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Developer to Designer; GUI Design for the Busy Developer

In a fantasy world, you design and build the core of your application, the parts that do all the heavy lifting. And the graphical user interface? Well, that's the domain of the hot-shot sitting one cube over, who went to school to learn how to give users sensible and effective control over the functionality you construct.
In the real world, there is no hot-shot sitting one cube over, and you have to build the GUI yourself.

Developer to Designer: GUI Design for the Busy Developer is a unique resource designed to help you and other experienced developers build GUIs for your programs that are simple to learn, easy to use, and painless to maintain, even though you're not user interface experts. Inside, the focus is on the essentials of Windows and web GUI design: simple ideas that require modest programming effort but provide enormous payoffs in terms of user success and satisfaction. You'll learn all about:

  • Arranging text and controls in a sensible order
  • Understanding and making the most of the behavior of windows
  • Improving the effectiveness of dialog boxes
  • Using advanced controls such as TreeViews, ListViews, and tabs
  • Designing menus and toolbars
  • Providing users with sensible customization options
  • Understanding how the rules change when designing for the Web
  • Handling page layout and navigation on the Web
  • Anticipating changes in the next version of Windows

Throughout, author Mike Gunderloy is doggedly realistic. Like in his previous book, Coder to Developer: Tools and Strategies for Delivering Your Software, Mike describes how things actually work and prescribes ways for you to achieve meaningful results without staging a revolution. This is hard-won, practical knowledge from a veteran developer whose advice, examples, and overall vision will change the way you think and work.

Biography

Mike Gunderloy is an independent consultant who has worked with Microsoft data access and web technologies for more than a decade. He is the author of the best-selling Coder to Developer: Tools and Strategies for Delivering Your Software, the popular Access 2002 Developer s Handbook series, and ADO and ADO. NET Programming, and he is co-author of .NET Programming 10-Minute Solutions, Mastering Visual C# .NET, Mastering SQL Server 2000, and .NET E- Commerce Programming, all from Sybex.

Table of Contents

Introduction.

Chapter 1: The Big Picture.

Chapter 2: Putting Words on the Screen.

Chapter 3: Managing Windows.

Chapter 4: Command Buttons.

Chapter 5: Using Text Input Controls.

Chapter 6: The Other Controls.

Chapter 7: Dialog Boxes.

Chapter 8: Common Windows User Interface Elements.

Chapter 9: User Input and Navigation.

Chapter 10: Common Interaction Patterns.

Chapter 11: User Choice, Customization, and Confusion.

Chapter 12: The Web Is Not Windows.

Chapter 13: Building a Web Page.

Chapter 14: Common Web Design Patterns.

Chapter 15: Common Web Interaction Patterns.

Appendix: Looking Forward to the Next Generation: Designing User Interfaces for Avalon.

Index.

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