Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Please read this if you program user interfaces
Comment: It is hard to write a review on a book that has a title that explains the subject well and the book does an excellent job with the subject without straying off course. That is the problem with this one. The book is entirely on the subject of software interfaces for the user. As such it addresses some of the most frustrating problems a user faces - poor design, unclear layout, lack of intuitiveness, and sometimes just a bother to use. The author examines various interfaces and by clearly examining the purpose of the software shows when and how to display information in an understandable and user-friendly format. Areas discussed include when to use lists, tables, graphs, drilldowns, alternative views, using wizards, entry points, navigation models, sequences, breadcrumbs, page layout, using panels, undo, informational graphics, user forms and controls, and aesthetics. As a user frustrated with many software packages and poorly designed interfaces, Designing Interfaces should be read by everyone working with trying to create a user-friendly product.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Badly printed
Comment: Don't know where the book has been printed, but I think that a book about design, with a lot of images used as reference, should avoid such errors like wrong offsets and dotted prints, making images sometimes unreadeable.
Customer Rating:
Summary: VERY VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Comment: Do you design user interfaces in any capacity? If you do, then this book is for you! Author Jenifer Tidwell, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that will help you design attractive, easy-to-use interfaces.
Tidwell, begins by discussing common behavior and usage patterns supported well by good interfaces. Then, the author discusses information architecture as it applies to highly interactive interfaces. She continues by discussing navigation. Next, the author describes patterns for the layout and placement of page elements. Then she describes how to present actions and commands. She also discusses the cognitive aspects of data presentation, and how to use them to communicate knowledge and meaning. Then, she deals with forms and controls. The author continues by discussing techniques and patterns often used in WYSIWYG graphic editors and text editors. Finally, the author deals with aesthetics and fit-and-finish.
This most excellent book will be a valuable resource for software developers, interaction designers, graphic designers, and everyone who creates software. Furthermore, you should use this dynamic book when you're looking for solutions!
Customer Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone involved in UI design
Comment: We all know the difference between an application user interface that meets the requirements and a UI that actually feels good to use. I think all of us who design applications aspire to design great user interfaces but often, for various reasons, end up focusing on the hard requirements and cut short the time we spend on really optimizing our UIs. Just like the classic Design Patterns changed the fundamental way software developers talk about code, Designing Interfaces : Patterns for Effective Interaction Design can change the way we talk about the UIs we design. This book categorizes commonly seen UI concepts as a set of patterns. Each pattern is given a name and explored in detail. The book is broken up into nine chapters covering more than 80 different patterns.
Table of Contents:
1 - What Users Do
2 - Organizing the Content: Information Architecture and Application Structure
3 - Getting Around: Navigation, Signposts, and Wayfinding
4 - Organizing the Page: Layout of Page Elements
5 - Doing Thing: Actions and Commands
6 - Showing Complex Data: Trees, Tables, and Other Information Graphics
7 - Getting Input from Users: Forms and Controls
8 - Builders and Editors
9 - Making it Look Good: Visual Style and Aesthetics
The book is well organized. It's a good read front to back but it's also easy to find a particular topic if you need some help as you're working on a UI. Each pattern in the book is presented with a description and a discussion of when, how, and why you might want to use it. The book is beautifully printed in full color and includes tons of screenshot examples of each pattern. If you're interested in improving the user interfaces in the applications you design, take a look at this book. Head over to oreilly.com and check out the sample chapter. Highly Recommended!
Customer Rating:
Summary: This book has all that's required to become a classic in the field
Comment: This book has all that's required to become a classic in the field. First of all, the content wasn't quickly put together; instead it has been distilled and refined along many years of hard work. Then, due to the generic nature of the topic, this is going to be a valuable reading for many years to come, definitely something that isn't going to become outdated very soon.
The only negative comment I could find is that it's not really an engaging read, especially if you read the whole in a linear way, but that something that, more or less, apply to every pattern catalogue. In the end the format lend itself better if used as a reference.
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