Designed for Use: Create Usable Interfaces for Applications and the Web

Have you ever been angry at your computer or cell phone? Do you sometimes wonder why it's so hard to set your watch to the correct time, or why getting your DVR to record your favorite shows is such a chore? Do you dream of making products that are free of these issues and that your customers can actually figure out how to use? This book shows you how to design applications and websites that people will not only use but will absolutely love.

In this book for designers, developers, and product managers, expert developer and user interface designer Lukas Mathis explains how to make usability the cornerstone of every point in your design process, walking you through the necessary steps to plan the design for an application or website, test it, and get usage data after the design is complete. He shows you how to focus your design process on the most important thing: helping people get things done, easily and efficiently.

The author presents a collection of valuable tips - organized in four distinct parts, filled with clever illustrations, and supported by fascinating psychological research. He teaches techniques that help you plan and evaluate your user interface design, and inspires you to look at design in a whole new way. He tells you exactly what to look for, and what to avoid, in creating applications and websites that people will be excited to use.

Lukas Mathis works as a developer and user interface designer for Swiss software company Numcom Software, creator of Appway, a process management software. He writes essays on design and usability at ignorethecode.net, and he writes about video games for wisegamers.ch, a Swiss gaming news site. His essays on design have been published on sites like UX Magazine, TidBITS, and Splashnology. He has created a number of online tools for UI design, among them iphonemockup.net, a collaborative iPhone UI mockup designer.