User Interface Design for Programmers
by Joel Spolsky

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Book Reviews of User Interface Design for Programmers

Book Review: Not worth it...
Summary: 1 Stars

First of all, you can get the majority of the book online at the author's Web site. I highly recommend checking that out before you plunk down the cash for this book. Second, all this author did was take a smattering of ideas that have been promulgated in other books and on the Web and distilled it down to a few simple particulars per chapter. (You can find a lot of his thoughts echoed from the UseIt Web site by Jakob Nielsen as well as the Interface Hall of Shame. He also takes some ideas directly from Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things." Finally, a lot of this can be found on the AskTog Web site.) You might think that would be a good thing. Perhaps in some ways it would. The problem is that only a smattering of that information is culled and thus a lot of the meat is missing.

The author also makes some statements throughout the book that contradict or are not provided with good reference information so as to determine validity. Example:

"In fact, users don't read anything."

In the very next sentence, however, he says that "when you do usability tests, ... there are quite a few users who simply do not read words." So now it is not all users (as the first statement implies), just a few. The bigger complaint within this, however, is that the author does not state what these "usability tests" are. He also does not cite any major usability studies at all. In fact, those who have studied usability realize that the above statement about "users don't read anything" applies to a certain subset of users in a certain subset of usability tests. You would not know that from reading this book.

The accessibility coverage is also very poor. Accessibility interfaces are now law in the United States (since the start of 2001) and yet this very important topic is given short shrift. Also, the author does not make clear one of the biggest topics for usability and accessibility design: the distinction between programs between intuitive and intuitable. Finally, the author rarely provides the basis for the facts he states. It is fine to talk about "affordances" and "metaphors" but if you do not explain the rationale behind such things (or what studies indicate that these things work), you are doing your readers a disservice.

I much more recommend a book like "GUI Bloopers" for those who want a good read by an informted individual on this subject who is not just copying others. For those programmers who really want to learn about usability and the principles behind it, I recommend "Software for Use" or the "Usability Engineering Lifecycle." (Please note: those last two books are more geared to a Quality Assurance role, but are probably some of the most informative out there.) I would also more recommend the books by Alan Cooper (which are more theoretical but also more applicable in some cases).

Overall, I think this book was written for the programmer who does not have a lot of time to get through a larger book. Perhaps that makes sense to some. For me, it does not. Usability and accessibility are very important in the modern world, particularly in relation to the Web or with Web-based applications where the user is much more likely to give up on a piece of software than they would be if they just spent money on a software package. Thus, this is not a subject that you should expect to understand in this small montage of information.

I recommend reading the book at his Web site to determine if you want to buy the full book. If you do use this as a starter book (basically usability-with-training-wheels) then I urge you to consider other books on the same subject (some of which I have mentioned in this review) to get more informed on the subject. I also recommend checking out some of the online material that is quite abundant and where it seems most of this author's work derived from.

Summary of User Interface Design for Programmers

Most programmers' fear of user interface (UI) programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. They think that UI design is like graphic design?the mysterious process by which creative, latte-drinking, all-black-wearing people produce cool-looking, artistic pieces. Most programmers see themselves as analytic, logical thinkers instead?strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment, and incapable of doing UI design.

In this brilliantly readable book, author Joel Spolsky proposes simple, logical rules that can be applied without any artistic talent to improve any user interface, from traditional GUI applications to websites to consumer electronics. Spolsky's primary axiom, the importance of bringing the program model in line with the user model, is both rational and simple.

In a fun and entertaining way, Spolky makes user interface design easy for programmers to grasp. After reading User Interface Design for Programmers, you'll know how to design interfaces with the user in mind. You'll learn the important principles that underlie all good UI design, and you'll learn how to perform usability testing that works.

Design Tools & Techniques Books

• Subjects > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Software Engineering > Design Tools & Techniques
• Programming > Software Design, Testing & Engineering > Software Development
• Web Development > Website Architecture & Usability