Human Computer Interaction (HCI for short) is the name of the professional discipline that is most concerned with what is required to design and build usable computer interfaces. You'll find HCI people also using terms like "usability professionals", "human factors experts", "user experience consultants" and so on. Though the field is multidisciplinary, many computer science programs offer courses in HCI. There is also overlap with graphic design, though the two areas are more complementary.

The bottom line is that there is a lot more to designing and building user interfaces that are usable and effective for people than just what software developers typically know. It's not doing "what you like", "what looks cool", "what my users told me they wanted", and so on. Just because you know how to use a GUI doesn't mean you know how to build an effective one for your target audience.

HCI draws in people from not only technical backgrounds, but also psychology, sociology, management, and other fields. It contains its own set of techniques and methodologies. If you're building real applications, consider the use of an HCI consultant early in your project to help you on track. You'll probably end up with not only a better product, but often you'll save both time and money along the way.

Anyway, enough preaching. Here are some useful resources. Feel free to add your own.
- Mark Roseman

ACM SIGCHI - http://www.acm.org/sigchi/
The ACM's Special Interest Group for Computer Human Interaction. Main professional association associated with HCI. It's annual CHI conferences are the biggest event in the field. Also involved with lots of other conferences, offers many publications and other resources, including lists of consultants.

Usability Professionals' Association - http://www.upassoc.org/
Another good organization devoted to usability.

GUI Bloopers (book) by Jeff Johnson - [link]
A very accessible book for techies that offers both many general principles and lots of specific good and bad examples of user interfaces.

About Face and The Inmates are Running the Asylum (books) by Alan Cooper - [link]
Alan is the guy who invented Visual Basic. "About Face" is a very solid details book on building interfaces, while "Inmates" provides a great example of a design methodology that is easy to follow.

Design of Everyday Things (book) by Don Norman - [link]
Classic book that talks about design and the way psychology affects the way we need to build things. Not a lot of practical advice, but great perspective and a good read.

Jacob Nielsen's UI Books List - http://www.useit.com/books/uibooks.html
Jacob is one of the gurus in the field. His site in general has all kinds of info, though mostly web design focused.

There are lots of decent resources out there on the web. For fun, check out any of the wide variety of user interface "hall of shame" sites out there via Google. Be motivated not to have your own application listed in one of them!

• the "User Interface Hall of Fame" contains lots of nice examples to inspire you - http://www.umlchina.com/GUI/HallFame.htm
• the "User Interface Hall of Shame" shows how bad it can get - http://www.umlchina.com/GUI/ShameRecent.htm

Platform specific

Mac OS X

Apple Aqua Human Interface Guidelines - [link]
in general, well designed Mac OS X apps follow these guidelines closely; typically, Mac users are fairly sensitive about adherence to the HIG...
This also has some useful generic HCI information, e.g. [link]

Posted at Jan 11/2004 09:21 PM:
Never_faire