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It’s not easy to build, but as this book demonstrates, it’s well worth the effort. Highly useable software is highly successful software—and everyone wins.

Inside, an accomplished programmer who has made usability his business systematically explores the world of programming showing you how every aspect of the work is implicated in the usability of the final product. This is not just an “issues” book, however, but systematic, real-world instructions for developing applications that are better in every way. As you’ll learn, there’s no such thing as “intuitive” software. Instead, there are just the factors that make it highly useable: simplicity, consistency, the recognition of accepted conventions, and the foregrounding of the user’s perspective. With these principles under your belt, you’ll quickly discover dozens of ways to make your applications more useable:

• Making windows and dialog boxes easy to comprehend and use
• Designing software that is time and resource-efficient
• Making your software easy to navigate
• Reducing the complexity of reports and other presentations of data
• Understanding how the wrong programming decisions can limit usability
• Ensuring smooth starts and stops
• Capitalizing on the usability advantages of object-oriented programming
• Using the testing process to improve usability
• Promoting usability in training, installation, and online help
• Making management decisions that will benefit software usability

About the Author

Jeff Cogswell is, first and foremost, a user of the world: He uses computers, he uses cars, he uses sinks, he uses paper towel dispensers, he uses roads—and he has an option on how they can all be designed better. But beyond that, he is an expert C++ programmer and software architect with years of experience creating highly useable software.