Microsoft Silverlight Books

A little outdated, a few good gems, but overall mediocre

The book started out promising -- it talked about things like "user models" and "progamming models"; But somewhere along the way the author veered away from things that sounded like "theory" and more into a "hey let's sit down at the pub and shoot the poop about user interface design and how it was back in the day."

I do feel like there were some good points raised, but only a couple of them in the 18 chapters were really innovative viewpoints. (The rest were things you would expect to hear in any book on UI design).

The book BADLY needs to be updated. It's quite obvious that it was released before Windows XP, since many of the gripes that the author has about Windows were addressed with XP (including the "start button is a few pixels from the corner" issue) -- and the author continuously refers to bandwidth / lag issues on the Internet; which, if you haven't been living under a rock the past 3 years, is pretty much a non-issue anymore as broadband becomes more and more ubiquitous.

The conversational tone of the book was nice, at times, but I felt it deviated from my expectations of the book based on the title. (my "user model" differentiated from the book's "program model" so to speak) There really wasn't anything about the book that involved programming -- very few actual examples were used, and really, I'm not sure that I'm taking home anything that is going to help my UI design at all. It would be like someone telling you ABOUT their experience fishing: ("Make sure you get a decent boat, use a good fishing rod, and bring lots of beer"), rather than telling you about how to fish BETTER: ("When you're baiting your hook, use live bait for ___ fish, and casting distance should vary proportionally with...." [i'm really not much of a fisherman])

In other words, there was a lot of "why" answers but not a lot of "how" answers, and so I felt a bit disappointed.

Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think" is both current AND extremely helpful -- if you are looking for a book on Web Usability, I highly recommend that.

If you're looking for one specifically about HOW to improve the UI of your software... well, let me know if you find one, because I'm still looking too.

Aaron Hill
19 January, 2009

Some good ideas, some nonsense

This book is aimed at programmers who don't have the time or inclination to do research on user interface design, and it has some good suggestions, but you shouldn't take anything he says on faith because he is flat out wrong a good 25% of the time. Spolsky is very intelligent and the book can be fun to read at times, but he also comes off as really really arrogant and narrow minded. He is particularly and undeservedly venomous towards the Linux / OSS community, and this is really inexcusable.

Here is the executive summary: users can't read dialog boxes, they can't use the mouse, the don't read instructions, they have an idea of how the program is supposed to work, and most of the time they can't be bothered to learn how the program "does things differently," so be consistent and imitate programs your users are already likely to be familiar with.

You can lump all of this under the general heading "reduce user effort" which is a pretty good design philosophy. It really only breaks down when your users include other software developers. Developer software has its own set of user interface rules that are completely different (use man pages, don't produce output if everything is OK unless you are testing or the program is doing version control) but Spolsky doesn't appear to understand or appreciate this, so you'll just have to learn it on your own (you can start by googling unix philosophy).

This book gets 4 stars because the average computer book is AWFUL, so this book easily gets into the 80th percentile.

DavidInBerkeley
21 May, 2008

Joel on UI Design

First off, I'm not a (professional) programmer, and I'm not particularly interested in user interface design. I decided to read this book because I've read quite a bit of Joel's other work and I find his thought process illuminating, regardless of the subject. Also, most of the other stuff I've read by Joel is generalist in nature, and I wanted to see if his style would work in a deep dive into a subject. This book isn't a silver bullet in UI design, but it gives a few hints as to how to adjust your thinking to sympathize a bit more with the user. And despite the title "...for Programmers", there isn't much in the book that is programmer-centric, so it's useful for testers, product managers, and others in software development communities who aren't UI designers.

It's interesting reviewing this book in 2008, seven years after it was originally published. Visual design is such a time-sensitive thing, and this book being pre-Web 2.0 looks dated. It's nostalgic in some ways (screen shot of Napster!) but that doesn't diminish from the overall value of the book. While some of the examples Joel uses are no longer novel, most of the principles that Joel writes about still hold true. The messages that are constantly reinforced basically come down to using real life metaphors and respecting the user.

But therein lies my only real criticism of this book. Joel is prone to calling out statements like "users can't read" and "people can't control a mouse" as chapter titles, section headings, and even on the cover of the book. These statements run counter to his overall message of respecting the range of users of an application. What he really means is that "users don't have time to read all your documentation" and "people aren't always using a good pointing device". Reading the full text makes the positive messages obvious, but they are a bit overshadowed by the bolder, more negative statements.

And a point on Joel's writing: Joel is at his best when he's taking examples from his life experience and applying them to whatever he happens to be writing about. There's plenty of that in this book, starting with his experience working in an Israeli bread factory and extending to studies of well designed non-software products. Joel is a master at putting his inspiration into words, and he doesn't disappoint here.

Whether you're a programmer or not, if you're looking for a primer on UI design, this is a solid choice. It's a light, easy, entertaining read and packs plenty of value into it's 140 pages.

P. Newman
28 April, 2008

Great read, helpful info

I rarely give out 5 stars, but this book deserves it.

Well written, on the light side, but serious about providing best practices for UI design with good examples to back it up.

Charles M. Slate
14 May, 2007

Good introduction, but that's it

This thin book is a good introduction to the idea of that you should make good software interfaces, but doesn't tell you how to do that. For that, Spolsky provides an excellent bibliography at the end.

If you already have even a little bit of experience with good interface design, this book isn't for you. It's there to enlighten the programming masses that so far don't care or haven't been told that users matter.

You can get this book for free online starting at Joel on Software (I think Amazon deleted the URL I put in there, but google for the book title and you'll find it).

brian d foy
08 September, 2006

Amatuer at best

This book has a number of problems.

First, the writing is amateurish - hardly what I'd expect from someone trying to impart knowledge on a professional audience. It reads as a high school book report, not a reference for software engineers. I expect elegance in material I read, if for nothing else but to gain confidence in the author's intelligence and experience.

Second, much of the information is clearly lifted from books such as 'Tog on Interface' (which I highly recommend). Take for example chapter 10 from User Interface Design for Programmers - 'People Can't Control the Mouse'. Spolsky's ideas on the problem of small mouse targets, as well as his solutions, are almost a direct copy of Bruce Tognazzini's (which I might add were presented much earlier). As another reviewer mentioned, not only are the ideas un-original, but they are presented haphazardly and with little supporting information.

Overall, this book is not worth a penny. It is simply the ineloquent regurgitation of other's ideas.

Kenneth S. Orr
13 May, 2006

The Title is Honest

One of the first question I always notice about books: Is the title honest? For this book I can unabashedly say, Yes. This book is for programmers.

I've been a full time developer for just over 5 years. Making technology work is my game, but when it comes to designing UIs, it's more like random dart throwing and voodoo. But, considering some of the stuff I've seen other people put out. . . my stuff is not too bad! Still, I like doing a professional job and users expect programmers like us to know UI design-in spite of the fact most of us can't even draw decent stick figures!

The best thing about this book is Joel speaks my language. He makes art comprehensible to the techny. Not an easy accomplishment, but Joel is no ordinary guy either. He runs his own ISV in New York City and hosts one of the most popular software development blog sites around. (joelonsoftware.com) To survive financially in a place like NYC says something of his abilities. This book like his other writings bear that out: great concepts, great illustrations and well packaged thought.

One note, this book is about principles of design. It is not a quick how-to book. If you need some templates for a GUI project you are starting tomorrow, or need to know the ins/outs of a particular OS graphical system, this book isn't for you. But, if like me you've struggled with every new UI and are searching for guiding principles, this book is great!


Jeff Staddon
04 May, 2006

Brilliant

This book is simply one of the best I have ever read. Joel's style is so funny, simple and expressive, and I enjoyed in every moment reading it. I read once that if someone realy understands the subject, then he must be able to explain it in simple way that almost everyone could understand. So, I think Joel truly knows what he's talking about, and not only in this book.

Berislav Vidakovic
27 March, 2006

Really nice reading about UI design

I would list two great points about the book:
- very nice book about User Interface design, a lot of valuable information & thoughts
- really nice English reading. Especially valuable for non-native speakers (like me) - easy to read, a lot of humor and live stories, you just make fun while reading

I can easily recommend the book to everyone interested in software development, not necessarily UI design.

Mikhail Pliskine
01 March, 2006

Turned me into an enthusiastic user interface designer!

This book provides excellent concepts to bear in mind when designing the UI. Moreover, it is really fun and easy to read! I enjoyed it a lot, and I would recommend it to any developer, as it made me realize the importance of good design and it helped me improve as a software designer.
I read someone else's comments that the book is not very thorough. I don't know about that, but in any case I would say it is an excellent FIRST book on user interface design that gives you what's most important: the motivation on the subject to read forward.

Maria E. Ponzio
09 September, 2005

Concise Architectural Common Sense

On receiving the book, my first thought was "what, only 134 pages ?" - these pages are very easy to turn, resembling card-stock rather than unabridged-dictionary. Being in the architectural-musing phase, however, I eventually concluded that a few key items of advice more than paid its way. As a busy architect, your time is valuable, you'd really would prefer NOT to have a tome of padded rambling. 134 good pages at the architectural level.

Thinking on towards the detailed design, a good complement would be Cooper's "About Face 2.0", which is much more detail-oriented, discussing the relative merits of drop-downs etc.

Hibernating Hummingbird
06 September, 2005

Excellent, for me - if you are like me, buy this book

A previous reviewer wrote "I think this is a book that will only please the programmer who ... feels they do not have the time to devote to a better treatment of this subject." That describes me perfectly! I write mostly mathematical and control software. I don't get paid to design UIs. I do not claim to have studied graphic design, and I don't get paid to do so. Some of the components I write are for internal use and their only interface is their public (software) interface. But I find it is becoming more common that I am asked to design something that needs a UI that users will see. So I needed a short, clear introduction to good UI design that was engaging so I wouldn't fall asleep while reading it. This book is perfect for that! I really like Joel Spolsky's writing style. It's a great start - maybe all I need - with a (selective) bibliography at the end listing resources the author recommends for learning more.

Joseph S,
02 August, 2005

Very well written but it seems like something is missing.

Many of us have come to expect very good writing from Joel, and this book delivers. Joel writes in an engaging style and provides us with proper examples to get his point across. The book is divided into properly named sections with titles that we have come to expect from Joel, such as "People can't read", "People can't remember" and "People can't control the mouse". All of which bring up important issues that seem to come up for me in UI design.
However, when I was done with this book, I felt like something was missing. Because the book is more of a collection of tips rather than a unit by itself. In my opinion, this fact makes this book lose some "flow". (This style fits into "Joel on Software" though)
Overall, I think it's a good book to start you off with UI design but definitly not the only resource you should have access to.

Szymon Rozga
13 July, 2005

A must read.....not for the graphics minded though

When you press the brakes of a car...you dont get a little dialog box that pops up and says " Stop Now? (Yes/No)"...or do you?
Aren't we really happy that everything is not really based on windows (as yet). When i picked up this book (well...got it as an Xmas present), I expected it to be more from a graphical perspective. But it was not to be. The small size of the book and its author certainly persuaded me to go ahead and read the book...and seriously...it was worth my time. To summarize:

- Not always really sensible to write a windows based program which completely contradicts the way Microsoft places controls on the form.
- While designing web-programs, try minimizing frequent trips to the server...(some apps do it even now ... damn). Use applets dude.
- Know thy user......damn......Joel presents so many examples of how stuff should not be made.
- While designing UI's for users, creativity should take the back-seat and "common-sense and intuition" takes the drivers seat.
- Users are duh....really..so...design for duh people.
- And for the myths vs facts (my favs)
- Flash sucks and kills the web-page ... Joel says YES....so do I
- Frames are stupid and are misleading ... I agree ...and so does Joel.
- And I disagree with one thing....Color coding does not really help. I am tempted to say that color coding is a matter of user-preference....(considering that you are not too color-bling)...and it certainly helps to have color coding for stuff you use on a daily basis. Maybe...its for the overly-organized folks...but still....if someone is trying to use a computer for something other than games,movies or programming, he/she is using it for organizing stuff...period.

Overall...an excellent read....
My rating for the book.....Four on Five.

Sashidhar Kokku
07 January, 2005

insightful and hillarious

My family kept asking me how I could possibly be laughing so much at a book on programming. The anecdotes in this book are fantastic at conveying fundamental UI principles, but they're also so entertaining that I finished the entire book the day I got it.

Eli Courtwright
18 July, 2004

It�s a good book, but falls short.

User Interface Design is a topic which I have always been interested in. I believe it was PCWorld Magazine that used to have a column dedicated to improving the design of a submitted interface, and there were many things I learned from that column. This book seems to work from the basis of that column, but doesn't go as far as I would have liked it to.There are many anecdotes included in the book, and they were very illustrative as to the problems people encounter when working with a badly designed interface. I especially liked the concept of the mile-high menu bar that Mac users have, and how that compares to the small footprint that a Windows user must target to open a menu.Still, I was left wanting more. The book serves as a great introduction, but if you're already done some UI Design, you might already be familiar with most of what is explained in the book. The anecdotes are what really make the book appealing, but I wouldn't recommend purchasing the book just for those.It's a good book, it just falls short of what it could have been.

Antonio A. Rodriguez
29 September, 2003

Fun to read

Lots of great stories and examples, good illustration though at times it seems quite disjoint with the text and just thrown in for example's sake.Overall not a whole lot there though. A great idea if it were better executed. Lots of fluff, unfilled pages and wide spacing make for a quick read and empty feeling.

24 September, 2003

Great Beginner UI Book

This book is an excellent first book on UI design. It covers a lot of ground and is easy to read. The author is both witty and entertaining. An excellent read.

Lyle A. Moore
23 September, 2003

Best introduction to the usability perspective, bar none

Joel Spolsky has brilliantly condensed the essential points of usable interface design into a witty, entertaining, and brief book.

Brian Curtis
21 July, 2003

Great Look at UI Design

A witty look at UI design, the strength of this book is in its scope. It covers everything broadly - while it is true not all environments have the same flexibility, there is enough here to get you started and get you thinking of alternatives for whatever your particular issue is. This is a good refresher / introduction into UI design and is a must to have on the shelf.

David W. Heard
10 June, 2003

Entertaining Look at Basics of UI Design

The strength of this book is that it's one you'll read. With its light style, an abundance of colorful illustrations, and plenty of white space, it can easily be read in a single sitting. It makes quite a few good points, and does so with the help of excellent visual examples.On the other hand, the scope of the book is so broad that its applicability to a specific environment or task will be limited. Unless you're developing an entire operating system, your choices in designing a user interface are constrained by the environment you're working in. Web developers don't have the same choices as Windows developers, who are in a different world from text-based programmers. If the book focused on a single environment it might have been as useful as it is entertaining.This is a good starting point for application developers, but you'll need something more specific if you want much practical guidance.

Steven Davis
19 May, 2003

Fun to read!

While this book is not in the usual sense a tutorial or a reference manual, it instructs and I will refer to it when creating user interfaces. This book is like a collection of short essays that are fun to read around a common theme, how to create good user interfaces. The overall effect is to modify the programmer's philosophy about user interfaces.

I am stilling mulling over a lot what Joel has to say. Although the book is rather short, it covers the subject rather well. There are no exact formulae for creating great user interfaces. Rather, the author gives some guidelines to consider when developing. They are explained and accompanied with full color examples that illustrate the author's point from actual applications.

Many readers may think that these guidelines are just common sense, but after using numerous applications and websites, it may not be that common after all. Read the book, the consumers of your application may thank you afterwards.

C. M. Lowry
02 December, 2002

Enjoyable from Start to Finish

It was a pleasure to read this book. Joel has an amazing writing style that is friendly, upbeat, funny, and insightful. While he clearly isn't the world's definitive expert on UI design, his years of real world experience and wealth of examples make this book both valuable and enjoyable. This has to be one of my favorite technical books.Joel's irreverent, tell-it-like-it-is, approach is part of the charm of this book. For example, chapter 10 is titled, "People Can't Control the Mouse" and chapter 13 is titled, "Those Pesky Usability Tests". From my years of software development in the games industry, many of his points on UI design hit home in a big way. I was actually shocked at how applicable the entire book was to game development. As a professional programmer, I felt the book was talking my language and completely in agreement with my own experiences.The truth is that there are so many boring and questionable technical books out there, it's refreshing to read something that is so honest and dead-on right.

Kent Anderson
04 October, 2002

Subjective opinions, but educated ones

This is not a prescriptive book--Alan Cooper's About Face offers a more detailed cookbook. I found it similar to Donald Norman's The Design of Everyday Things.One fact in the book's favor is that all but 7 new chapters are available for free online at [Web site], and there are many more essays by the author at [Web site]. His insights are the result of a career in shrink-wrapped software, but his wit and accessible writing style are his own. As a professional programmer, I found myself agreeing and laughing in equal parts.

Alastair Dallas
16 September, 2002

Good

The book covers the basics of UI design. As a software developer I found it a good introduction to some of the basic principles involved. The book is not suitable as a reference work, as it only covers a finite set of ideas, and not in an exhaustive manner. However, the book is well written and does give one a solid foundation on which to build a more in-depth knowledge of UI design.

Joshua Drake
05 August, 2002

Well... It *was* fun to read

This is a great book if you're someone who knows little about UI Design. If you've been around UIs for a bit, then stay away, you'll find it to be a waste of time. The author explains basic concepts of UI design and provides an example or two. He does a good job at explaining his simple concepts, so this book might be a great way to start with IU design.Mr. Spolsky makes the book lots of fun to read by including entertaining, yet educational, anecdotes. The book is a bathroom-read... buy it an read a chapter or two in letrine. :)The book was ok, but I was expecting more substance.

Ellery Familia
27 June, 2002

Basic theory in Human Interface Design. Nothing new.

If you're a beginner in the world of Human Interface Design, this book is for you. If you're a programmer looking to make his/her program more user-friendly, this book is for you. Otherwise, for anyone else, the theory and concepts are basic at best. I'd recommend tracking down the long out of print Apple Computer "Inside Macintosh" series of books as they are more detailed and written by some of the pioneers of Human Interface Design. The one redeeming point here is the quality of the screenshots. Very impressive indeed and help to get the point across. Otherwise, you may find this book an entertaining read, but not something you'd learn a great deal from.

AMM
22 May, 2002

Excellent, Quick Read, Must Read

This book provides a great overview of interface design principles. At the same time, it is easy and entertaining to read. It is perfect reading material for a few hours in the evening or over the weekend, without committing to reading 1000 pages of theoretical know-how. This one you can get done with in a few short hours!

Markus Egger
22 May, 2002

Overly generic

As a programmer, I fit the stereotype and know very little about UI design. Although I was only looking to gain a basic understanding of design, I still found the book's coverage overly generic. The content can be summed up as follows: use tabs, do what Microsoft does, heuristics are overdone in many apps, test designs incrementally, don't overuse colors, and avoid all the fluff in web page design. Critical design issues such as color combinations, UI standards, and best controls for particular jobs were not covered. The author glossed over these by telling the reader to find out what metaphor the user expects and design the application in that context. Despite these failings, the book is well written and can be read rapidly. This book rates about two stars for content and four for readability. Overall, this book rates approximately three stars.

11 January, 2002

Not worth it...

Before even starting I have to say that I work in the field of Quality Assurance so I have read a lot of material on this subject, thus my standards are pretty high for this type of book. However, I also work in the programming field as well so I feel justified in my comments. As such, I think this is a book that will only please the programmer who likes to do minimal research and/or feels they do not have the time to devote to a better treatment of this subject.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.

Jeff Nyman
17 August, 2001

Not as good as the website

I'll admit that I have read Joel's book before .. on his website. Reading it in print was a different experience. Frankly, I expected MORE from something that I can sit on the toilet and read. It's written like a weblog .. which is fine for scrolling across the web, but I would agree with one of the other reviewers that the book is not so meaty as it could be .. and relies too heavily on anecdotes.Nonetheless, Joel's insight and matter-of-fact analysis is good, and can be used to effectively convey some basic UI concepts to programmers -- a species usually less than concerned with such issues. Indeed, I have (in a fit of frustrated anger) suggested that several programmers I've been working with take this book home with them one night and not return until it has been read cover-to-cover. It's a quick read, and a good way to hit someone on the head with the UI religion without too much force.

Jacob M. Reider
08 August, 2001

Short, sweet, succinct

Most programmers hate user interface programming. They think UI design is in the realm of groovy graphic designers. But UI design is not art, it's just a set of rules. Joel Spolsky's cardinal axiom of all user interface design is to match your program model to the user model. In other words, your program should behave exactly as the user expects. If you can do that, and apply the other corollaries he provides, your program will be usable.In this 144 page color illustrated book, Spolsky shows you plenty of examples of what works, and what doesn't. You'll learn UI design rules you can apply to improve any user interface, from traditional GUI applications to Web sites to consumer electronics. Spolsky *sounds* like a programmer too, boiling things down to their essence with wonderful wit.Even if you have the best algorithms in the world, if users can't figure out how to use your program, it's practically useless. Giving users what they expect makes learning your program that much easier. But how do you find out what the user model is? Ask them.This is a great book written by an experienced software industry veteran. Recommended. From WebReference.com.

Andrew B. King
07 August, 2001

Eye Opener for Programmers

I echo the comments from the other reviewers. This book is great! However, it is not quite what I expected, it's better! I expected an elaboration of the Windows User Interface Standards; instead it takes a general design approach to user interfaces like the books on product design in general but specific to the Windows User Interface or windowslike user interfaces. It was an eye opener for me because it brings up things I never thought about and which I'm already applying to my software development efforts: font type used in text boxes or input boxes in general (non proportional) which enables easier editing, use of metaphors (how to use and not to use), getting ALL of the user input prior to executing a time consuming process (and of course, warning the user), and easy to do usability testing (ask 3 to 5 people what they think). My favorite chapter is Chapter 14, Relativity: Understanding UI Time Warps. I think this chapter is worth the price of the book alone.

David W. Wood
03 August, 2001

Microsoft what?

if i had to use one word to describe this book it would be brevity. the chapters i cared about the most were more like quick summaries of 3 - 4 pages mixed with some large photos. i also didn't appreciate most of the examples being microsoft products. i realize they rule the world, but their software is pretty much all the same. i would have appreciated more examples. additionally, i have to design for pc and mac-based computers. this book is primarily for the pc user/programmer.i would have appreciated much more on how to design for the fringes (e.g., people with disabilities now constitute about 1/5 of the population). instead, i got 3 pages and a big 1/2 page picture of a cheese slicer. huh? and, it appears that nothing is based on actual research beyond the author's own experiences. i like a book that thoroughly reviews the research in the field and brings in the work of other experts to solidify positions and advice. that is quite missing here. his bibliography includes 6 books and no journal articles.perhaps i was too generous with the 2 stars. perhaps, i just had different expectations and this book actually does what the author intended. who knows? it just didn't work for me.

Sean Lancaster
01 August, 2001

Programmers, find out why UI designers have it tough!

Joel is a good writer who happens to be a programmer. That alone is enough to reccommend this one-of-a-kind book. His website contains tons of insightful, opinionated essays, and most of the time he's right, whether his topic is design, business stragegy, HR, or coding techniques. He's an ex-Microsoft employee who's saavy enough to know what MS does right and what they don't. In this book, much of which is available at his site, he's taking an approach that I don't think anyone else has: why UI design matters to programmers. He's not talking to experienced visual desingers, or HCI people, or interaction desingers or what have you. He's talking to programmers, the folks who will actually write lines of code. This book, in a quick 150 pages, shows programmers why interaction designers will spend, say, two days worrying about a couple of words or the placement of two buttons. Like Steve Krug's book "Don't Make Me Think", it's a somewhat lightweight treatment of the topic for an experienced UI desinger, but you'd be foolish to pass it up for that reason. This, along with Krug would be a great book for Project Managers or senior staff wondering what all the fuss about "usability" really means. Where Jakob Nielsen's preachy fussiness can bore you to tears, Joel and Krug will make you eager to put their ideas into practice.Any company that can get its programmers, managers, and designers on the same page about the still under-appreciated value of UI design (and the analysis that goes into it) will find they can make better products faster.

Andrew Otwell
29 July, 2001

A must-read for every software designer

UI Design for Programmers is an excellent guide to creating intuitive, usable software interfaces for the real world. The light tone and frequent anecdotes make it a pleasure to read, I finished the book the day after it arrived. Very refreshing compared to the dry, technical style of most other computer books. I would highly recommend it to anyone who designs interfaces for any type of software or web-based application.

Keith Platfoot
13 July, 2001

A Great Book!

This book, based on the articles Joel wrote and published... . is an excellent, no-nonsense, down to earth treatment of the subject.You'll find useful information on:- Figuring out what people really need and want (even if they don't know themselves)- How to design software that give people what they need and want - Understanding how to make the functionality of your software obvious to the majority of your users- Why making software too configurable is badAnd other topics that most programmers don't spend enough time thinking about.The parts that really bring it home to me are the examples that use Joel's former employer (Juno) to demonstrate where things go wrong. Often they give me a sense of "Been there. Done that. Oh, so that's what I should have done!"All in all, a really good book, and while you may not agree with all of what he says, at least you'll be thinking about the problems he presents from a user's perspective.

Michael R Bernstein
12 July, 2001

Funny and Instructive at the same time....

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Joel Spolsky nails it when he talks about User Interfaces, Operating System quirks, Software Interfaces or Web Interfaces. All the while making the reading entertaining and instructive.If you consider yourself a software engineer "engineering software for human beings to use" you need to read this book! Joel provides a refreshingly agnostic (not very religious about a particular OS or a vendor-oriented way of doing things) fairassessment of how interfaces do things well as as screw up badly.Excellent book to read and follow!

Nari Kannan
11 July, 2001

A book to get you thinking

This book won't tell you everything to know about UI design, but what it does tell you will make your interfaces better. It's a quick but entirely worthwhile read if you're new to the topic.

10 July, 2001

Great way to get introduced ...

Not only is `User Interface Design for Programmers' a fun read, but it's also a fun way to get introduced to the world of user interface design.It teaches you the basics of UI thinking, while at the same time keeping the "level" high enough for more experienced designers to like it.

25 June, 2001

Excellent, amusing and easy to read. Go buy.

Joel has a great writing style making this book a delight to read. It covers all the major areas of interface design in a thoroughly pragmatic way. This is user interface design for practical people who want their software or web sites to be used, not hung on the wall of a gallery.The pace is fast, the tone light, but the message important. Go buy it.

Richard M. Marshall
25 June, 2001