Reputation: 2178
I'm looking to find any articles/books on usability. I'd like to get a handle on best practices when designing a UI, this can be anything from which user controls are more intuitive to a new user, to how to phrase text that is displayed to the user to avoid confusing dialogs. I mainly do Windows desktop applications, but most usability standards, I assume, would stand true regardless of the platform.
As an example, here's an MSDN article about the Windows User Experience Guidelines: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511258.aspx
Upvotes: 6
Views: 685
Reputation: 126
I would like to second uxbooth.com - we recently had an article published there which might be what you are looking for - check it out at http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/usability-testing-dont-guess-test/
usefulusability.com
is another good site, they regularly have good articles up there.
Oh, and another article we had published recently:
www.1stwebdesigner.com/development/usability-ux-pitfalls-howto-avoid/
I think this one provides some pretty good examples of issues that frequently pop up, and how to avoid them.
And if you are looking to run a simple usability test, what not check us out at IntuitionHQ.com
Good luck!
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 1404
I read articles from http://ui-patterns.com/ and http://www.uxbooth.com/. Those have been helpful for me.
Upvotes: 0
Reputation: 535
My favorite usability blog contains very well-constructed, insightful and thoughtful posts, by David Hamill.
You can find his blog at goodusability.co.uk
Enjoy.
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 31508
Designing Visual Interfaces by Mullet and Sano provides a great foundation for different layout-related issues. Not a book on usability per se but still relevant, I'd say.
As for web resources, try:
For book inspiration, see Suggested Readings in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), User Interface (UI) Development, & Human Factors (HF) (and all the great answers in this thread).
Upvotes: 1
Reputation: 1110
when designing UI, please do consider accessibility as well. it's mostly relevant for web sites, but could also be applicable for rich client (desktop apps). so, these links has a lot of info on the subject, though it's not pure usability info.
a good resource on usability and accessibility: Design Guidelines for Electronic Publications, Multimedia and the Web
you might find this check list useful: Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
and also this tool that will check your web site accessibility: web aim
Upvotes: 4
Reputation: 354804
Well, a long-standing favorite specifically for user interface design is Alan Cooper's About Face. It should touch most important topics when designing Windows desktop applications.
Then there are also various UX patterns which are well-presented in Quince (needs Silverlight).
Jef Raskin's The Humane Interface is also rather good, but very radical in his ideas. Still, this book points out many fallacies in modern UI design. If you need to stick to the WIMP world, then following his suggestions might be a little hard as he tends to suggest to overthrow everything we're used to. But well-written and good for provoking thoughts, even if you don't follow all his advice.
As for books/articles on usability in general or on slightly different topics:
Upvotes: 2
Reputation:
Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives
by Joel Spolsky (one of the guys behind this site)
Upvotes: 4
Reputation: 116187
The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman is a standard book on general usability considerations that can be applied to just about everything in day-to-day life. It's not specifically about software, but it's worth it to read it.
Universal Principles of Design is a recommended textbook for my university's Engineering Methods of Software Usability course. Myself, and others who have taken this course, have found this book to be more useful than the required textbook. There appears to be an updated version, called Universal Principles of Design, Revised and Updated: 125 Ways to Enhance Usability, Influence Perception, Increase Appeal, Make Better Design Decisions, and Teach through Design, but I can't speak about that one.
Upvotes: 5
Reputation: 35980
Try reading this book: Don't Make Me Think. While it's focused on web usability it is applicable to all facets of UI design.
Upvotes: 7