Designing the User Interface

by Ben Shneiderman

Covers human factors of interactive software, tested methods to develop and assess interfaces, interaction styles such as direct manipulation for graphical user interfaces, and design considerations such as effective messages and appropriate color. DLC: Human-computer interaction.

Genres: Design, Nonfiction, Computer Science, Textbooks, Programming, Reference, Technology

639 pages, Hardcover

Published July 15, 1997

About the author

American computer scientist, a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Computer Science.
Born in New York in 1947
Attended the Bronx High School of Science, and received a BS in Mathematics and Physics from the City College of New York in 1968

In 2002 his book Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies was Winner of an IEEE-USA Award for Distinguished Contributions Furthering Public Understanding of the Profession.

Reviews

[Tono]

Good

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was required reading for my User Experience class, and I genuinely loved it. I'm a self-taught programmer that thought I knew what I was doing. I had opinions on what worked and what didn't work, but it was all instinct and based on my own personal experience. After this, I've completely leveled up.

[Yokusun Basi]

Designing the User Interface by Ben Shneiderman (1997)

[Abby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I despised this book, and probably made it through 2 chapters... perhaps it got better. I think I'm mainly bitter because it was so expensive ($100??) and the first chapter was 50 pages... mainly screenshots of things that everyone has seen, like the Google homepage, amazon.com website, the new york times... really?!? perhaps the authors were not aware, in 2005, that everyone has a computer connected to the Internet?

I could understand if this were like Jakob Nielsen's book that analyzes and annotates the web pages for design, style, content, navigation... but to waste so many full-color pages reproducing web pages (oh yeah, and I forgot to mention a screen shot of the Tony Hawk game?!!)... it's infuriating. Totally inappropriate for a graduate level class.

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amazon readers were not kind to this book, based on their reviews I would have never ordered it. However it is a required textbook for my class. I am not very far into it, but I can see that some of the complaints are valid. It was last published in 2005, which when measured in tech years, is ancient.

The premise is how to design HCI's (human computer interactions) I will have to read further before I can comment.

I will check back at the end of the semester for my final review.

[Zaina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is as dull as can be. The information is great and there were even a couple of chapters that were interesting in and of themselves but there must be better ways to present HCI information, which is a fascinating topic, than this one does.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Textbook for a Human Computer Interface course in my masters program. A bit of a dry read, but solid information, particularly on usability testing and topics like error message design.

[Stefan Jernberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mr Shneiderman is one of the legends in human- computer interaction and this book gives you all you need to learn the subject.