Like where is the goto psych/CS UI 101 class/book/YT that over simplifies but grounds someone with no background or previous knowledge? Maybe something like the “Blender Doughnut” of great UI design?
I’ve changed UI twice with an app recently. I have a slight intuitive grasp of what I don’t like, but I lack the language and depth in this niche to express the emotional response well. I have no clue where to start with my own designs if I ever felt motivated to create one.
The Design of Everyday Things
Excellent book. It’s very far from hands-on, and doesn’t even address UI in particular most of the time. Won’t tell you how to lay out anything, but puts you on the right empathetic mindset for design in general.
Based on OP’s description, might be just the ticket, but may also be too general for some tastes.
Mid-to-late 00’s had best UI design. Nowadays everything is less-functional and to do simple tasks you need to click through 5 different menus, and move your fingers in all directions, because there’s no standard to do anything.
Just to see my watch later playlist on YouTube on my phone I need to click 2 buttons, scroll down through playlist list and click on the conventionally placed watch later playlist on the bottom of the list. What the fuck?
I wonder what all these UI specialists even do. Just blindly do everything upper management tells them to do, even if that makes no sense?
I truly despise how simplified things have gotten. Interacting and modifying YouTube playlists is such a chore now.
Alan Dix’s book (aptly named “Human Computer Interaction”) is quite good, even if somewhat old by now. HCI is an actual academic discipline with, yes, tons of theoretical and empirical results that govern what a good UI should be. Many of which are indeed grounded in psychology, others in physiology, etc (what we call Human Factors). There is a whole special interest group of the ACM just about it: SIGCHI.
Do not confuse this with fashion/trends/taste. These change, resulting in widely different possible flavors of UI over the years. But the underlying principles are the same.
Another thing to remember is that the fact that Apple, Google, or someone else implemented an UI in a certain way doesn’t mean they are following best practices and guidelines. Novelty sells, even if at the end of the day it does a worse job of things…
Edit: added link to SIGCHI
I had a course in college that used this book, and I’d definitely recommend it.
Speaking as a designer, it’s important to separate the style/trend of a UI from its function. I think what you’re looking for is actually UX design.
As a discipline, User Experience uses evidence-based research to understand how and why users behave they do. This leads to specific design patterns and principles that underlie all the good UI design seen from the giants like Apple, Google, Microsoft, etc. It gives you the language to evaluate designs. This is the foundation of your UI and the rest is just style — fonts, colors, imagery and icons which is subjective and less important. I lost ambition to be a trendy UI designer, so every design looks the same, but usability will shines through. Clean, simple and accessible is timeless.
Study the articles from nngroup.com. They pretty much established the field of UX Design, with content talking about user behavior in the 1990s. https://lawsofux.com is a more attractive and consumable option, also heavily influenced by NN Group. Finally, accessible design is good design for all, not just those with disabilities. Understand the guidelines set by the W3C for accessibility, like minimum font sizes or contrast ratios for colors.
Begin with The Design of Everyday Things. Is it specifically for tech or software? No and barely touches on it, but it outlines what UX is for and provides easy to imagine examples of realistic conflicts and solutions that are eminently realistic.
The ultimate goal is always intuitive interaction. I can’t appreciate the beauty of a functional object after it’s frustrated me when I tried to use it
Start with a book called “Tog on Interface”.
The book “Design of Everyday Things” might also provide some good background.
And then there are the endless Human Interface guidelines put out by Apple and many other companies that usually try to explain the “why” behind their decisions.
It may not be exactly what you’re looking for, but if you’re interested in user interface, I can’t recommend this book enough:
GUI Boopers by Jeff JohnsonI think that’s what is learnt on Design courses at university. Also ergonomics.
But IDK. I saw “professional” web-designers who don’t consider colorblind peoples in their colors.
But I didn’t ask if they had professional education.
This is one of the best/most effective UI courses I’ve seen that takes someone from 0 to very good. It’s quite expensive though.
