4 ms·
The following will give you a good understanding of UI design. Number 3, Designing Interfaces, has a coherent set of principles. 1. [Don’t Make Me Think](http
by hypertexthero 3y ago
The following will give you a good understanding of UI design.
Number 3, Designing Interfaces, has a coherent set of principles.
1. [Don’t Make Me Think](https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/ https://sensible.com/dont-make-me-think/)
2. [The Design of Everyday Things](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things)
3. [Designing Interfaces, 3rd
Edition](https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-interfaces-3rd/9781492051954/ https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/designing-interfaces-3r...)
4. [Nielsen Norman Group Interaction Design: 3-Day
Course](https://www.nngroup.com/courses/interaction-design-3-day-course/ https://www.nngroup.com/courses/interaction-design-3-day-cou...)
5. [Apple Human Interface Guidelines](https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...)
6. [A Dao of Web Design](https://alistapart.com/article/dao/ https://alistapart.com/article/dao/)
7. [Usability Testing](https://www.nngroup.com/courses/usability-testing/ https://www.nngroup.com/courses/usability-testing/)
It’s important to practice, not just read. The term is “dogfooding”.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_started_with_the_web https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_start...
Finally, probably first of all, it’s worth thinking about whether your user interface is harmful to the people using it, and changing if so:
https://www.deceptive.design/ https://www.deceptive.design/
https://www.humanetech.com/key-issues https://www.humanetech.com/key-issues
- prox 3y agoGreat list! You are missing the big one (imho) : About Face, Interaction Design by Alan Cooper
- lstamour 3y agoIn particular, the third edition focuses heavily on desktop while the fourth edition strays into mobile. Love em. That said, more practical and recent resources include https://www.interaction-design.org/master-classes https://www.interaction-design.org/master-classes and https://designcode.io/ https://designcode.io/ for different topics. I’m sure there are others, but these are just off the top of my head.
- prox 3y agoThanks for those links, those look interesting! Especially interaction-design.org.
- hypertexthero 3y agoThanks you! Never heard of this one. Added to to-read list!
- maroonblazer 3y agoAnyone heard from Tog (#4 above)? The cert on his website, asktog.com, appears to have expired and no new content since 2014.
- atomicnature 3y agoWoah, that's a long list of resources, thanks. I've read a few of those ((1), (2), (7)). (3) is new to me. Will give it a read for sure.
- preommr 3y agoWhenever this question comes up, the usual suspects like "The Design of Everyday things" get mentioned and I can't help wonder what it would be like if someone asked for books about learning to program [websites] and kept getting "Godel, Escher Bach", "Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" or "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius.
- hypertexthero 3y agoFor websites at this point in time I’d recommend Mozilla’s Getting started with the web: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_started_with_the_web https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Getting_start... I couldn’t get through Godel, Escher Bach, but can recommend I Am A Strange Loop by the same author! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop
- imjonse 3y agoUnless you read The art of war you cannot possibly become a 10x ninja developer. /s More seriously, I have read the design of everyday things about 10 years ago and it was one of the most boring books I have ever had to go through. I only remember doorknobs and something about affordances. Read refactoringUI as well, some vague shiny UI tips of which can't remember any but 'have decent spacing'. I still can't design even a simple form. I am starting to suspect that if one wants to be good at web design one needs to start doing lots of web design until one gets better. Reading books may come later to place that practical knowledge in some coherent mental framework.
- _trackno5 3y agoThat’s interesting. I went through that book not that long ago and I found it fascinating. I had a hard time putting it down. I found that the concepts he covers in that book can even be applied for good software API design. Also, he did spoil doors for me. Pretty much every building I go into now annoys me because of the stupid door handles they pick.
- jdgoesmarching 3y agoThese books are a solid foundation for design education, but also design is its own deep field of expertise that you’re not going to learn after a a book or two. Both things can be true.