Recommended Books

You must read "The Design of Everyday Things"

The human mind is designed to make sense of things. Give a person some clue as to the use of an object, and the mind will try to explain, rationalize, understand, or use the object. Dr. Norman makes the point that well-designed objects are easy to interpret, understand, and use because they contain visible cues for use. Poorly-designed objects are difficult to interpret, understand, and use because they provide false cues, sometimes misleading cues to trap the user and thwart the normal process of interpreting and understanding.

Norman asserts that mistakes are due to poor design principles and claims that designers "make the mistake of not taking error into account." He gives four prescriptions for designers:

• Understand the causes of errors and design to minimize errors
• Make it possible to undo actions before errors occur
• Make it easier to discover errors, and make them easier to correct
• Change our attitude toward errors.
• There are many ways to deal with potential errors.

JoAnn T. Hackos
Janice C. Redish
ISBN 0-471-17831-4

Copyright: 1998
Published: Feb. 1998

488 great pages

User and Task Analysis for Interface Design

This book really impressed me and, in my opinion, is the best reference for user and task analysis, destined to become a classic.

• Why knowledge of users, their tasks, and their environments is critical to successful design
  
• How to prepare and set up your site visits
  
• How to select and train your user and task analysis team
  
• What observations to make, questions to ask, and questions to avoid
  
• How to record and report what you have learned to your development team members
  
• How to turn the information you've gathered into design ideas
  
• How to create paper prototypes of your interface design
  
• How to conduct usability tests with your prototypes to find out if you're on the right track

This book includes many examples of design successes and challenges for products of every kind.

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Eye and Brain : The Psychology of Seeing

You cannot design computer screen layouts until you understand how the eye works. This book will do that.

Since the publication of the first edition in 1966, "Eye and Brain" has established itself worldwide as an essential introduction to the basic phenomena of visual perception. In this book, Gregory offers clear explanations of how we see brightness, movement, color, and objects, and he explores the phenomena of visual illusions to establish principles about how perception normally works and why it sometimes fails.

I still have my original copy of the 1966 edition, one of the few books that I still have from my Ph.D. studies. This rewritten edition is expanded with more that thirty new illustrations making it even better.

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Gene Zelazny

ISBN: 078630894X ;
3rd edition (April 1996)

198 pages

Say It With Charts : The Executive's Guide to Visual Communication

This is the most practical book that I have found on choosing and using graphs and charts.

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Tony Fernandes

ISBN 0122537904
Published: June 1995

191 pages

Global Interface Design

Simple and clearly written guidance to internationalizing software interfaces. Addressing issues involved in product development for a global market with a "real world" focus, this book covers major areas during the development cycle, provides insights into researching cultural differences, and also provides tools for Cultural Awareness Testing. CD-ROM includes examples and illustrations.

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