I just read some very good thoughts on software UI called When good interfaces go crufty. I heartily agree with a lot of sentiments contained in that piece... far too many performance hacks (having to save your files, for example) have outlived their useful lifespan and have become fixtures in computer interfaces.

If you're interested in UI at all, here are two books you really need to read: The Design of Everyday Things by Donald Norman, and About Face by Alan Cooper. Cooper's The Inmates Are Running the Asylum is also very good, but I think all the important ideas are stated pretty clearly in his first book. Cooper may be arrogant but he has some good points.

I guess the bottom line is that it's really easy to make a bad UI; making good UI and software that doesn't suck is hard. It takes a lot of thought, and the fundamentals of how to make stuff that's easy and fun to use aren't really taught anywhere.
posted on 11/08/2002 11:05:00 AM