches to end-user experience, social manners of the audience, and more. The Essential Guide to User Interface Design provide a comprehensive overview of the essentials of interface design.

The Essential Guide to User Interface Design focuses on the actual design of the GUI. While Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction explains why a user may react a specific way to a GUI, The Essential Guide to User Interface Design details the principles and techniques effective for GUI design. Although the book does focus on end-user interaction with systems, the bulk of the book focuses on the actual interface design and layout.

The book provides numerous examples of how small changes can affect end-user productivity, including how the selection of the appropriate component can be used to make a more efficient application. From a business perspective, Chapter 1 shows how one company saved a fortune in operational costs by simply redesigning one window in their application. While ROI is generally not a case for better GUI design, it is a compelling byproduct, nonetheless.

The book is divided into two parts. The first two chapters make up Part 1 and provide an overview of the importance of the user interface. The basics of HCI and GUIs are also detailed in this section.

Part 2 constitutes the bulk of the book (Chapters 3 through 16). In Part 2, the author describes 14 steps involved with the user interface design process. Steps 1 and 2 involve understanding who the end user is and the business function. Steps 3 - 14 go into the nitty gritty of interface design and address menus, windows, control selections, text and messages, and more. The Essential Guide to User Interface Design also provides screen shots that illustrate how to properly design effective user interfaces.