UI Usability book for developer

Question

Hi,

Being mostly a software developer I find that the hardest thing for me is to produce usable user-interface.

I did read some books, including The Smashing Book and Web Design For Developers. But those are mostly concentrated on the Design rather than on building more complex interfaces (like allocating many-to-many items with search with different options on both sides, grouping using different fields and so on).

Are there any books, articles that target building more (logically) complex UIs for the web?

Based on the other answer on the SO the Designing Web Interfaces book looks good

Thanks,
Dmytrii.

Answer 1

I like Don't Make Me Think

Answer 2

As with any topic, get your hands on as many resources as possible.

My most recent addition to my pile of books is Designing Interfaces Patterns for Effective Interaction Design by Jenifer Tidwell. Links: Official website and Amazon.

I highly recommend it: it describes user interfaces in patterns (something that we are familiar with).

A few titles from my book shelf:

• Don't Make Me Think
• Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems
• The Design of Everyday Things (A classic)

I could list more titles, however the above will get you started.

...

Possibly a bit Off-topic, however I cannot resist as this is an area that I know.

If you have the opportunity, talk with your users (or even better sit down with them as they work). It is the best research you can do when trying to improve usability of your software.

If you want to measure your usability check out running System Usability Scale test (commonly referred to as SUS scores). Link 1 and Link 2 (PDF)

HTH,

Dennis

Answer 3

Here are the books you absolutely have to read for anything related to usability

1. The Design of Everyday things - Donald Norman
2. The inmates are running the asylum - Alan Cooper
3. The Humane interface - Jeff Raskin
4. How things work - Donald Norman
5. Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity - Jackob Nielsen

If you want to get more into the science of why:

1. Principles of cognitive psychology - Eysenck

Answer 4

I also like this one:

The Design Of Sites - second edition

Answer 5

Jenifer Tidwells book Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design is a good one.

Chapters:

1. The user and the task.
2. Organizing content
3. Navigation
4. Organizing the page
5. Actions and commands
6. Complex data
7. Input
8. Buildes and editors
9. Making it look nice