Shneiderman B., Plaisant C. Designing the User Interface. Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction

Pearson Education, 2005. — 671 p.Designing the User Interface is written for students, researchers, designers, managers, and evaluators of interactive systems. It presents a broad survey of how to develop high-quality user interfaces for interactive systems. Readers with backgrounds in computer science, psychology, industrial engineering, information science, information systems, business, education, and communications should all find fresh and valuable material. Our goals are to encourage greater attention to usability issues and to promote further scientific study of human-computer interaction.
Since publication of the first three editions of this book in 1986,1992, and 1998, practitioners and researchers have grown more numerous and influential. The quality of interfaces has improved greatly, but the community of users and their diversity has grown dramatically. Researchers and designers could claim success, but user expectations are higher, applications are more demanding, and the variety of platforms has grown. In addition to desktop computers, designers must now accommodate web-based services and mobile devices. At the same time, some innovators provoke us with virtual and augmented realities, whereas others offer alluring scenarios for ubiquitous computing, embedded devices, and tangible user interfaces.
These innovations are important, but much work remains to improve the experiences of novice and expert users who still struggle with too many frustrations. These problems must be resolved if we are to achieve the goal of universal usability, enabling all citizens in every country to enjoy the benefits of these new technologies. This book is meant to inspire students, guide designers, and provoke researchers.
Keeping up with the innovations in human-computer interaction is a demanding task. Requests for an update to the third edition began shortly after its publication. The growth of the field has encouraged me (Ben Shneiderman), the author of the first three editions, to work with a co-author (Catherine Plaisant), who has been a long-time valued research partner. We harvested information from books and journals, scanned the World Wide Web, attended conferences, and consulted with colleagues. Then we returned to our keyboards to write. Our first drafts were only a starting point to generate feedback from colleagues, practitioners, and students. The work was intense, but satisfying. We hope you will put these ideas to work and produce innovations for us to report in future editions.Part I Introduction
Usability of Interactive Systems
Guidelines, Principles, and Theories
Part II Development Processes
Managing Design Processes
Evaluating Interface Designs
Software Tools
Part III Interaction Styles
Direct Manipulation and Virtual Environments
Menu Selection, Form Filling, and Dialog Boxes
Command and Natural Languages
Interaction Devices
Collaboration
Part IV Design Issues
Quality of Service
Balancing Function and Fashion
User Manuals, Online Help, and Tutorials
Information Search and Visualization
A: Societal and Individual Impact of User Interfaces