Adobe - Developer Center - Designing for Flex ÔÇô Appendix B- For further reading.pdf

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Designing for Flex Appendix B: For further reading

This list of resources was written for the Designing for Flex (www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/articles/fig_pt1.html)

series. To learn more about designing rich Internet applications and rich desktop applications, check out the Flex

Interface Guide (www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/?navID=fig) on the Flex Developer Center.This article series covered a broad range of topics highly relevant to Flex application design at a fairly high level.

Fortunately, few if any of the ideas presented here were new and many are covered extensively in other

publications. If you find yourself itching to learn more about a particular topic, you may find some of the resources

below invaluable.

About Face 2: The Essentials of Interaction Design

Alan Cooper & Robert Reimann. Wiley Publishing Inc. (2003) ISBN: 0-7645-26413

Widely considered the bible of Interaction Design, About Face 2: The Essentials of Interaction Design,

covers everything from researching users to best practices for software behavior to detailed visualcommunication standards. Many of the ideas in "Planning your application," "Making your application fast,"

and "Making your application safe" appear in much greater detail in About Face 2: The Essentials of

Interaction Design. Note that a new version, About Face 3, is now available, written by Alan Cooper, RobertReimann and David Cronin.

Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems

Hugh Beyer & Karen Holtzblatt. Academic Press. (1998) ISBN: 1-55860-411-1

Beyer and Holtzblatt present a fully-developed research and design process in this informative text on

design research. Although few designers, developers, and user researchers follow the Contextual Design:Defining Customer-Centered Systemsprocess to the letter, many make extensive use of some of the more

popular research and design techniques it contains such as contextual inquiry, work modeling, and paperprototyping. The techniques discussed in "Planning your application" are based on commonly practiced

portions of Contextual Design: Defining Customer-Centered Systems.

The Designers Guide to Web Applications Part I: Structure and Flows

Hagan Rivers. User Interface Engineering. (2006)

Hagan Rivers describes the "hub and spoke" and "interview" structural design patterns in this paper and

explains how to apply them to application design. Although her examples are more in the style of traditional

HTML applications than rich Flex applications, her two core patterns can form a basis for designing

information and process structures as described in "Structuring your application."

Designing for Interaction

Dan Saffer. New Riders. (2007) ISBN: 0-321-43206-1

Dan Saffers introduction to the theory and practice of interaction design is one of the best books available

for those interested in getting into the field. The book defines interaction design and surveys techniquesranging from qualitative research to wireframing to device design. Although possibly too introductory for

experienced interaction designers, it is an invaluable resource for those outside or new to the field. (Full

disclosure: The author is a personal friend of mine, however, I dont get kickbacks despite repeated attempts

on my part.)Designing Interfaces

Jenifer Tidwell. OReilly Media Inc. (2006) ISBN: 0-596-00803-1

Designing Interfacesconsists of a library of interaction "design patterns," or solutions to specific appliction

design problems. The patterns cover everything from application organization to navigation to pagestructure to visual and control design. The book is an excellent reference for any designer or UI developer to

have on their shelf. The ideas behind the patterns appear in almost every chapter of this paper.

Designing Visual Interfaces

Flex Article


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Kevin Mullet & Darrell Sano. SunSoft Press. (1995) ISBN: 0-13-303389-9Mullet & Sanos book is a bit dated in its examples but not in its principles. The text covers primarily visual

design principles including the visual hierarchy concepts discussed in "Structuring your application" andsome of the information design principles discussed in "Designing content displays." Although lacking in

coverage of deeper interaction design issues, this is an excellent primer on visual design as a

communication tool and reminds us that visuals arent primarily about making the application "pretty."

Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical User Interface

Bret Victor. Go to article. (2006) Retrieved August 6, 2007.Although perhaps unnecessarily provocative in tone, Bret Victors article does an excellent job of describingthe importance of designing applications around content and information rather than controls and other user

interface elements. The article covers many of the principles that appear in "Designing content displays" ingreater detail.

Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide to User ResearchMike Kuniavski. Morgan Kaufmann. (2003) ISBN: 1558609237

Kuniavskis book is an invaluable reference for design research techniques, such as those mentioned in

"Planning your application." He covers a wide variety of research methodologies and provides detailed tips

and instructions on how to apply each of them. Although perhaps not as good as having a dedicated design

researcher on staff, reading this book is the next best thing.

Reconciling Market Segments and PersonasElaine Brechin. Go to article. Retrieved August 6, 2007.

Brechins article covers the differences between understanding markets and understanding users, andmakes the case for why both are necessary for application design in much greater depth than I have

attempted in this paper. Her article is an excellent read for those who arent yet sold on the necessity ofunderstanding users from a qualitative perspective.

Understanding Comics: The Invisible ArtScott McCloud. HarperCollins. (1993) ISBN: 0-06-097625-X

Although not a text on application design, Scott McClouds well-known book on the art of comics covers

many of the principles necessary for sound Flex application design. He discusses visual communication and

motion principles in an easy-to-read comic book format. Many interface designers also use his techniques

when drafting scenarios and storyboards, as discussed in "Structuring your application."

Usability of Flash Applications and Tools: Design Guidelines for Flash-BasedFunctionality on the Web

Hoa Loranger & Jakob Nielsen. Nielsen Norman Group. (2002)

This report provides a comprehensive and exhaustive coverage of usability problems and solutions with

traditional Flash-based RIAs. Most of the principles discussed still apply to Flex applications. Use it as achecklist to ensure your application is not falling into traps already uncovered by its predecessors.

The Visual Display of Quantitative InformationEdward R. Tufte. Graphics Press. (2001) ISBN: 978-0961392147

Tuftes classic book on information design describes principles of data visualization as a means of assisting

human understanding. Although he focuses primarily on the visualization of statistical data, many of the

ideas apply to other types of content as well. The book covers topics introduced in the article "Designingcontent displays."

Visible Narratives: Understanding Visual Organization

Luke Wroblewski. Boxes and Arrows. (2003). Go to article. Retrieved August 6, 2007.

Luke Wroblewskis article gives a nice primer on visual hierarchy and its use in the design of webapplications. Although not as in depth as "Designing visual interfaces," it is short and easy to follow. I

recommend it to anyone new to the topic who needs a brief introduction to the visual organizationalprinciples described in "Structuring your application."


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Acknowledgements

Although this article series has my name on it, many people contributed to its development. Id like to thank my

reviewers, Sho Kuwamoto, Phil Costa, Steven Heintz, Narciso Jaramillo, Josh Ulm, Jeremy Clark, Deb Galdes, Tom

Hobbs, and Amy Wong for providing me with extremely helpful feedback. Special thanks to Sho Kuwamoto and

Phil Costa for envisioning this project and pushing me to complete it and to my managers, Josh Ulm and JeremyClark, for finding the time for me to give it the attention it needed. Finally, extra-special thanks to Tom Hobbs,

Narciso Jaramillo, Sho Kuwamoto and Peter Flynn for guiding my thinking on many of the topics that appear in the

articles.

About the author

Rob Adams works for Adobe Systems, Inc. in San Francisco, California. He started at Macromedia, Inc. in 2004 and

has worked on the Flash authoring tool, Flash Player, and Fireworks, but nowadays works primarily on the Flex

product line. He is involved with the design of the core framework itself as well as the designer/developer tools

such as Flex Builder and Creative Suite. Although his primary focus is on design research, he also does some

design work, promotes sound design practices both within Adobe and without, and makes himself a general painin the necks of the designers, product managers, and engineers he works with.

Copyright 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

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Adobe - Developer Center - Designing for Flex ÔÇô Appendix B- For further reading.pdf