A List Apart
A List Apart is all about web sites with information on both technical issues and content. Use the Articles and Topics links at the top of the page to delve into all the good material on this site.
Last reviewed 16 September 2007
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Document design and user interfaces
Making documents and user interfaces that look good and are easy for the user
Don Norman user advocacy and human-centered design
Don Norman is one of the big names in design. He has worked on the design of controls for nuclear power stations, has views on the design of telephone handsets, works for Apple and lectures at Northwestern University.
His book, The Design of Everyday Things has become a classic, and his website presents essays on a wide variety of user-focussed design issues.
Last reviewed 16 September 2007
Fancy formatting is ignored
Empirical data shows that users see fancy formatting as an ad, and they ignore it. Jakob Nielsen at useit.com has been writing on web usability and design since 1995.
Last reviewed 16 September 2007
Interaction patterns in user interfaces
Interaction patterns in user interfaces, by Martijn van Welie and Hallvard Trætteberg, examines some standard forms of user interfaces. It looks at usability, context, rationale for each standard interface.
Last reviewed 16 September 2007
Patterns in interaction design
Last reviewed 16 September 2007
Usability in the movies
Jakob Nielsen goes to the movies. How can James Bond control his BMW from his mobile phone? Why does the hero guess the password just before the baddies arrive?
Last reviewed 19 October 2007
Usability news
Usability News is an on-line newsletter produced by the Software Usability Research Laboratory in the Psychology Department at Wichita State University. Sadly, it often lacks the most basic usability issue of all: the ability to connect to its server!
Last reviewed 16 September 2007
User Interface Design For Programmers – Joel on Software
User Interface Design For Programmers from Joel Spolsky of Joel on Software. What are users good at? What’s the best way to write error messages? How does a user develop a conceptual model of your program?
Last reviewed 16 September 2007