Apple Human Interface Guidelines
I do happen to be an Apple fan, but I wouldn’t call myself a fanboy. Apple does tick me off occasionally, and I don’t think that Steve Jobs is the second coming of the Messiah.
However, Apple does design good products. I wonder how they do it? Oh look! They have a whole design guide on their website (downloadable PDF too)! Ok, enough sarcasm.
No really, if you haven’t read Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines, which is mainly a guide to designing good software, you should definitely read Part I: Application Design Fundamentals. A lot of what they have in there applies to designing most anything. They talk about Making Design Decisions (my favorite is the 80% Solution–designing to meet the needs of 80% of your users, not the 20% who are power users), Characteristics of Great Software, and Design Principles (Metaphors, Consistency, Forgiveness, Integrity). Hmm…forgiveness? Sounds a bit Biblical…
I am amazed how many products, especially those we as humans have to interact with on a daily basis (cars, kitchen appliances, cell phones, Microsoft Windows, food packaging), violate so many of the simple design principles that Apple lays out. It’s not like they’re trying to keep their way of designing a secret…it’s on their frickin’ website, after all.
