Developers don't get to spend a lot of time thinking about design, but many secretly wish they knew how to make their applications look just a little bit better. This book takes you on a journey through a web site redesign, where you'll learn the basic concepts of design, color theory, typography, and accessibility. You'll learn how to take a sketch and transform it into a digital mockup in Photoshop, and then finally into a working web page. You'll see how to develop logos, icons, and buttons using Illustrator and Photoshop, and then code a web page that will load fast, be easy to maintain, and most of all, be accessible to all audiences.

Most programmers' fear of user interface (UI) programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. They think that UI design is like graphic design—the mysterious process by which creative, latte-drinking, all-black-wearing people produce cool-looking, artistic pieces. Most programmers see themselves as analytic, logical thinkers instead—strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment, and incapable of doing UI design. In this brilliantly readable book, author Joel Spolsky proposes simple, logical rules that can be applied without any artistic talent to improve any user interface, from traditional GUI applications to websites to consumer electronics. Spolsky's primary axiom, the importance of bringing the program model in line with the user model, is both rational and simple. In a fun and entertaining way, Spolky makes user interface design easy for programmers to grasp. After reading User Interface Design for Programmers, you'll know how to design interfaces with the user in mind. You'll learn the important principles that underlie all good UI design, and you'll learn how to perform usability testing that works.

A unique resource to help software developers create a desirable user experience Today, top-flight software must feature a desirable user experience. This one-of-a-kind book creates a design process specifically for software, making it easy for developers who lack design background to create that compelling user experience. Appealing to both tech-savvy designers and creative-minded technologists, it establishes a hybrid discipline that will produce first-rate software. Illustrated in full color, it shows how to plan and visualize the design to create software that works on every level. Today's software demands attention to the quality of the user experience; this book guides you through a practical design process to achieve that goal Approaches the mechanics of design with a process inspired by art and science Avoids the abstract and moves step by step through techniques you can put to use immediately Covers planning your design, tested methods, how to visualize like a designer, psychology of design, and how to create software that developers will appreciate Explores such elements as choosing the right typeface and managing interactivity Design for Software: A Playbook for Developers brings the art of good design together with the science of software development to create programs with pizazz.

This hands-on guide will teach you simple-to-advanced steps of user experience design. It starts from idea concept evaluation, product research, user interface design, and design implementation in code. We focus not only on the UI or design, but also on other things that are connected to it. UX has its own process that requires its own sets of ...

Become more mindful of the user when building digital products, and learn how to integrate a user-centered approach into your thinking as a web or app developer. This book shows you how the user experience is the responsibility of everyone involved in creating the product and how to redefine development principles when building user-centered digital products. There are still many organizations that are not design driven, and the gap between stereotypical design and development teams needs to be bridged in order to build digital products that cater to the needs of real people. We are at a point where we see organizations that cannot bring the user experience into their core thinking falling behind their competitors. You'll see how to increase the level of UX maturity within any organization by tackling what is possibly the biggest stumbling block that stands between design and development: putting user needs ahead of system efficiency. UX for Developers shows how you can adjust your focus in order to be more mindful of the user when building digital products. Learn to care about what you build, not just for the system’s sake, but for those who will use what you build. What You'll Learn Understand what it means to build websites and applications for the user, rather than from a developer’s perspective. Review the soft skills required to build more usable digital productsDiscover the tools and techniques to adopt a user-focused approach to development.Improve communication throughout design and development, especially between developers and non-developers. Who This Book Is For Primary audience is Web/app developers that are looking to understand what it takes to build usable digital products. Secondary audience is UX Designers who are looking to understand the viewpoint of developers; Project managers and stakeholders who need to facilitate better working relationships between developers and designers.

“For years now, I’ve been running around preaching to anyone who’ll listen that UX is something that everybody (not just UX people) needs to be doing. Dave has done an excellent job of explaining what developers need to know about UX, in a complete but compact, easy-to-absorb, and implementable form. Developers, come and get it!” —Steve Krug, author of Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability Master User Experience and Interaction Design from the Developer’s Perspective For modern developers, UX expertise is indispensable: Without outstanding user experience, your software will fail. Now, David Platt has written the first and only comprehensive developer’s guide to achieving a world-class user experience. Quality user experience isn’t hard, but it does require developers to think in new ways. The Joy of UX shows you how, with plenty of concrete examples. Firmly grounded in reality, this guide will help you optimize usability and engagement while also coping with difficult technical, schedule, and budget constraints. Platt’s technology-agnostic approach illuminates all the principles, techniques, and best practices you need to build great user experiences for the web, mobile devices, and desktop environments. He covers the entire process, from user personas and stories through wireframes, layouts, and execution. He also addresses key issues—such as telemetry and security—that many other UX guides ignore. You’ll find all the resources and artifacts you need: complete case studies, sample design documents, testing plans, and more. This guide shows you how to Recognize and avoid pitfalls that lead to poor user experiences Learn the crucial difference between design and mere decoration Put yourself in your users’ shoes—understand what they want (and where, when, and why) Quickly sketch and prototype user interfaces for easy refinement Test your sketches on real users or appropriate surrogates Integrate telemetry to capture the best possible usage information Use analytics to accurately interpret the data you’ve captured Solve unique experience problems presented by mobile environments Secure your app without compromising usability any more than necessary “Polish” your UX to eliminate user effort everywhere you can Register your product at informit.com/register for convenient access to downloads, updates, and corrections as they become available.

Master the challenges of Android user interface development with these sample patterns With Android 4, Google brings the full power of its Android OS to both smartphone and tablet computing. Designing effective user interfaces that work on multiple Android devices is extremely challenging. This book provides more than 75 patterns that you can use to create versatile user interfaces for both smartphones and tablets, saving countless hours of development time. Patterns cover the most common and yet difficult types of user interactions, and each is supported with richly illustrated, step-by-step instructions. Includes sample patterns for welcome and home screens, searches, sorting and filtering, data entry, navigation, images and thumbnails, interacting with the environment and networks, and more Features tablet-specific patterns and patterns for avoiding results you don't want Illustrated, step-by-step instructions describe what the pattern is, how it works, when and why to use it, and related patterns and anti-patterns A companion website offers additional content and a forum for interaction Android Design Patterns: Interaction Design Solutions for Developers provides extremely useful tools for developers who want to take advantage of the booming Android app development market.

What others in the trenches say about The Pragmatic Programmer... “The cool thing about this book is that it’s great for keeping the programming process fresh. The book helps you to continue to grow and clearly comes from people who have been there.” — Kent Beck, author of Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change “I found this book to be a great mix of solid advice and wonderful analogies!” — Martin Fowler, author of Refactoring and UML Distilled “I would buy a copy, read it twice, then tell all my colleagues to run out and grab a copy. This is a book I would never loan because I would worry about it being lost.” — Kevin Ruland, Management Science, MSG-Logistics “The wisdom and practical experience of the authors is obvious. The topics presented are relevant and useful.... By far its greatest strength for me has been the outstanding analogies—tracer bullets, broken windows, and the fabulous helicopter-based explanation of the need for orthogonality, especially in a crisis situation. I have little doubt that this book will eventually become an excellent source of useful information for journeymen programmers and expert mentors alike.” — John Lakos, author of Large-Scale C++ Software Design “This is the sort of book I will buy a dozen copies of when it comes out so I can give it to my clients.” — Eric Vought, Software Engineer “Most modern books on software development fail to cover the basics of what makes a great software developer, instead spending their time on syntax or technology where in reality the greatest leverage possible for any software team is in having talented developers who really know their craft well. An excellent book.” — Pete McBreen, Independent Consultant “Since reading this book, I have implemented many of the practical suggestions and tips it contains. Across the board, they have saved my company time and money while helping me get my job done quicker! This should be a desktop reference for everyone who works with code for a living.” — Jared Richardson, Senior Software Developer, iRenaissance, Inc. “I would like to see this issued to every new employee at my company....” — Chris Cleeland, Senior Software Engineer, Object Computing, Inc. “If I’m putting together a project, it’s the authors of this book that I want. . . . And failing that I’d settle for people who’ve read their book.” — Ward Cunningham Straight from the programming trenches, The Pragmatic Programmer cuts through the increasing specialization and technicalities of modern software development to examine the core process--taking a requirement and producing working, maintainable code that delights its users. It covers topics ranging from personal responsibility and career development to architectural techniques for keeping your code flexible and easy to adapt and reuse. Read this book, and you'll learn how to Fight software rot; Avoid the trap of duplicating knowledge; Write flexible, dynamic, and adaptable code; Avoid programming by coincidence; Bullet-proof your code with contracts, assertions, and exceptions; Capture real requirements; Test ruthlessly and effectively; Delight your users; Build teams of pragmatic programmers; and Make your developments more precise with automation. Written as a series of self-contained sections and filled with entertaining anecdotes, thoughtful examples, and interesting analogies, The Pragmatic Programmer illustrates the best practices and major pitfalls of many different aspects of software development. Whether you're a new coder, an experienced programmer, or a manager responsible for software projects, use these lessons daily, and you'll quickly see improvements in personal productivity, accuracy, and job satisfaction. You'll learn skills and develop habits and attitudes that form the foundation for long-term success in your career. You'll become a Pragmatic Programmer.

Programming with C++20 teaches programmers with C++ experience the new features of C++20 and how to apply them. It does so by assuming C++11 knowledge. Elements of the standards between C++11 and C++20 will be briefly introduced, if necessary. However, the focus is on teaching the features of C++20. You will start with learning about the so-called big four Concepts, Coroutines, std::ranges, and modules. The big four a followed by smaller yet not less important features. You will learn about std::format, the new way to format a string in C++. In chapter 6, you will learn about a new operator, the so-called spaceship operator, which makes you write less code. You then will look at various improvements of the language, ensuring more consistency and reducing surprises. You will learn how lambdas improved in C++20 and what new elements you can now pass as non-type template parameters. Your next stop is the improvements to the STL. Of course, you will not end this book without learning about what happened in the constexpr-world.

CSS3 is behind most of the eye-catching visuals on the Web today, but the official documentation can be dry and hard to follow and browser implementations are scattershot at best. The Book of CSS3 distills the dense technical language of the CSS3 specification into plain English and shows you what CSS3 can do right now, in all major browsers. With real-world examples and a focus on the principles of good design, it extends your CSS skills, helping you transform ordinary markup into stunning, richly-styled web pages. You'll master the latest cutting-edge CSS3 features and learn how to: –Stylize text with fully customizable outlines, drop shadows, and other effects –Create, position, and resize background images on the fly – Spice up static web pages with event-driven transitions and animations –Apply 2D and 3D transformations to text and images –Use linear and radial gradients to create smooth color transitions –Tailor a website's appearance to smartphones and other devices A companion website includes up-to-date browser compatibility charts and live CSS3 examples for you to explore. The Web can be an ugly place—add a little style to it with The Book of CSS3.