Microsoft Silverlight Books

Designing a good interface isn't easy. Users demand software that is well-behaved, good-looking, and easy to use. Your clients or managers demand originality and a short time to market. Your UI technology -- web applications, desktop software, even mobile devices -- may give you the tools you need, but little guidance on how to use them well.

UI designers over the years have refined the art of interface design, evolving many best practices and reusable ideas. If you learn these, and understand why the best user interfaces work so well, you too can design engaging and usable interfaces with less guesswork and more confidence.

"Designing Interfaces" captures those best practices as design patterns -- solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical advice that you can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color. You'll get recommendations, design alternatives, and warnings on when not to use them.

Each chapter's introduction describes key design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color. These give you a deeper understanding of why the patterns work, and how to apply them with more insight.

A book can't design an interface for you -- no foolproof design process is given here -- but "Designing Interfaces" does give you concrete ideas that you can mix and recombine as you see fit. Experienced designers can use it as a sourcebook of ideas. Novice designers will find a roadmap to the world of interface and interaction design, with enough guidance to start using these patterns immediately.

What Users Do
A means to an end, the basics of user research, user's motivation to learn, the patterns

Organizing the Content: Information Architecture and Application Structure
The basics of information architecture: dividing stuff up, physical structure, the patterns

Getting Around: Navigation, Signposts, and Wayfinding
Staying found, the cost of navigation, the patterns

Organizing the Page: Layout of Page Elements
The basics of page layout, the patterns

Doing Things: Actions and Commands
Pushing the boundaries, the patterns

Showing Complex Data: Trees, Tables, and Other Information Graphics
The basics of information graphics, the patterns

Getting Input from Users: Forms and Controls
The basics of form design, control choice, the patterns

Builders and Editors
The basic of editor design, the patterns

Making It Look Good: Visual Style and Aesthetics
Same content, different styles, the basics of visual design, what this means for desktop applications, the patterns