Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Designing a good interface isn't easy. Users demand software that is well-behaved, good-looking, and easy to use. Your clients or managers demand originality and a short time to market. Your UI technology -- web applications, desktop software, even mobile devices -- may give you the tools you need, but little guidance on how to use them well.

UI designers over the years have refined the art of interface design, evolving many best practices and reusable ideas. If you learn these, and understand why the best user interfaces work so well, you too can design engaging and usable interfaces with less guesswork and more confidence.

Designing Interfaces captures those best practices as design patterns -- solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical advice that you can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color. You'll get recommendations, design alternatives, and warningson when not to use them.

Each chapter's introduction describes key design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color. These give you a deeper understanding of why the patterns work, and how to apply them with more insight.

A book can't design an interface for you -- no foolproof design process is given here -- but Designing Interfaces does give you concrete ideas that you can mix and recombine as you see fit. Experienced designers can use it as a sourcebook of ideas. Novice designers will find a roadmap to the world of interface and interaction design, with enough guidance to start using these patterns immediately.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. x)
• 01 What Users Do (p. 54)
• A Means to an End (p. 3)
• The Basics of User Research (p. 5)
• Users' Motivation to Learn (p. 7)
• The Patterns (p. 10)
• 1 Safe exploration (p. 11)
• 2 Instant gratification (p. 11)
• 3 Satisficing (p. 11)
• 4 Changes in midstream (p. 12)
• 5 Deferred choices (p. 13)
• 6 Incremental construction (p. 14)
• 7 Habituation (p. 14)
• 8 Spatial memory (p. 15)
• 9 Prospective memory (p. 16)
• 10 Streamlined repetition (p. 17)
• 11 Keyboard only (p. 17)
• 12 Other people's advice (p. 18)
• 02 Organizing the Content: Information Architecture and Application Structure (p. 20)
• The Basics of Information Architecture: Dividing Stuff Up (p. 22)
• Physical Structure (p. 28)
• The Patterns (p. 30)
• 13 Two-panel selector (p. 31)
• 14 Canvas plus palette (p. 34)
• 15 One-window drilldown (p. 36)
• 16 Alternative views (p. 39)
• 17 Wizard (p. 42)
• 18 Extras on demand (p. 45)
• 19 Intriguing branches (p. 47)
• 20 Multi-level help (p. 49)
• 03 Getting Around: Navigation, Signposts, and Wayfinding (p. 54)
• Staying Found (p. 55)
• The Cost of Navigation (p. 56)
• The Patterns (p. 63)
• 21 Clear entry points (p. 64)
• 22 Global navigation (p. 66)
• 23 Hub and spoke (p. 68)
• 24 Pyramid (p. 71)
• 25 Modal panel (p. 74)
• 26 Sequence map (p. 76)
• 27 Breadcrumbs (p. 78)
• 28 Annotated scrollbar (p. 80)
• 29 Color-coded sections (p. 82)
• 30 Animated transition (p. 84)
• 31 Escape hatch (p. 86)
• 04 Organizing the Page: Layout of Page Elements (p. 88)
• The Basics of Page Layout (p. 89)
• The Patterns (p. 99)
• 32 Visual framework (p. 100)
• 33 Center stage (p. 103)
• 34 Titled sections (p. 107)
• 35 Card stack (p. 109)
• 36 Closable panels (p. 111)
• 37 Movable panels (p. 114)
• 38 Right/left alignment (p. 116)
• 39 Diagonal balance (p. 118)
• 40 Property sheet (p. 120)
• 41 Responsive disclosure (p. 123)
• 42 Responsive enabling (p. 125)
• 43 Liquid layout (p. 128)
• 05 Doing Things: Actions and Commands (p. 130)
• Pushing the Boundaries (p. 133)
• The Patterns (p. 136)
• 44 Button groups (p. 137)
• 45 Action panel (p. 140)
• 46 Prominent "done" button (p. 144)
• 47 Smart menu items (p. 146)
• 48 Preview (p. 147)
• 49 Progress indicator (p. 149)
• 50 Cancelability (p. 151)
• 51 Multi-level undo (p. 153)
• 52 Command history (p. 156)
• 53 Macros (p. 158)
• 06 Showing Complex Data: Trees, Tables, and Other Information Graphics (p. 160)
• The Basics of Information Graphics (p. 161)
• The Patterns (p. 173)
• 54 Overview plus detail (p. 174)
• 55 Datatips (p. 176)
• 56 Dynamic queries (p. 178)
• 57 Data brushing (p. 181)
• 58 Local zooming (p. 184)
• 59 Row striping (p. 187)
• 60 Sortable table (p. 189)
• 61 Jump to item (p. 191)
• 62 New-item row (p. 193)
• 63 Cascading lists (p. 195)
• 64 Tree table (p. 197)
• 65 Multi-y graph (p. 198)
• 66 Small multiples (p. 200)
• 67 Treemap (p. 203)
• 07 Getting Input From Users: Forms and Controls (p. 206)
• The Basics of Form Design (p. 207)
• Control Choice (p. 209)
• The Patterns (p. 218)
• 68 Forgiving format (p. 219)
• 69 Structured format (p. 220)
• 70 Fill-in-the-blanks (p. 222)
• 71 Input hints (p. 224)
• 72 Input prompt (p. 225)
• 73 Autocompletion (p. 227)
• 74 Dropdown chooser (p. 230)
• 75 Illustrated choices (p. 233)
• 76 List builder (p. 235)
• 77 Good defaults (p. 237)
• 78 Same-page error messages (p. 239)
• 08 Builders and Editors (p. 242)
• The Basics of Editor Design (p. 244)
• The Patterns (p. 248)
• 79 Edit-in-place (p. 249)
• 80 Smart selection (p. 251)
• 81 Composite selection (p. 253)
• 82 One-off mode (p. 255)
• 83 Spring-loaded mode (p. 257)
• 84 Constrained resize (p. 259)
• 85 Magnetism (p. 261)
• 86 Guides (p. 263)
• 87 Paste variations (p. 266)
• 09 Making it Look Good: Visual Style and Aesthetics (p. 268)
• Same Content, Different Styles (p. 270)
• The Basics of Visual Design (p. 279)
• What This Means for Desktop Applications (p. 287)
• The Patterns (p. 290)
• 88 Deep background (p. 291)
• 89 Few hues, many values (p. 294)
• 90 Corner treatments (p. 297)
• 91 Borders that echo fonts (p. 300)
• 92 Hairlines (p. 303)
• 93 Contrasting font weights (p. 306)
• 94 Skins (p. 308)
• References (p. 312)
• Index (p. 318)