The Essential Guide to User Interface Design: An Introduction to GUI Design Principles and Techniques

An effective software interface can improve user productivity and satisfaction and reduce errors. But designing effective UIs demands unflinching attention to detail--plus the willingness to apply techniques that may at times contradict your common sense and intuition. The Essential Guide to User Interface Design offers page after page of detailed prescriptions for designing interfaces that work. Goldsmith's scope is comprehensive: He lays out a 12-step approach to UI design that covers everything from how to organize dialog boxes in ways that exploit users' natural patterns of eye movement, to choosing colors effectively, to picking precisely the right words for error messages. The guide is an invaluable resource for anyone who wants to build software that really works.