About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design The Inmates Are Running the Asylum About Face 2.0: The Essentials of Interaction Design About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design
By Alan Cooper, Robert Reimann & David Cronin
John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0470084111
This completely updated volume presents the effective and practical tools you need to design great desktop applications, Web 2.0 sites and mobile devices. This book will teach you the principles of good product behavior and introduce you to Cooper's Goal-Directed Design, from conducting user research to defining your product's interaction using personas and scenarios. In short, About Face 3 will show you how to design the best possible digital products and services.
By Alan Cooper, Foreword by Paul Saffo
SAMS; ISBN: 0-67231-649-8
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum argues that, despite appearances, business executives are simply not the ones in control of the high-tech industry. They have inadvertently put programmers and engineers in charge, leading to products and processes that waste huge amounts of money, squander customer loyalty, and erode competitive advantage. They have let the inmates run the asylum. Alan Cooper offers a provocative, insightful, and entertaining explanation of how talented people repeatedly design bad software-based products. More importantly, he uses his own work with companies big and small to show how to create products that will both thrill users and improve the bottom line.
"Frightening but true. Personal computers have engendered another New Age codependency. They shame us, they frustrate us and yet we keep spending money on them. Alan Cooper's book explains why it shouldn't be so and what we can do about it. A humbling and enjoyable read."
—Jean-Louis Gassée, Founder, Be, Inc. and Apple Computer France
"Once again, Alan Cooper shows the way. His books should be required reading for all those technology companies who think they are serving their customers: think again. We need more books like this one, and more people like Alan Cooper."
—Don Norman, Nielsen Norman Group, author of The Invisible Computer
"This clear-headed book teaches leaders what they need to know to create systems that win in the marketplace... you will find this one of the most thoughtful, practical, and helpful books you can read."
—Larry Keeley, President, Doblin Group
By Alan Cooper & Robert Reimann, Foreword by Hugh Dubberly
John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0764526413
First published in 1995 —just before the World Wide Web exploded into dominance in the software world—About Face rapidly became a bestseller. While the ideas and principles in the original book remain as relevant as ever, the examples in About Face 2.0 are updated to reflect the latest advances in interaction design, as well as principles specifically addressing Web and handheld platforms.
"About Face 2.0 is one of the very rare design books that's fun to read, even though it rocks fundamental beliefs and packs the page with useful information. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to understand what the software design process should be (but usually isn't). The perspective is unique: intellectually rigorous enough for academics while remaining focused on helping practitioners. I'd recommend this book to anybody in the business."
—Harley Manning, Research Director, Forrester Research
"About Face 2.0 could completely redefine how software applications are created!"
—Pete McBreen, author, Software Craftsmanship
"Alan Cooper and Robert Reimann have a unique skill for crystallizing concepts we're all struggling with. About Face 2.0 is full of these insights; this updated release will have readers saying 'Yes that's it!' once again."
—James Fawcette, founder Visual Studio Magazine and VSLive! Conferences
By Alan Cooper, Foreword by Andrew Singer
John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 1-56884-322-4
The cleverest code in the world is worth nothing if a program's interface proves an unwieldy barrier to users. That's why programmers and designers made About Face: The Essentials of User Interface Design a best seller. Here, respected software designer Alan Cooper shares his own real-world experience and design principles so that you, too, can fashion intuitive, effective user interfaces. Applicable to multimedia and Web sites as well as application software, About Face is an invaluable resource for design professionals.
"Alan Cooper is the 'Miss Manners' of software design, translating his deep expertise into practical information instantly useful to developers attempting to tame the Windows interface. My advice is to buy two copies—autograph the second, and send it to an engineer at Microsoft."
—Paul Saffo, Director, Institute for the Future
"Alan Cooper is a software god. With Visual Basic, he designed one of the key tools for designing new software. Now he's sharing his wisdom about how to make that software usable. This is a landmark book."
—Stewart Alsop, Editor in Chief, Infoworld
"About Face introduces, in common language, many new ideas and pearls of wisdom on how to design software that really is for the user. It will help any software designer or programmer understand how to make the user feel good about using the product and at the same time maximize his/her productivity."
—Mike Maples, EVP, Worldwide Products, Microsoft