Developing User Interfaces for Microsoft Windows [With CD-ROM]

by Everett N. McKay

Book Overview

How important is user interface design? A poorly executed interface can frustrate users--and cost your organization time and money--while an effective design can improve productivity by helping users... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0735605866
• ISBN13: 9780735605862
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Microsoft Press
• Length: 612 Pages
• Weight: 2.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A great User Interface book, for all levels.

This book is a very interesting read. The author gathers a lot of information from very diverse sources and presents it in a thoughtful and well-ordered manner. This book covers a very wide range, from high-level methodologies to lower-level design advice. The sample User Interface Guidelines were particularily useful to me in getting a leg up on starting to define Guidelines for my organization.

Make your Windows programs better

This is by far one of the most interesting and informative books on creating effective user interfaces. It offers real world examples on the "right way" and the "wrong way". My favorite thing about this Microsoft book is that they spare no detail on how each Microsoft product has incorrectly done a user interface. The author then explains how it could have been done better. A great section in the book is on Q & A, giving suggestions on what to look for concerning the UI. As a Windows developer, this book has helped me correct the most subtle of mistakes in my programs. If you want to make a good program better, buy and read this book.

An Excellent UI Book.

Developing User Interfaces for Windows should be within reach of every Windows developer who will have some UI developing to do. Along with the Windows User Experience, also from Microsoft Press, this book is an invaluable aid. Each chapter is short and precise, but, avoiding any cliché's, explains the Windows UI and developing for it in great details. The Book is relatively long, but it needs to be in order to cover in detail the task of developing Windows UI applications, which it does well.The book is slightly geared towards 'C' developers, but I am a VB developer and find it easy to convert and 'C' idioms into VB. The book is in a real-world 'hands-on' style. Not too much theory and analysis exists (unlike other books on UI design), which lends it to being excellent both for reading and for reference afterwards.I Highly recommend this book.

The first comprehensive user-interface manual

Ever wonder why your software isn't as intuitive as something from Microsoft? Me too.I've been browsing through different user interface books for months (and drinking plenty of Borders coffee) without any luck. Finally, something readable comes along.McKay's book is well-organized and focused on specific user-interface issues (instead of blather from other authors like, "think about your customers first"). It's perfect for the small software company that doesn't have experts in user interface, technical writing, or quality assurance. It's also great for the programmer who does have access to a large team, but wants to make his life easier.My only quibble is that it has a slight focus on C (and it would be nice if it had equivalents for visual basic).