Reviews for Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design

1. Where's the meat?

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2007

   It has to be said that this is a nicely presented book - glossy, colourful. Curiously for a book about interaction/usability i found parts of it hard to read - i actually got lost on one page as to which was the next piece of text to read. (Bit ironic!)
   My real dissatisfaction with the book lies in its lack of meaty content. I have been designing and coding UIs for many years but i expected to pick up some insights. I don't think i learned anything - it is all mere common sense. I had hoped for more. If this is the best UI book at the moment, then I'll save my money and not buy another. Maybe if you are new to the subject you will find it informative.

2. Hard to read

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2007

   I found this book extremely difficult to read. The typeface was not easy on the eye. It's sans serif, slightly wider than standard and not quite black. Coupled with this, the pages are a bit wider than usual so you have to follow the line further. I was looking at the words rather than reading, which proved such hard work that I gave up.
   Dipping into the book randomly suggests that it contains pearls of wisdom but I'm amazed that a book on designing user interfaces has been too poorly presented to be easily readable.
   

3. The best interface book on the market today

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, August 12rd, 2006

   Jenifer has been asking for pattern contributions on the various special-interest lists since 2002. This book is the brilliant culmination of her work. Not only can she write, she talked O'Reilly into including hundreds of color illustrations to help clarify the concepts and techniques. A beautiful and thoroughly useful book that should be on every web designer's bookshelf.