About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design

Front Cover
Wiley, 1995 M08 25 - 580 pages
The goal: Goal directed design; Software design; The three models; Visual interface design. The form: Idioms and Affordances; An irreverent History of rectangles on the screen; Windows-with-a-small-w; Lord of the files; Storage and retrieval systems; Choosing platforms. The behavior: Orchestration and flow; Posture and state; Overhead and idiocy; The secret weapon of interface design. The interaction: Elephants, mice and minnies; Selection; Direct manipulation; Drag-and-drop. The cast: The meaning of menus; Menus; Dialog boxes; Dialog box etiquette; Toolbars; Roll the credits, please. The gizmos: Imperative and selection gizmos; Entry and display gizmos; New gizmos. The guardian: The end of errors; Managing exceptions; Undo. The teacher: Good at what you do; Installation, configuration and personalization; Shouldering the burden; Where do we go from here?.

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Contents

Introduction
1
The Goal
9
Software Design
21
Copyright

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About the author (1995)

Alan Cooper is one of the most respected software designers of our time. He is the winner of the Microsoft Windows Pioneer Award for his work in designing Visual Basic. He is also one of the most outspoken critics of how the software industry goes about building the interface between products and people. His thirteen-year-old software design consulting company, Cooper Interaction Design, is based in Palo Alto, CA.

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