GUI Bloopers Don'ts and Do's for Software Developers and Web Designers

"Better read this book, or your design will be featured in Bloopers II. Seriously, bloopers may be fun in Hollywood outtakes, but no movie director would include them in the final film. So why do we find so many bloopers in shipped software? Follow Jeff Johnson as he leads the blooper patrol deep into enemy territory: he takes no prisoners but reveals all the design stupidities that users have been cursing over the years."

-Jakob Nielsen
Usability Guru, Nielsen Norman Group

"If you are a software developer, read this book, especially if you don't think you need it. Don't worry, it isn't filled with abstract and useless theory--this is a book for doers, code writers, and those in the front trenches. Buy it, read it, and take two sections daily."

-Don Norman
President, UNext Learning Systems

GUI Bloopers looks at user interface design bloopers from commercial software, Web sites, and information appliances, explaining how intelligent, well-intentioned professionals made these dreadful mistakes--and how you can avoid them. While equipping you with all the theory needed to learn from these examples, GUI expert Jeff Johnson also presents the reality of interface design in an entertaining, anecdotal, and instructive way.

This is an excellent, well-illustrated resource for anyone whose work touches on usability issues, including software engineers, Web site designers, managers of development processes, QA professionals, and usability professionals.

Features

• Takes a learn-by-example approach that teaches you to avoid common errors by asking the appropriate questions of your own interface designs.
• Includes two complete war stories, drawn from the author's personal experience, that describe in detail the challenges faced by UI engineers.
• Covers bloopers in a wide range of categories: GUI components, layout and appearance, text messages, interaction strategies, Web site design, responsiveness issues, management decision-making, and even more at www.GUI-bloopers.com.
• Organized and formatted based on the results of its own usability testing--so you can quickly find the information you need, packaged in easily digested pieces.

Authors:

Jeff Johnson is president and principal consultant at UI Wizards, Inc., a product usability consulting firm (www.uiwizards.com). He has worked in the field of Human-Computer Interaction since 1978--as software designer and implementer, usability tester, manager, researcher at several computer and telecommunications companies, and consultant. In the course of his career, he has written many articles, cowritten several books, and given numerous presentations on a variety of topics in Human-Computer Interaction.

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: First Principles
Chapter 2: GUI Component Bloopers
Chapter 3: Layout and Appearance Bloopers
Chapter 4: Textual Bloopers
Chapter 5: Interaction Bloopers
Chapter 6: Web Bloopers
Chapter 7: Responsiveness Bloopers
Chapter 8: Management Bloopers
Chapter 9: Software Reviews
Chapter 10: War Stories of a User-Interface Consultant

Web-Enhanced:

Visit GUI-Bloopers.com for all of the below and more!

Sample chapters

• The Introduction in PDF format (105 KB)
• Chapter 4 in PDF format (644 KB)

• Web Pages That Suck
• Interface Hall of Shame
• UseIt.com
• UI Wizards, Inc.

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Related Titles:

Human-Computer Interaction
Information Technology