One of ten pages from Craig Marion's Software Design Smorgasbord. The others are:
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This page contains information on interface design itself as well as its preliminary activities such as task analysis and requirements gathering. For information on interaction design (how interfaces behave, as opposed to what they contain and how they look), please see
As I stated when I first posted this site on May 1, 1997, I want to be on record as endorsing the viewpoint Alan Cooper articulated clearly in About Face (1995):
My four years at Strohl Systems (1997-2001) showed me very clearly that while developers can sometimes do excellent design work, it's impossible for them to maintain the standpoint of users adequately while they're doing development work, and that this viewpoint needs to be represented on design teams. Interaction designers, usability specialists, or whatever other title they're given are necessary to ensure that this standpoint is never lost. |
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| search engine by freefind |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Interaction Design Group | An international community of people who are practicing, teaching, and studying interaction design. The discussion group is the best I'm aware of in this area. You can view the archives without participating. (Posted 12/04) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| UIML.org | User Interface Markup Language. A language to define the location and interaction of actual interface elements -- the buttons, menus, lists and other controls -- that allow a program to function in a graphical interface. Tutorials are presented. UIML was originally developed at Harmonia and Virginia Tech, and is now being evolved at OASIS (Posted 9/99, Updated 07/04) |
| WARIA | Workflow And Reengineering International Association. Chartered to identify and clarify issues that are common to all users of workflow and those who are in the process of reengineering their organizations. (Posted 5/98) |
| Workflow Management Coalition | Established in August 1993 as a non-profit international body for the development and promotion of workflow standards. (Posted 7/97) |
| Conference Calendar | From Interaction-Design.Org. The most comprehensive listing of current and previous conferences of which I'm aware. (Posted 11/09) | Previous Conference Sites Still of Interest |
| UI15 |
User Interface Fifteen
November 8-10, 2011. Boston. "An intense, inspiring 3-day event, masterfully crafted to bring out the best in today's UX professionals." This is the agenda. (Posted 11/10) |
| pdc2010 |
Nov. 29 - Dec. 3, 2010. Sydney, Australia.
Participatory Design (PD) is a collection of principles and practices aimed at making technologies, tools, environments, businesses, and social institutions more responsive to human needs. The conference theme for this conference is Participation: he Challenges. (Posted 5/10) |
| 23rd ACM UIST Symposium |
October 3-6, 2010. New York City.
"UIST (ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology) is the premier forum for innovations in the software and technology of human-computer interfaces." (Posted 5/10) |
| UXLX 2010 | May 12-14, 2010. Lisbon, Portugal. "A premier User Experience Conference" with a most impressive list of presenters. (Posted 8/10) |
| Interaction 10 |
February 4-7, 2010. Savannah.
"Every year, the interaction design community gathers to stretch our minds, sharpen our skills and inspire each other. " Here are the details. (Posted 1/10) |
| FOWD |
November 18-19, 2009. New York City.
Future of Web Design Conference. Here's the schedule. (Posted 11/09) |
| Europe's Fifth Information Architecture Summit |
September 25-26, 2009. Copenhagen.
"This year we will explore the theme "Beyond Structure". That's because websites have moved to a new level. Any random page can be accessed from Google. Pages themselves may consist of information from many sources. And even the concept of a "page" is changing thanks to new backend technologies. In other words, we've moved beyond the traditional sitemap and into a new and exciting era of web development. " (Posted 9/09) |
| IA Summit 2009 |
March 20-22, 2009. Memphis, Tennessee.
Theme: Expanding Our Horizons. The site is especially rich in presentations from previous summits. (Posted 1/09) |
| IUI 2009 |
February 8-11, 2009. Sanibel Island, Florida
"The annual meeting of the intelligent interfaces community and serves as the principal international forum for reporting outstanding research and development on intelligent user interfaces." These are links to past IUI conferences. (Posted 3/09) |
| 21st ACM UIST Symposium | October 19-22, 2008. Monterey, California. "UIST (ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology) is the premier forum for innovations in the software and technology of human-computer interfaces." (Posted 3/08) |
| Webstock 06 and 08 Session Recordings | Webstock08 was held in Wellington, New Zealand, on February 11-15, 2008. It was attended by over 500 people and consisted of three days of workshops followed by two days of the conference proper. These are videos of the presentations, plus those from 2006. (Posted 5/08) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Adaptive Path | "We help businesses maximize the value of their investment in product development by crafting effective user experiences with an emphasis on measurable results." See especially their publications page, which features articles by Jesse James Garrett, Jeffery Vreen, Peter Merholz, and others, their case studies, their workshops, and their training. (Posted 3/05, Updated 3/06) | Cooper | "A design and strategy firm based in San Francisco. We work with companies to create products and services that delight the people who use them." This is their blog, these are their books, these are some of their design challenges and solutions, and these are some of their case studies. (Posted 5/97, Revised 7/10) |
| LukeW Interface Designs | Luke Wroblewski's website. Luke is the author of Site Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability. See especially his portfolio and within it, his web applications that "move beyond simple information delivery and provide valuable services with the ability to create, collaborate, collect, and more." Many other resources, as well. I especially liked his recent post on Google vs. Yahoo! Interface Design. (Posted 7/05) |
| In Context Design | Karen Holtzblatt and Hugh Beyer's consultancy. Specialists in contextual design. "We invented Contextual Design 20 years ago to help our Fortune 500 clients understand their customers and design great things." Their website hosts a strong collection of articles. (Posted 7/97, Updated 7/10) |
| Volere | "We provide business analysts, requirements engineers, systems analysts and similar with resources and training for effective requirements management." This is their template. The site has pages listing articles and resources and provides a large number of other resources on the home page. (Posted 4/03) |
| LevelTen Interactive | "LevelTen boasts a unique, close-knit team with experts in all facets of interactive development; strategic, creative and technical." They also do Drupal development. See especially their web success stories. (Posted 6/05, Updated 7/10) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| Feng Gui | "Feng Shui for graphic user interfaces." "The ViewFinder Heatmap service is one of the next great wave of innovation in Internet tools based on a system that uses some degree of artificial intelligence to address specific requirements of users and designers." (Posted 3/07) Via InfoDesign. |
| GUI Guy | The Makeovers are very well done. (Posted 9/97, Updated 3/03) |
| Gomoll Design | Simple, friendly, and elegant site of Kate Gomoll's consultancy. "We're experts in user-centered design." The Process information is especially clear and well-presented. The site could benefit, however, from examples of work rather than just a client list. (Posted 4/01) |
| AM&A | User-interface and information visualization design consulting. The project presentations they give are very strong and include downloadable demos. There are also a number of fine articles by Aaron Marcus, and the selection of design-related websites is also strong. (Posted 9/00, Updated 3/03) |
| ForUse | The Web site for practitioners of usage-centered design. By Larry Constantine and Lucy Lockwood, two prominent members of the HCI community who published their methodology in Software for Use (described in the middle of the page). Don't miss their excellent collection of articles. They also have some interesting design tools available. (Posted 4/99, Updated 3/05) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Web Dev.edu: Top 50 Free Open Courseware Classes to Develop Better Web Sites | About half the courses are on web design and interaction design. (Posted 7/09) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| The elements of interface design | This site from Virginia Tech focuses on four of them: usability, visualization, functionality, and accessibility. The list of sites providing examples to emulate in the lower right is very nice. (Posted 5/02, Link Updated 3/03) |
| NYU's Center for Advanced Technology | "A bridge between the New Media Industry and New York University." See especially the technology and projects page, which includes a number of demos. (Posted 1/99, Updated 3/03) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Design Patterns: Introduction | By Luke W. A conversation about defining and sharing user interface design languages. (Posted 3/09) |
| Adaptive Path Essay Archives | Essays from the consultancy that has one of the best collections of information designers working together anywhere. (Posted 3/06) |
| eGovernment Resource Centre | "This site provides access to Victorian Government eGovernment strategies, policies, website standards, information and communications technology (ICT) and government website best practices." From Australia. (Posted 3/09) |
| Articles by Six Revisions | "Practical and useful articles for designers and web developers." Here are brief bios of some contributors. See, for example, Progressive Disclosure in User Interfaces by Alexander Dawson and Guide to Website Navigation Design Patterns. (Posted 5/11) |
| Fluid Design Handbook | "A How-to Guide filled with user-centered design (UCD) techniques you can use to learn from your users and design better user experiences.a How-to Guide filled with user-centered design (UCD) techniques you can use to learn from your users and design better user experiences." Excellent material. (Posted 9/09) |
| Web Design Showcase from Six Revisions | Thoughtful, useful articles with excellent illustrations. (Posted 3/11) |
| Attributes and Behaviors of Performance Centered Systems | This 1995 article, explaining 19 attributes of performance- centered systems, has become a classic. Originally published in Performance Improvement Quarterly, Vol. 8. No. 1. (Posted 5/97, Updated 7/99, Link Updated 2/05) |
| Working Through Screens | "Contemporary computing tools for knowledge work often contain significant design deficiencies. . . An early emphasis on design strategy and design concepts, not design details, can be crucial for developing truly successful computing tools. Also available as a PDF download, and a visual summary is downloadable as idea cards. From Flashbulb Interaction. Via Xblog. (Posted 1/09) |
| Introduction to Web 2.0 | By Bokardo/Joshua Porter. Excellent annotated set of links to descriptive articles. (Posted 8/07) |
| A List Apart archives | Articles from back issues of A List Apart, "for People Who Make Websites." You can search by category. (Posted 5/02, Link Updated 3/06) |
| Engaging Personas and Narrative Scenarios | By Lene Nielsen. "A study on how a user-centered approach influenced the perception of the design process in the e-business group at AstraZeneca" 2004 Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Informatics, Copenhagen Business School. Via InfoDesign. (Posted 9/08) |
| Making Personas More Powerful: Details to Drive Strategic and Tactical Design | By George Olsen. Extremely helpful piece on the development of personas. Contains an important critique of the Cooper approach. See especially the toolkit that George has developed. (Posted 10/04, Updated 3/06) |
| Managing UI Complexity | "I've spent the past year redesigning a particularly complex application with my primary focus being on reducing complexity. In this article, I'll go over some of the issues surrounding complexity and techniques that can be used to manage it." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 9/09) |
| Current Web Style | By Ben Hunt, Scratchmedia "This is where I try to sum up the current state-of-the-art in graphic design for web pages, and identify the distinctive features that make a web page look fresh, appealing and easy to use." See also Ben's Web 2.0 how-to design guide. (Posted 7/08) |
| Website Production Management Techniques | Misnamed, this is actually a full-blown seven-phase website development methodology. By Adobe (formerly Macromedia). (Posted 3/06) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| Guide to Website Navigation Design Patterns | An article clarifying "popular site navigation design patterns. For each site navigation design pattern, we will discuss its common characteristics, its drawbacks, and when best to use it." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 3/11) |
| Top 100 User-Centered Blogs | By Jessica Hupp. These are Jessica's picks for the best sites focusing on "user-centered web design, a topic that covers accessibility, web standards, and interfacing." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 11/07) |
| Wireframing with Patterns | by Lindsay Ellersby. "Wireframing in patterns does away with the necessity of reinventing the wheel each time and brings greater consistency to our designs." (Posted 4/07) |
| How to Understand Your Users with Personas | By Brad Colbow. The article is in comic book format. (Posted 11/09) |
| Concept Design Tools | By Victor Lombardi. "Designers of digital products and services like ourselves can dramatically improve our work by generating more concepts early in our projects. In this article, I'll try to make concept design easier to learn by illustrating three simple tools for generating concepts. " Via elearning post. (Posted 11/08) |
| 40 Creative Design Layouts: Getting Out of the Box | "Over the last months we have seen a strong trend towards more individual web designs. . . . In the showcase below we present 40 creative out-of-the-box layouts that break the boring 2- and 3-columned, boxed layouts. We have collected pure CSS -designs, CSS+JavaScript -layouts as well as Flash -designs." September 3,.2008. Via elearning post. (Posted 11/08) |
| Smart Ideas for Experience Designers | When Greg Allen wrote his 25 Rules for Creating Good Theater, he was thinking of his Chicago theater company and not your customer experience. Nevertheless, Greg's one-page list of theatrical tips are as good a guide to customer experience, service design or even presentation technique as you will find on any business bookshelf." Via UX Matters. (Posted 11/08) |
| 10 Useful Techniques To Improve Your User Interface Designs | By Dmitry Fadeyev. Web design consists, for the most part, of interface design. There are many techniques involved in crafting beautiful and functional interfaces. Here’s my collection of 10 that I think you’ll find useful in your work. Via elearning post. (Posted 1/09) |
| Attributes of Performance-Centered Systems: What Can We Learn From Five Years of EPSS/PCD Competition Winners? | By Craig Marion. Looking at the the 35 award-winning entries in the first five years of this competition both clarifies Gloria Gery's 19 Attributes of Performance-Centered Systems and suggests some new ones. Originally published in the November 2002 issue of Technical Communication (Vol 49, No. 4, pp. 428-443). Winner of STC's 2002 Frank R. Smith Outstanding Journal Article competition for Distinguished Technical Communication. (Posted 12/02, Updated 4/03) |
| Remote Contextual Inquiry: A Technique to Improve Enterprise Software | By Jeff English and Lynn Rampoldi-Hnilo. How to use simultaneous web conferencing and teleconferencing to uncover the design issues users encounter with customized software. (Posted 6/05) |
| Sitepoint articles | These design and layout articles are grouped under the categories usability and information architecture. accessibility, design principles, design practice, design tips and tricks, software tutorials, and flash tutorials. (Posted 3/05) |
| The Lucid Framework | by Dr. Charles E. Kreitzberg. "LUCID is a framework for conducting the activities that define and shape interactive products. . . . A key principle of The LUCID Framework is that products should be designed to offer users the "five E's:" effectiveness, efficiency, engagement, error tolerance and ease of learning." (Posted 7/10) |
| IA One Sheeters | "One-Sheeters are quick and easy marketing tools for information architects. They're like mini brochures to advertise IA deliverables." Via xblog. (Posted 6/07) |
| The Principles of Beautiful Web Design | By Jason Beaird. "Anyone, no matter what level of artistic talent he or she has, can come up with a design that works well and looks good--all it takes is a little experience and a working knowledge of some basic layout principles." Via elearningpost (Posted 5/07) |
| Photos: The birth of the Lisa and Mac interface | Four sets of photos and captions modified by the book Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made by Andy Hertzfeld. Via iaslash. (Posted 6/06) |
| Sketchboards: Discover Better + Faster UX Solutions | By Brandon Schauer of Adaptive Path. A bare bones rapid prototyping technique, complete with a brief video showing its implementation. The description contains links to models of deliverables. Via E-Learning Post. (Posted 1/08) |
| Papers by Ian Alexander | Ian works with requirements and scenarios. His web site contains many of his papers and book reviews. (Posted 2/05) |
| Reviewing User Interfaces | By Rhoda Bracey. "If you identify usability issues early, it's much more likely the team can remedy them before launch, preventing bad reviews…, negative word-of-mouth, and the lost sales that result from them." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 5/09) |
| Narrative User Interfaces | By Gerd Waloszek. User interfaces that attempt to mimic the communication behavior of people by using humanoid representations that have realistic facial expressions, lip-synch speech, and can express emotions. (Posted 4/03) |
| How People with Disabilities Use the Web | Working-Group Internal Draft, 5 May 2005. Edited by Judy Brewer. See especially Scenarios of People with Disabilities Using the Web , Different Disabilities that Can Affect Web Accessibility , and Assistive Technologies and Adaptive Strategies .(Posted 8/03) |
| Design as Storytelling | By Thomas Erickson. Non-formal, playful, exploratory methods interaction designers use to begin the process of design. The focus is on the role of storytelling in the process. A more extensive treatment of these themes appears in Notes on Design Practice: Stories and Prototypes as Catalysts for Communication. (Posted 11/99) |
| Articles on Usage-Centered Design | See especially Instructive Interaction: Making Innovative Interfaces Self-Teaching By Larry L. Constantine and Lucy A. D. Lockwood and From Usage Scenarios to User Interface Elements in a Few Steps by Hermann Kaindl and Rudolf Jezek. From Constantine & Lockwood's ForUse site. (Posted 1/03) |
| Navigation | By Elizabeth Boling. Unique approach: modular and visual. Via epss infosite. (Posted 5/01) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| boxesandarrows | "The definitive source for the complex task of bringing architecture and design to the digital landscape." It's "a peer-written journal dedicated to discussing, improving and promoting the work of this community, through the sharing of exemplary technique, innovation and informed opinion." (Posted 4/02, Updated 8/03) |
| Digital Web Magazine | "An online magazine intended for professional web designers, web developers and information architects." The contributor's page is innovative and helpful. (Posted 5/03, Updated 2/05) |
| A List Apart | A periodical that "explores the design, development, and meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best practices." (Posted 3/00, Updated 7/10) |
| Smashing Magazine | "Founded in August 2006, Smashing Magazine delivers useful and innovative information for web-designers and web-developers. Our aim is to inform our readers about the latest trends and techniques in web-development - clearly, precisely and regularly." See especially their showcase section, which analyzes and presents examples of site features such as navigation menus, blog designs, and shopping baskets. . (Posted 3/07, Updated 3/08) |
| Wireframes Magazine | Chronological listings, plus aggregations of samples, UI tools, templates, and inspirations. Via UX Magazine. (Posted 3/10) |
| Cooper Journal of Design | "The latest articles by Cooper designers. It's full of good ideas about design, research, and the business of innovation." (Posted 10/02, Updated 11/07) |
| UI Garden | A bilingual webzine (English and Chinese) dedicated for professionals in the UI and usability_related fields. Via InfoDesign. (Posted 2/05) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| uidesign.net | The focus is on Practical Interaction Design: the processes, the strategies, the patterns and the aesthetics of Interaction Design and Interface Implementation. By David Anderson. See especially the article User Interface Analysis from February, 1999 and the interview with Alan Cooper from February 2000. (Posted 4/00) |
| Ask Tog | A growing collection of pieces by Bruce "Tog" Tognazzini, many structured as answers to questions. Also contains a list of recommended consultants. (Posted 9/98) |
| How to Design | By Leah Buley, Adaptive Path. The presentation is actually titled "How to Be a UX Team of One," but it's really about how to do design. Via elearningpost (Posted 7/08) |
| Capturing the Whole User Experience | By Indi Young, Adaptive Path. "The key to creating a business that addresses the entire spectrum of user experience is to build empathy with your customers. An effective way to do this is to create a mental model, one that considers all the different ways an organization interacts with its users: stores, account statements, customer service calls, product ordering websites, packaging…everything." Indi's slides and audio are both available. This presentation illustrates the approach Indi develops in her book Mental Models/. (Posted 7/08) |
| Google 1/0 2010 presentations | See, for example, Where is the Social Web Going Next and Beyond Design: Creating Positive User Experiences. (Posted 7/10) |
| Web 2.0 Expo presentation files | The conference was held in Berlin, October 21-23, 2008. Via UX Matters. (Posted 11/08) |
| UXDesignCast | "This podcast series hosted by Karel Vredenburg provides the latest information about trends, technologies, and insights regarding User Experience Design from the leading experts in the field." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 11/08) |
| Adaptive Path Explores the Future of the Browser | "Aurora is a concept video presenting one possible future user experience for the Web, created by Adaptive Path as part of the Mozilla Labs concept browser series. Aurora explores new ways people could interact with the Web in the future based on projected technological trends and real-world scenarios." Jesse James Garrett, the cofounder of Adaptive Path and the person who coined the term "Ajax," is the lead designer for Aurora. Via InfoDesign. (Posted 9/08) |
| ETech 2009 Slides and Plenary Videos | From O'Reilly's ETech Conference, March 9-12, 2009. San Jose. (Posted 5/09) |
| Kieth Instone presentations | Large list, with a number of downloads. (Posted 12/06) |
| Functional Specification: What and Why | by Allen Smith. "The job of the Functional Spec to take (a) high level view (of what the client wants the applicattio to do) and provide the details of what it does, how it is used, and what it looks like. Via Infodesign. (Posted 12/01) |
| Deliverables that Clarify, Focus, and Improve Design | By Richard Fulcher, Bryce Glass, Matt Leacock. "The representations we choose for UI design affect both how we think about the design and how others understand it. Concept maps, wireframes, storyboards, and flow-maps speak to different audiences at different stages of the development cycle. This presentation provides examples of these documents and a toolkit for producing them." (Posted 3/06) |
| Closing Plenary IA Summit 2006 | By Peter Morville of peterme.com and Adaptive Path. Peter shares his personal take on the development of information architecture over the past 14 years. There's an audio file of the 41 minute presentation plus a PDF with lots of screenshots and commentary. Via elearningpost (Posted 6/06) |
| Design Patterns: Defining and Sharing Web Interface Design Languages | By Luke W. Excellent introduction to design patterns and work being done in the area. (Posted 5/07) |
| Designing User Interfaces | James Landay (UC Berkeley) talks about designing tools that support the best practices of user-centered design. 58:12. From the Research Channel. (Posted 11/06) |
| The Future of Information Architecture | A 2004 presentation by Christina Wodke. Via Elegant Hack. (Posted 7/07) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Usability.gov | Extremely valuable site. Their Web Design and Usability Guidelines are well-written and pertinent. Don't miss their visual overview of the usability cycle. (Posted 2/01, Updated 7/10) |
| Functioning Form | "Functioning Form is a blog about interface design. That is to say, it is where art and technology emerge as experience, where message and medium meld, and where interactions are useful, usable, and enjoyable." Luke Wroblewski is the driving force behind the blog. Here are his articles and papers. I also find Luke's compilation of user experience diagrams very useful. (Posted 12/05, Revised 8/06) |
| Konigi: Tools for Ideation | News, resources, and tools for UX designers. See especially the showcase. (Posted 5/10) |
| Design Melt Down | Design elements, tricks, and problems in web design. By Patrick McNeil. (Posted 7/10) |
| Designing with Lenses | "A design lens allows you to view your user experience design from the perspective of a single design principle." By Bill Scott and Theresa Neil. (Posted 8/10) |
| Web Design from Scratch | "Web Design from Scratch is for everyone involved or interested in creating web sites - whether novice or expert. It will help you understand what makes web sites succeed or fail, and what can be done to increase the chance of success." Useful, straightforward approach. Lots of good information. (Posted 3/06) |
| Yahoo! User Intrface Blog | "News and articles about designing and developing with Yahoo! libraries." (Posted 11/06) |
| welie.com: patterns in interaction design | Very helpful collection of patterns for user needs, application needs, and the context of design. Also a blog and Visio Stuff. By Martijn van Welie. (Posted 11/01, Updated 7/10) |
| Yahoo Developer Network Design Pattern Library | Currently, descriptions of 59 patterns. (Posted 3/06, Updated 7/10) |
| Web Design Dashboard | Huge list of web design, development, and maintenance resources. Via Xblog. (Posted 9/08) |
| Search Patterns | "A sandbox for collecting search examples, patterns, and anti-patterns. Please add tags, notes, and comments, and suggest new examples." Via E-Learning Post. (Posted 5/08) |
| lifehacker | "Tech tricks, tips and downloads for getting things done." (Posted 9/08) |
| UI Patterns | "While other pattern collections are useful, they are far from coherent and complete. The purpose of this site is over time to fill some of the gaps - especially by providing code examples as to how how the different patterns can be implemented: to join theory with practice." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 3/08) |
| Ajax Patterns | The publicly editable repository of all things Ajax. (Posted 8/06) |
| jnd.org | Don Norman's jnd website. Books, essays, interviews, recommended readings, good design examples, Q&A, and more. (Posted 8/05) |
| Mental models | Articles, interviews, and resources from Dey Alexander Consulting. Nicely annotated. (Posted 5/11) |
| Accessiblity | Articles, design guidelines, resources from Dey Alexander Consulting. Nicely annotated. (Posted 5/11) |
| DonnaM | Information architecture, user-centred design, usability and other things. (Posted 5/03, Updated 7/10) |
| Paul Hibbitts' Links | No annotations, but a very comprehensive list. (Posted 8/05) |
| SAP Design Guild | A portal to a variety of resources on user-centered design. See especially Narrative User Interfaces by Gerd Waloszek. (Posted 10/00, Updated 4/03) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| Diemen Repository of Interaction Design Patterns | Patterns help us solve design problems - problems that occur time and time again, and are being solved time and time again by designers. Patterns describe practical solutions to these problems and how to apply them in different situations. (Posted 12/03) Via InfoDesign. |
| OK/Cancel | "A comic strip collaboration co-written and co-illustrated by Kevin Cheng and Tom Chi. Our subject matter focuses on interfaces, good and bad and the people behind the industry of building interfaces - usability specialists, interaction designers, human-computer interaction (HCI) experts, industrial designers, etc." (Posted 7/06) |
| Design Patterns | Random findings of consistent interfaces and design across the web. Via xblog. (Posted 5/07) |
| linkdup | "It can be difficult to know where to look to see the best sites, so we collect and categorise them for you and save you the time and effort." (Posted 11/04) |
| The Web Developer's Handbook | Wide variety of topics and links by Vitaly Friedman. No annotations. (Posted 2/06) |
| scottberkun.com | Scott was a program manager for Microsoft for 10 years and now consults on project management, web design, and usability. His essays are thoughtful and interesting. (Posted 7/01, Updated 6/03) |
| webdesignpractices | "A site devoted to helping designers understand what design practices are currently in use on the Web—and aims to gather research about the usability of commonly-employed design practices." Via iaslash. (Posted 3/04) |
| Windows Phone Thoughts | "The best Windows Mobile-related news, views, rants and raves on the topic. We're highly focused on community and aim to create the ultimate resource for Smartphone owners." (Posted 7/10) |
| Resources for . . . Creating . . .Web Pages | Actually, "Resources for Learning HTML/XHTML and Creating World Wide Web Pages" by Kieth Stranger. (Posted 11/04) |
| Kelake | By Clark MacLeod. Clark has a unique and broad perspective on design, and a background in music that he brings to it. (Posted 2/04) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Podcast of BayCHI Events | Audio and visual recordings of BayCHI events are available here for the benefit of the HCI community. Via InfoDesign. (Posted 9/05) |
| CSS Zen Garden | "A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS design. Select a design on the left to reconfigure the page. Or use this larger list of possibilities. CSS resources are also available. (Posted 7/04) |
| Better Practice Checklists | These checklists, from the Australian Government Information Management Office, were created "to help web managers, business unit owners, and others quickly enhance their understanding of a range of issues associated with the provision of services online. The checklists are short documents which provide information in a simple, non-technical manner." Via elearning post. (Posted 7/04) |
| Jumpchart | A content organization tool that lets you organize content hierarchically and compile feedback. You can then export the results to the next stage of the development process. (Posted 7/10) |
| Design Checklist | From Mert Tol. "The following checklist serves to summarize the major points and to help you ensure you've done all you should before finalizing any web site you are creating." Good checkpoint questions in many dimensions. Well done. Via elearningpost. (Posted 11/09) |
| 2009 bloggies | 9th annual weblog awards. Awards from previous years are available, too. (Posted 4/06, Updated 9/09) |
| Good Experience Games | Online games that, in the opinion of Mark Hurst, offer a "'good experience'" - good game design with an overall attention to quality. Unless otherwise noted, they're all free, online, and available right now." From Mark's Good Experience site. (Posted 4/06) |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| Tools for Web Development | Free tools. From Patrick McNeil. (Posted 3/11) |
| UI Patterns and Techniques | "Patterns can be a description of "best practices" within a given design domain. They capture common solutions to design tensions (usually called "forces" in pattern literature) and thus, by definition, are not novel. They aren't off-the-shelf components; each implementation of a pattern is a little different from every other." Via LucDesk. (Posted 11/02) |
| HFCareers.com | "The Human Factors and Ergonomics career source," with additional listings in usability, interface design, HCI, and information architecture. (Posted 5/05) |
| Tales from Redesignland | "Where web developers live and wish they could die." Most of the content is in cartoon format. (Posted 11/09) |
| Naview - Navigation preview tool for rapid IA prototyping | "Naview is a navigation preview tool for rapid information architecture prototyping from Volkside. It helps information architects design and visualise a new navigational structure and aims to bridge the gap between card sorting and IA user testing." Via InfoDesign. (Posted 9/09) |
| 55 Great Websites To Download Free Sound Effects | "Sound effects are used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. . . . We understand it's kind of fussy to record and process sound effects on one's own. Thus, we've crawled into Internet and search for free sound effects which are available for download." Via xblog (Posted 1/09) |
| Interaction Design Encyclopedia | "A free, open-content, peer-reviewed Encyclopedia covering terms from the disciplines of Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Design, Human Factors, Usability, Information Architecture, and related fields. (Posted 4/05) Via InfoDesign. |
| Web Pages that Suck | The principle is: learn good design by looking at bad design. (Posted 11/97) |
| Especially Recommended | |
| Arnowitz, J., Berger, N., Arent, N. 2006. Effective Prototyping for Software Makers. Morgan Kaufman. This website supports the book. (Posted 5/07) | |
| Cooper, A., Reimann, R., & Cronin, D., 2007. About Face 3.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design. Wiley Publishing, Inc. (Posted 6/97, Updated 9/09) | |
| Crumlish, C., Malone, E., 2009. Designing Social Interfaces. O'Reilly. The book has a supporting website with a great deal of information on social interface patterns. (Posted 5/10) | |
| Goto, K. and Kotler, E., 2004. Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow That Works. New Riders. This is the book's website. (Posted 7/06) | |
| Hackos, J. and Redish, J., 1998 User and Task Analysis for Interface Design. New York, John Wiley. (Posted 5/98) | |
| Hearst, M. 2007. Search User Interfaces. Cambridge University Press (Posted 9/09) "To make this book available to as many readers as possible, the author, with permission of Cambridge University Press, has placed the full text online free of charge. " | |
| Lynch, P. and Horton, S., 2002. Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites, Second Edition. Yale University Press. The entire guide is available online here. (Posted 8/03) | |
| Mulder, S. Yaar, Z., 2006. The User Is Always Right: A Practical Guide to Creating and Using Personas for the Web. New Riders. (Posted 1/09) | |
| Pruett, J. and Adlin, T, 2006. The Persona Lifecycle : Keeping People in Mind Throughout Product Design. Morgan Kaufmann. (Posted 6/06) | |
| Scott, B. and Neil, T. 2009 Designing Web Interfaces. O'Reilly. All of the illustrations from the book can be viewed here. A very useful blog complements the book. And this is an 85-minute webcast on the book. (Posted 3/09, Updated 9/09) | |
| Snyder, S., 2003. Paper Prototyping: The Fast and Easy Way to Design and Refine User Interfaces. Morgan Kaufmann. (Posted 6/06) | |
| Tidwell, J. Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design. Oriental Pub Co. This is the accompanying website. (Posted 5/06) | |
| Veen, J., 2000. The Art and Science of Web Design. New Riders. Also available as a free PDF on Jeff's website. (Posted 3/06) | |
| Wixon, D. and Ramey, J., eds. 1996. Field Methods Casebook for Software Design. New York : John Wiley (Posted 9/99) | |
| Wroblewski, L., 2008. Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks. Rosenfeld Media. (Posted 11/08) | |
| Young, I. 2008 Mental Models: Aligning Design Strategy with Human Behavior. Rosenfeld Media. All of the illustrations from the book can be viewed here. An excellent resource page for the book is available on the Rosenfeld website. (Posted 7/08, Updated 8/10) | |
| Other Selected Sources | |
| I. Alexander and M. Maiden, editors, 2004. Scenarios, Stories, Use Cases: Through the Systems Development Life-Cycle. John Wiley & Sons. (Posted 2/05) | |
| Arlov, L., 1997. GUI Design for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books. (Posted 11/97) | |
| Beyer, H. & Holtzblatt, K., 1998. Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems. San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann. (Posted 11/97) | |
| Carroll, J., ed., 1995. Scenario-Based Design: Envisioning Work and Technology in System Development. New York: John Wiley. (Posted 8/97) | |
| Carroll, J.. 2000. Making Use: Scenario-Based Design of Human-Computer Interactions. MIT Press. (Posted 12/02) | |
| Constantine, L. & Lockwood, L., 1999. Software for Use: A Practical Guide to the Models and Methods of Usage-Centered Design. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. (Posted 12/99) | |
| Hix, D. & Hartson, H., 1993. Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability Through Product and Process. New York: John Wiley. (Posted 5/97) | |
| Mandel, Theo, 1997. The Elements of User Interface Design. New York: John Wiley. (Posted 11/97) | |
| McGraw, K. & Harbison, K., 1997. User-Centered Requirements: The Scenario-Based Engineering Process . Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. (Posted 8/97) | |
| Shedroff, N. 2001. Experience Design. Indianapolis: New Riders. The supporting site offers these resources. (Posted 8/01) | |
| Tognazzini, B., 1996. Tog on Software Design. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. (Posted 5/97) | |
| Tognazzini, B., 1992. Tog on Interface. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley. (Posted 5/97) | |
| Van Duyne, D., Landay, J., and Hong, J. 2002. The Design of Sites: Patterns, Principles, and Processes for Crafting a Customer-Centered Web Experience. Addison Wesley Professional. The book has a strong website. The online resources page is especially good. (Posted 12/02) | |
| Wood, L. & Zeno, R. 1997. User Interface Design: Bridging the Gap From Requirements to Design. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. (Posted 8/97) |
