Developing User Interfaces Microsoft for Windows

Create better user interfaces by designing from the outside in.

How important is user interface design? A poorly executed interface can frustrate users - and cost your organization time and money - while an effective design can improve productivity by helping users get their work done. So what makes good interfaces good and bad interfaces bad? Which design choices can improve the user's experience with a program? Emphasizing practical results over theory, this concise, Windows-focused handbook distills industry best practices and the author's 25 years of software development expertise into straightforward and effective methods you can apply right now to create more usable user-driven software. Coverage includes:

Basic concepts of user interface (UI) design - knowing the standards; establishing consistency Practical development techniques - specific ways to improve the UI for applications built with the Win32 API or MFC Understanding the user experience - putting the goals of the user ahead of yours; focusing your creativity the "right" way Windows user interface components - mastering the fundamentals; making appropriate choices Testing and evaluation - ensuring software quality and usability

For the seasoned developer, Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows provides a common-sense guide for improving Windows user interfaces. After a survey of recent writings on user interface design, this title covers a wide range of topics in very short chapters with a minimum of software engineering jargon. (One standout area looks at reusing resources in Visual C++.) The text also presents a "model" Windows program--Visual C++ 5.0.

In its exploration of designing software for beginning and advanced users, the book advises against creating software tailored for specialized roles (a preference that arguably shows the book's interest in "shrink-wrapped" software, since business applications routinely require distinct modules for different types of users). Software is categorized into applications and utilities, with visual design guidelines for each. (This book doesn't avoid controversy here by arguing against both user-driven design and prototyping within the project life cycle.) Further chapters look at what UI features should be readily visible to users, and which ones (like unnecessary error messages) should be removed.

In one notable section, new ideas in UI design based on today's Web sites are presented. (HTML changes the rules for Windows desktop users too.) Readers also get a laundry list of features that work, such as direct manipulation, good configurability, previews, and tooltips. There's advice on help and documentation and an excellent section on creating more effective (and simpler) setup programs. In all, this book can be read profitably by any Windows developer using C++. It provides a solid checklist for thinking about user interface design on the Windows platform. --Richard Dragan