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In any field, especially design, there are vocal, literary luminaries.
No book will tell you what is the best design of your product. User
testing will only tell you what does not work, not the best solution.
These books contain insight into the approach of good design, but
just as reading about painting will not make you Picasso, the conceptual
link from theory to specific application is the work of an artist.
Interface design, when done well, is an applied technical art. These
are readings from the Picassos of this art.
| Alan
Cooper |
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The
Inmates Are Running the Asylum : Why High Tech Products Drive
Us Crazy and How To Restore The Sanity
An excellent, executive-level, entertaining explaination
of what good interface design is all about, common pitfalls,
and why it is necessary for companies to save their customers
from the madness. |
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About
Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design |
| Brenda
Laurel |
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Art
of Human-Computer Interface Design
This seminal anthology dates from 1990 and served as a launchpad
for many voices of the emerging field of usability. While
it's significance is primarily historical now, it is a sign
post of the times and was the book which first gave me awareness
that others were also facing struggles introducing user-oriented
design qualities into the products of the day. |
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Computers
As Theatre |
| Bruce
Tognazzini |
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Tog
on Interface |
| Edward
R. Tufte |
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The
Visual Display of Quantitative Information
A dry tome, but introduces the problem of deceptively overdesigned
infographics ("chartjunk"), how statistical graphics
often lie, and the concept of data ink (the ratio between
number of data points to amount of ink used to create a graphic,
higher is better). |
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Envisioning
Information
A celebration of exceptional information graphics provides
inspiration and examples. Quentessential mental food for the
information designer. |
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Visual
Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative
Case studies of how visually presented information is often
the best way to solve and understand real-world problems.
One of the best examples is how, if better explanation has
been given by an engineer, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion
could have been avoided. Another example shows how an 18th
century British doctor tracks a mysterious outbreak of illness
by mapping the fallen. |
| Donald
A. Norman |
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The
Design of Everyday Things
A must-read classic of how thoughtlessly designed devices,
from doors to teapots, affect our everyday lives. Most of
his subsequent books re-hash the ideas presented in his original
classic. |
| Jakob
Nielsen |
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Jakob is the original interface beancounter and arguably
the best self-promoter in the industry. His original background
was in laboratory-style testing and has done much to try to
turn interface design into more of a science. Unfortunately,
the intepretation of functions into interaction methods is
an art, and he tends to neglect this. He currently advocates
a minimalistic approach to web design: all text, few or no
pictures. For example, his professional home page has 2 images:
a tiny arrow in the navigation bar, and a huge picture of
himself.
He is valuable for statistically proving that interface design
affects user performance, which even now tends to be a hard
sell in some companies. Also, by commanding interstellar rates
for his 'wisdom' he makes us little guys look like the bargains
we are. |
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Usability
Inspection Methods
Very dry, but a classic book on options, methods, and strengths
for conducting user testing. |
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Metamedia ™
