Reviews

Designing with the Mind in Mind
Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Rules
by Jeff Johnson, PhD
2010
Morgan Kaufmann Publishers

Jeff Johnson has worked for some of the biggies: XEROX, HP, and Sun and consulted for others including: AT&T, Fujitsu, Informix and Oracle. He has published numerous papers on human-computer interaction and is the author of several books on interface design and design mistakes for both software and web applications.

Designing with the Mind in Mind is a tidy little tome that is quite easy to read. Illustrations abound - hardly a page goes by without one. Most are in color.

Jeff simplifies the cognitive and perceptual science behind what we see and how our brain interprets the incoming flow of information. Topics include:

- Vision
- Use of visual structure
- Reading
- Color vision
- Attention span
- Recognition and recall
- Problem solving and calculation
- Timing

His introduction and appendix cite UI research and guidelines from 1976 through 2007 and stresses the similarities of the major points in each.

The book is explicitly targeted at us: s/w professionals who apply UI and IxD guidelines. A secondary audience is s/w development managers who need to understand the psychological basis of UI design so they can better understand and evaluate the work of those they manage.

I learned some interesting tidbits about how our eyes see and our minds work. His chart of time constants ranging from a millisecond to 100 seconds is worth pasting next to your workstation.

As the science of cognition continues to expand its understanding, Jeff’s book represents a compact, up-to-date overview of how the cognitive sciences play a role in the designs we create.