About Face 2.0

Alan Cooper is a pioneering software inventor, programmer, designer, and theorist. He is credited with creating what many regard as the first serious business software for microcomputers, and is widely known as the "Father of Visual Basic." For the last decade, Alan's interaction design consulting firm, Cooper, has helped companies invent powerful, usable, desirable software and improve digital product behavior through the use of Alan's unique methodology -- the Goal--Directed process. A cornerstone of this method, the use of personas, has been widely adopted since it was first described in Alan's second book, The Inmates are Running the Asylum. A best--selling author and popular speaker, Alan is a tireless advocate for integrating design into business practice and for humanizing technology. Robert Reimann has spent the past 15 years pushing the boundaries of digital products as a designer, writer, lecturer, and consultant. He has led dozens of design consulting projects for startups and Fortune 500 clients alike. Upon joining Cooper in 1996, Robert led the development and refinement of many Goal--Directed Design methods described in About Face 2.0. He has lectur ed at major universities and to international industry audiences, and he is a member of the industry advisory board for the Institute of Design at the University of California, Berkeley.

Foreword. Acknowledgments. Introduction. Section One: Know Thy User. Part I: Bridging the Gap. Chapter 1: Goal--Directed Design. Chapter 2: Implementation Models and Mental Models. Chapter 3: Beginners, Experts, and Intermediates. Chapter 4: Understanding Users: Qualitative Research. Chapter 5: Modeling Users: Personas and Goals. Chapter 6: Scenarios: Translating Goals into Design. Chapter 7: Synthesizing Good Design: Principles and Patterns. Section Two: Designing Behavior and Form. Part II: Achieving Goals and Removing Barriers. Chapter 8: Software Posture. Chapter 9: Orchestration and Flow. Chapter 10: Eliminating Excise. Chapter 11: Navigation and Inflection. Chapter 12: Understanding Undo. Chapter 13: Rethinking Files and Save. Part III: Providing Power and Pleasure. Chapter 14: Making Software Considerate. Chapter 15: Making Software Smart. Chapter 16: Improving Data Ret rieval. Chapter 17: Improving Data Entry. Chapter 18: Designing for Different Needs. Part IV: Applying Visual Design Principles. Chapter 19: Designing Look and Feel. Chapter 20: Metaphors, Idioms, and Affordances. Section Three: Interaction Details. Part V: Mice and Manipulation. Chapter 21: Direct Manipulation and Pointing Devices. Chapter 22: Selection. Chapter 23: Drag and Drop. Chapter 24: Manipulating Controls, Objects, and Connections. Part VI: Controls and Their Behaviors. Chapter 25: Window Behaviors. Chapter 26: Using Controls. Chapter 27: Menus: The Pedagogic Vector. Chapter 28: Using Menus. Chapter 29: Using Toolbars and ToolTips. Chapter 30: Using Dialogs. Chapter 31: Dialog Etiquette. Chapter 32: Creating Better Controls. Part VII: Communicating with Users. Chapter 33: Eliminating Errors. Chapter 34: Notifying and Confirming. Chapter 35: Other Communication with Users. Chapter 36: The Installation Process. Part VIII: Designing Beyond the Desktop. Chapter 37: Designing for the Web. Chapter 38: Designing for Embedded Systems. Afterword: Dealing with the Inmates. Appendix A: Axioms. Appendix B: Design Tips. Appendix C: Bibliography Index.