About Face The Essentials of Interaction Design

The essential interaction design guide, fully revised and updated for the mobile age

About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design, Fourth Edition is the latest update to the book that shaped and evolved the landscape of interaction design. This comprehensive guide takes the worldwide shift to smartphones and tablets into account. New information includes discussions on mobile apps, touch interfaces, screen size considerations, and more. The new full-color interior and unique layout better illustrate modern design concepts.

The interaction design profession is blooming with the success of design-intensive companies, priming customers to expect "design" as a critical ingredient of marketplace success. Consumers have little tolerance for websites, apps, and devices that don't live up to their expectations, and the responding shift in business philosophy has become widespread. About Face is the book that brought interaction design out of the research labs and into the everyday lexicon, and the updated Fourth Edition continues to lead the way with ideas and methods relevant to today's design practitioners and developers.

Updated information includes:

• Contemporary interface, interaction, and product design methods
• Design for mobile platforms and consumer electronics
• State-of-the-art interface recommendations and up-to-date examples
• Updated Goal-Directed Design methodology

Designers and developers looking to remain relevant through the current shift in consumer technology habits will find About Face to be a comprehensive, essential resource.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ALAN COOPER is a founder of Cooper and a pioneer of modern computing. His groundbreaking work has influenced a generation of programmers, business people, and users.

ROBERT REIMANN was founding president of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA). He is Principal Interaction Designer at PatientsLikeMe, and former Director of Design R&D at Cooper.

DAVID CRONIN is a Design Director at GE. He was also Director of Interaction Design at Smart Design, and a former Managing Director at Cooper.

CHRISTOPHER NOESSEL is Cooper’s first Design Fellow, and the co-author of Make It So. He teaches and speaks about design all over the world.

Foreword xv

Introduction xix

Part I: Goal-Directed Design 1

Ch 1: A Design Process for Digital Products 3

The Consequences of Poor Product Behavior 4

Why Digital Products Fail 6

Planning and Designing Product Behavior 10

Recognizing User Goals 13

Implementation Models and Mental Models 16

An Overview of Goal-Directed Design 21

Ch 2: Understanding the Problem: Design Research 31

Qualitative versus Quantitative Data in Design Research 32

Goal-Directed Design Research 36

Interviewing and Observing Users 44

Other Types of Qualitative Research 56

Research is Critical to Good Design 59

Ch 3: Modeling Users: Personas and Goals 61

Why Model? 61

The Power of Personas 62

Why Personas Are Effective 66

Understanding Goals 72

Constructing Personas 81

Personas in Practice 93

Other Design Models 98

Ch 4: Setting the Vision: Scenarios and Design Requirements 101

Bridging the Research-Design Gap 101

Scenarios: Narrative as a Design Tool 102

Design Requirements: The “What” of Interaction 106

The Requirements Definition Process 109

Ch 5: Designing the Product: Framework and Refinement 119

Creating the Design Framework 119

Refining the Form and Behavior 137

Validating and Testing the Design 139

Ch 6: Creative Teamwork 145

Small, Focused Teams 146

Thinking Better, Together 146

Working across Design Disciplines 153

The Extended Team 155

Establishing a Creative Culture 161

Identifying Skill Levels in Designers 162

Collaboration is the Key 163

Part II: Making Well-Behaved Products 165

Ch 7: A Basis for Good Product Behavior 167

Design Values 167

Interaction Design Principles 173

Interaction Design Patterns 174

Ch 8: Digital Etiquette 179

Designing Considerate Products 180

Designing Smart Products 190

Designing Social Products 199

Ch 9: Platform and Posture 205

Product Platforms 205

Product Postures 206

Postures for the Desktop 207

Postures for the Web 218

Postures for Mobile Devices 225

Postures for Other Platforms 230

Give Your Apps Good Posture 235

Ch 10: Optimizing for Intermediates 237

Perpetual Intermediates 238

Inflecting the Interface 240

Designing for Three Levels of Experience 243

Ch 11: Orchestration and Flow 249

Flow and Transparency 249

Orchestration 250

Harmonious Interactions 251

Motion, Timing, and Transitions 266

The Ideal of Effortlessness 269

Ch 12: Reducing Work and Eliminating Excise 271

Goal-Directed Tasks versus Excise Tasks 272

Types of Excise 273

Excise is Contextual 285

Eliminating Excise 285

Other Common Excise Traps 297

Ch 13: Metaphors, Idioms, and Affordances 299

Interface Paradigms 300

Building Idioms 310

Manual Affordances 312

Direct Manipulation and Pliancy 315

Escape the Grip of Metaphor 322

Ch 14: Rethinking Data Entry, Storage, and Retrieval 325

Rethinking Data Entry 326

Rethinking Data Storage 332

Rethinking Data Retrieval 345

Ch 15: Preventing Errors and Informing Decisions 357

Using Rich Modeless Feedback 358

Undo, Redo, and Reversible Histories 363

What If: Compare and Preview 376

Ch 16: Designing for Different Needs 379

Learnability and Help 379

Customizability 395

Localization and Globalization 398

Accessibility 399

Ch 17: Integrating Visual Design 405

Visual Art and Visual Design 405

The Elements of Visual Interface Design 406

Visual Interface Design Principles 411

Visual Information Design Principles 425

Consistency and Standards 428

Part III: Interaction Details 433

Ch 18: Designing for the Desktop 435

Anatomy of a Desktop App 436

Windows on the Desktop 439

Menus 448

Toolbars, Palettes, and Sidebars 455

Pointing, Selection, and Direct Manipulation 465

Ch 19: Designing for Mobile and Other Devices 507

Anatomy of a Mobile App 508

Mobile Navigation, Content, and Control Idioms 518

Multi-Touch Gestures 550

Inter-App Integration 553

Other Devices 555

Ch 20: Designing for the Web 569

Page-Based interactions 571

The Mobile Web 585

The Future 587

Ch 21: Design Details: Controls and Dialogs 589

Controls 589

Dialogs 625

Eliminating Errors, Alerts, and Confirmations 641

The Devil is in the Details 653

Appendix A: Design Principles 655

Appendix B: Bibliography 661

Index 667

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