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Good usability articles?

I am looking to find any articles / books about usability. I would like to get an idea of ​​the best practices in developing a user interface, this can be all that makes user controls more intuitive for a new user how to express text displayed to the user in order to avoid confusing dialogs. I mainly use desktop applications for Windows, but most usability standards, I believe, will work regardless of the platform.

An example is the MSDN article on the User Guide for Windows Users: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa511258.aspx

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standards user-interface usability
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The design of everyday things by Donald A. Norman is a standard book about general usability considerations that can be applied to just about anything every day in everyday life. This is not specifically about the software, but worth reading.

Universal Design Principles is the recommended textbook for my course on engineering teaching methods at the university. I and others who took this course found this book more useful than the required textbook. An updated version called Universal Design Principles appeared, revised and updated: 125 ways to improve usability, influence perception, increase appeal, make more effective design decisions, and teach through design , but I can’t talk about it.

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Try reading this book: Do not make me think . Although it focuses on the usability of web applications, it is applicable to all aspects of user interface design.

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Designing for the people who do the best with their lives

Joel Spolsky (one of the guys behind this site)

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When developing a user interface , please also consider accessibility . this is mainly true for websites, but may also be applicable to affluent clients (desktop applications). therefore, these links have a lot of information on this subject, although this is not pure usability information.

Good Resource for Ease of Use and Accessibility: A Guide to Developing Electronic Publications, Multimedia, and Web Pages

You may find this checklist useful: Checklist Checklist for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

as well as this tool that will check the availability of your website: web target

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The interface design from Jenifer Tidwell is pretty good.

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Well, Alan Cooper About Face is a longtime favorite specifically for user interface design. It should address the most important topics when developing Windows desktop applications.

Then there are also various UX templates that are well represented in Quince (Silverlight required).

Jef Raskin The humane interface is also pretty good, but very radical in his ideas. However, this book points out many misconceptions in modern user interface design. If you need to adhere to the WIMP world, then after his suggestions it can be a little difficult, because he is inclined to offer to overthrow everything that we are "Before." But it is well written and useful for provoking thoughts, even if you do not follow his advice.

As for books / articles about usability in general or on slightly different topics:

  • Jacob Nielsen website useit.com . Although not particularly fancifully designed, it is a motive for thoughts and tips on usability in general.
  • Steve Circle Don't make me think . Ease of use on the Internet, but also very good reading.
  • Donald Norman Design of everyday things . Usability in general and has a lot of guidance on how to think about usability without going into specific technologies. However, this is applicable for the convenience of using desktop applications.
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For articles, try Boxes and Arrows

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Designing visual interfaces from Mullet and Sano provides an excellent foundation for a variety of layout issues. I would say that this is not a book about usability, but still relevant.

For web resources, try:

For inspiration, see Recommended Readings in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), User Interface Development (UI), and Human Factors (HF) (and all the great answers in this thread).

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My favorite usability blog contains very well thought out, insightful and thoughtful posts by David Hamill.

You can find his blog at goodusability.co.uk

Enjoy.

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I read articles from http://ui-patterns.com/ and http://www.uxbooth.com/ . Those were useful to me.

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I would like a second uxbooth.com - we recently published an article that might be what you are looking for - check it out at http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/usability-testing-dont-guess-test/

usefulusability.com

- Another good site, they regularly have good articles.

Oh, and another article we published recently:

www.1stwebdesigner.com/development/usability-ux-pitfalls-howto-avoid/

I think this gives some pretty good examples of common problems and ways to avoid them.

And if you want to run a simple usability test, that doesn’t test us at IntuitionHQ.com

Good luck

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