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It has been said that the great scientific disciplines are examples of giants standing on the shoulders of other giants. It has also been said that the software industry is an example of midgets standing on the toes of other midgets.
About Face
Most software is used in a business context, so most victims of bad interaction are paid for their suffering. Their job forces them to use software, so they cannot choose not to use it--they can only tolerate it as well as they can.
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum : Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How To Restore The Sanity by Alan Cooper, Paul Saffo (Foreword)
ISBN: 0672316498 Page: 34 This book is available from Amazon
Directly offer enough information for the user to avoid mistakes.
About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design by Alan Cooper
ISBN: 1568843224 Page: 448 This book is available from Amazon
A dialog box is another room. Have a good reason to go there.
ISBN: 1568843224 Page: 555 This book is available from Amazon
Most software isn't designed. Rather, it emerges from the development team like a zombie emerging from a bubbling vat of Research and Development juice. When a discipline is hugging the ragged edge of technology, this might be expected, but most of today's software is comprised of mostly 'D' and very little 'R'.
ISBN: 1568843224 Page: 11, chapter 1 This book is available from Amazon
First axiom of user interface design: Don't make the user look stupid.
ISBN: 1568843224 Page: 16, chapter 1 This book is available from Amazon
If it's worth asking the user, it's worth the program remembering.
ISBN: 1568843224 Page: 187, chapter 14 This book is available from Amazon
No crisis inside a computer is worth humiliating a human.
ISBN: 1568843224 Page: 435, chapter 28 This book is available from Amazon
All idioms must be learned. Good idioms only need to be learned once.
ISBN: 1568843224 Page: 59, chapter 5 This book is available from Amazon
New ways of thinking are always demonstrated by new techniques. Unreflective people adopt the techniques but not the thinking.
The value of a prototype is in the education it gives you, not in the code itself.
