Introduction

The main purpose of this book is to describe user interface bloopers that are often made by developers of computer-based products and services, and to provide design rules and guidelines for avoiding each blooper. First, however, it is useful to ground the discussion of the bloopers by laying out the principles that underlie the design of effective, user-friendly user interfaces. That is the purpose of this chapter.

The principles given in this chapter are not specific design rules for graphical user interfaces (GUIs). There is nothing in this chapter about the right or wrong way to design dialog boxes, menus, toolbars, Web links, and so on. Specific design rules about such issues are provided in later chapters of the book, in the design rules for avoiding each blooper.

Specific user interface design rules are also given in "official" style guides for specific industry-standard GUI platforms, such as the Java Look and Feel Design Guildelines [Sun, 1999], the Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Design [Microsoft, 1995], the OSF/Motif Style Guide: Rev 1.2 [OSF, 1993], and the Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines [Apple, 1993]. Specific GUI guidelines are also provided by many "unofficial" but nonetheless good books, such as Bickford [1997], Fowler [1998], Mandel [1997], McFarland and Dayton [1995], Mullet and Sano [1995], Nielsen [1999d], Shneiderman [1987], Tufte [1983], Weinshenk et al. [1997].

Rather than providing specific GUI design rules, the principles given in this chapter provide the basis for GUI design rules. They are based on...