Content area
Full Text
ABOUT FACE: THE ESSENTIALS OF USER INTERFACE DESIGN. Alan Cooper. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 1995. 580 pages, including index. $29.99 (softcover).
Software designers might feel chastised, usability experts might feel ignored, but your computer-phobic Uncle Ray will probably cheer Alan Cooper's About Face. Cooper, a software designer for 20 years and the interface developer for Visual Basic, sharpens his sarcastic pen in defense of users who cry, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more!"
Subtitled "The Essentials of User Interface Design," this playful, annoying, intriguing, and very personal book takes software designers on a guided tour of every design decision, questioning assumptions at every step. Cooper frequently poses questions guaranteed to raise a designer's ire, such as asking why most interfaces require users to...