Bruce Tognazzini s Tog on Interface

Tognazzini, Bruce. Tog on Interface. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., 1992.

Bruce Tognazzini wrote this book while he was the human interface evangelist at Apple Computer. The book consists of many letters from developers and his responses (taken from Apple Directions, Apple's developer news magazine), techniques for the user interface design process, and basic design principles. The specific subjects covered include visibility, user-centered design, perceived stability, managing menus, managing dialog boxes, working with other team members, balloon help, agents, feedback, and dealing with user errors. Its coverage of user testing ("on the cheap") is the most concise treatment of the subject.

While this information is mostly Macintosh-specific, much of it applies to Windows with little translation. But for a modern Windows programmer, the details are mostly irrelevant. A Windows programmer should not read this book for specific user interface techniques. Rather, the reason you should read this book is to gain insight on how to think about user interfaces, including the underlying principles of user interface design.

This book is especially dear to me because it was the first real user interface design book I ever read. It played a major role in rewiring my brain in just the right way so that I began to develop some understanding and insight about user interfaces. I would have ranked this book higher were it not for Cooper's book, which covers much of the same ground and is more relevant to modern Windows programmers.