Designing Highly Useable Software

Learn What Usability Really Is, Why to Strive for It, and How to Achieve It

"Highly useable" software is easy to use. It does what you expect it to. And it does it well.

It’s not easy to build but as this book demonstrates, it's well worth the effort. Highly useable software is highly successful software--and everyone wins.

Inside, an accomplished programmer who has made usability his business systematically explores the world of programming, showing you how every aspect of the work is implicated in the usability of the final product. This is not just an "issues" book, however, but systematic, real-world instructions for developing applications that are better in every way. As you'll learn, there's no such thing as "intuitive" software. Instead, there are just the factors that make it highly useable: simplicity, consistency, the recognition of accepted conventions, and the foregrounding of the user's perspective. With these principles under your belt, you'll quickly discover dozens of ways to make your applications more useable:

• Making windows and dialog boxes easy to comprehend and use
• Designing software that is time- and resource-efficient
• Making your software easy to navigate
• Reducing the complexity of reports and other presentations of data
• Understanding how the wrong programming decisions can limit usability
• Ensuring smooth starts and stops
• Capitalizing on the usability advantages of object-oriented programming
• Understanding how usability affects your product’s financial success
• Using the testing process to improve usability
• Promoting usability in training, installation, and online help
• Making management decisions that will benefit software usability

Some chapters are written primarily for programmers, one primarily for managers. Most are for everyone, and all are filled with illuminating, usually amusing examples drawn from both inside and outside the technical world. A helpful appendix provides information on standards, usability groups, and sources for more information.

Contents：

Introduction

Part I: Keeping It Simple
Chapter 1: The UUI:The Useable User Interface
Chapter 2: Modeling the Real World
Chapter 3: Laying Out Your Windows and Dialog Boxes
Chapter 4: Managing Your Software ’s Time
Chapter 5: Highly Navigable Software
Chapter 6: Data,Reports,and Printouts
Chapter 7: Adding a Web Interface

Part II: The Lonely Engineer
Chapter 8: Under the Hood
Chapter 9: When Your Software Starts,Stops,or Dies a Quick Death
Chapter 10: Modularity and Libraries
Chapter 11: Object-Oriented Pontificating

Part III: The Business of It All: It's "Dollars and Sense"
Chapter 12: A Very Gross National Product:Business and Software Problems
Chapter 13: Testing,Testing,Testing
Chapter 14: Installing,Training,and Helping
Chapter 15: Book in a Book:A Guide for Programming Bosses
Appendix A: Software Design Resources

學習什麼是可用性，為什麼要追求可用性，以及如何實現可用性

「高度可用性」的軟體易於使用，它能夠按照您的期望執行並且執行得很好。建構這樣的軟體並不容易，但正如本書所展示的，這是非常值得努力的。高度可用性的軟體是「極為成功的軟體」，每個人都能從中受益。在這本書中，一位經驗豐富的程式設計師將可用性視為他的事業，系統地探索了程式設計的世界，向您展示了工作的每個方面如何影響最終產品的可用性。然而，這不僅僅是一本「問題」書，而是一本系統性的、實用的指南，教您如何開發在各個方面都更好的應用程式。正如您將會了解的，「直觀」軟體並不存在。相反，只有使其高度可用的因素：簡單性、一致性、認可的慣例和用戶觀點的突出。掌握了這些原則，您將迅速發現許多使應用程式更可用的方法，包括：

- 使視窗和對話框易於理解和使用
- 設計時間和資源高效的軟體
- 使您的軟體易於導航
- 減少報告和其他數據呈現的複雜性
- 了解錯誤的程式設計決策如何限制可用性
- 確保啟動和停止的順暢
- 充分利用面向對象程式設計的可用性優勢
- 了解可用性如何影響產品的財務成功
- 使用測試過程來改善可用性
- 在培訓、安裝和線上幫助中推廣可用性
- 做出有利於軟體可用性的管理決策

一些章節主要針對程式設計師，一些主要針對管理者，大多數章節適用於所有人，並且所有章節都充滿了有啟發性且通常有趣的例子，這些例子來自技術界內外。附錄提供了有關標準、可用性團體和更多資訊來源的資訊。

目錄：

- 引言
- 第一部分：保持簡單
- 第1章：可用的使用者介面
- 第2章：模擬現實世界
- 第3章：設計視窗和對話框
- 第4章：管理軟體的時間
- 第5章：高度可導航的軟體
- 第6章：數據、報告和列印
- 第7章：添加網頁介面
- 第二部分：孤獨的工程師
- 第8章：底層技術
- 第9章：當軟體啟動、停止或迅速失敗時
- 第10章：模塊化和庫
- 第11章：面向對象的思考
- 第三部分：一切的業務：「金錢和常識」
- 第12章：非常總體國內生產：商業和軟體問題
- 第13章：測試、測試、測試
- 第14章：安裝、培訓和幫助
- 第15章：書中之書：面向程式設計主管的指南
- 附錄A：軟體設計資源