Reviews for Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions

1. Brill!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2009

   This book is really good. It tells you many things that you never event thought before. great examples too. top stuff.

2. Great Visual Reference for Web Interfaces

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2009

   I've ordered this book just after attending a O'Reilly webinar with Mr. Bill Scott. Although the webinar was flawed with technical problems, the content was strong and very appealing. Bill Scott knows what he talks and writes about. He's the director of the UI Engineering department, with over 25 years of work under his belt.
   
   The book is really straight to the point and concise. It exposes you to the techniques (patterns) used in today's websites for enhancing User Experience.
   
   You have plenty of full color pictures to illustrate each technique (in my edition some of the pictures were not well printed, but they all are available in a Flickr account).
   
   You'll have access a series of patterns used in web interfaces and it will explain the advantages and pitfall of each one. You'll will also have access to common "anti-patterns" and quickly understand why those are bad ideas.
   
   The book only covers the XHTML/Javascript/CSS side of web interfaces (but never getting technical about these subjects), but the majority can be directly translated to Flash/Flex applications for example.
   
   There's also a companion website where you can expand the subjects covered in the book and get in touch with the author).
   
   I highly recommend this book to anyone serious about User Interface Design and Usability in both websites and/or web apps.
   
   PS: Don't expect any Javascript code examples or something, the book stays away from the tools you can use for achieving the listed techniques. But if you are familiar with Javascript libraries like jQuery you'll quickly translate those techniques into real examples.

3. A book of principles that's straight to the visual point

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12rd, 2009

   Designing web interfaces is a book that consists of separate chapters that describes a broad UI principle and breaks it down into separate topics/patterns.
   
   The great thing about this book is it explains the principle and applicability, shows the correct use and potential misuse of each UI pattern.
   
   The book is succinct and straight to the point. It doesn't just describe a pattern it shows them in use and also in misuse and we get to see where patterns could have been used to great effect (but often weren't).
   
   Packed with illustrations and screengrabs, the text is descriptive and the illustrations push the point home.
   
   The book is as good at putting it's subject across as the patterns and principles that it describes.
   
   A superb book that will be very well thumbed and benefit end users of my software greatly. This book cannot be recommended highly enough.