Recommended Reading

For those who are interested more on developing an interface design. A book that I highly recommended to you guys! These book ought to be complementary as tells you about design and visually communicating your message.

Mullet, K. & Sano, D. 1995, Designing Visual Interfaces: Communication Oriented Techniques, Sunsoft Press, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
This book is divided into 8 chapters. The first is an introduction to tell us that "Visual Design attempts to solve communication problems in a way that is at once functionally effective and aesthetically pleasing.", the last is the conclusion which gives us the profound observation that visual design is happening to your software every day and if it is not good design, then it must be bad design! The 6 chapters in between follow a clearly defined pattern. They first explain the problem, then deliver the background (usually from cognitive psychology), present the principles involved, followed by a series of examples demonstrating common errors, then we are presented with the techniques (from the title) which can be used to solve the problem and adhere to the principles. These techniques are explained in clear, concise and logical detail with examples. Each technique is summarised into bullet points.
Throughout, this book is beautifully illustrated with examples ranging from industrial design, graphic design, ui design and brand marketing. The authors/publishers must have spent a long time selecting the imagery to be used and obtaining all the necessary permissions to re-produce the material. In this respect alone, the book is a triumph as a general book on design.
Overall we are told that "When designing for human-computer interaction, communication is the over-riding concern." So here is a book about communicating your information, message or data through the computer screen.

Usability and Interface Design book

The Design of Everyday Things by Donald A. Norman
Published many years ago, this book is already a usability legend. Norman writes about the importance of the user-centered design and how this concept can be applied to design of everything. Memorable chapters include “Design for Error”, “Simplify the Structure of Tasks” and “When All Else Fails, Standardize”. Donald Norman is one of the founders of the well known Nielsen Norman Group, pioneers in usability and user-centered design.

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design by Jenifer Tidwell
This book has well-illustrated examples on web applications, desktop software and mobile devices organized according to user interface patterns, each containing practical advices. A kind of “read it from beginning to end”, this book provides solutions for each problem a user interface could have.

Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices by Dan Saffer
This book provides examples, patterns and guidelines for interaction design on the Web as well as suggestions for software applications and different electronic devices. Dan Saffer himself was working as a creative leader and interaction designer which is clearly illustrated in the way this book is written. Particular and unique are the short and clear real design case studies and the interviews with professional designers.

Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction by Ben Shneiderman, Catherine Plaisant
This provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of human-computer interaction. Struggling through sometimes rather complex choice of words, you learn practical principles and guidelines needed to develop high quality interface designs — ones that users can understand, predict, and control. It covers theoretical foundations, and design processes such as expert reviews and usability testing.

Therefore, from my point of view, I pick Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction by Jenny Preece, Yvonne Rogers and Helen Shar

A simple explaination on how interface design interconnected with user interaction that can contribute to learning experiences from HCI point of view.

Enjoy reading everyone, Cheers!!