Recommended Reading

• Arlov, Laura. GUI Design for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1997.

  Chapter 7, "The GUI Standard," and Chapter 22, "Ten Things a Project Leader Can Do," give useful tips for creating guidelines, and Chapter 13, "The ABCs of Visual Design," and Chapter 16, "The Right Widget for the Job," give useful ideas for the content of your guidelines. The book's CD-ROM includes a draft project GUI standard.

• Capucciati, Maria R. "Putting Your Best Face Forward: Designing an Effective User Interface." Microsoft Systems Journal, February 1993.

  Gives many excellent ideas for guidelines and has several screen shots of user interfaces that definitely do not have "le look." While this article was written for Windows 3.1, almost everything discussed still applies to Windows 98.

• Cooper, Alan. About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1995.

  Chapter 22, "Dialog Box Etiquette"; Chapter 25, "Imperative and Selection Gizmos"; and Chapter 26, "Entry and Display Gizmos," give useful ideas for guidelines, but don't be surprised if you disagree with some of the ideas presented in these chapters.

• Howlett, Virginia. Visual Interface Design for Windows. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.

  Chapter 10, "Color"; Chapter 11, "Icons and Imagery"; Chapter 12, "Fonts"; and Chapter 15, "Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them," give useful ideas for guidelines for more subjective, visual interface design issues.

• Microsoft Corporation. Designing for the User Experience. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press, 1999.

  The baseline Windows user interface standards. Your user interface style guidelines should supplement these standards. This is the first place to look when you have a question about guidelines. The chapters on windows, secondary windows, menus, controls, toolbars, and visual design should be of particular interest when creating guidelines.

• Nielsen, Jakob. Usability Engineering. Chestnut Hill, MA: AP Professional, 1993.

  Chapter 8, "Interface Standards," gives research-based information about interface guidelines, including the benefits of guidelines for both users and developers, the dangers of poor or misused standards, and suggestions on how to create and evaluate standards.

• Weinschenk, Susan; Jamar, Pamela; and Yeo, Sarah C. GUI Design Essentials. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

  This book consists of two parts; the second part is dedicated to design guidelines. These guidelines are intended to be used as companywide standards. Some of the guidelines given are a bit too obvious to be interesting. The book's CD-ROM includes a design guidelines document.