I <3 Steve McConnell*
Coding Horror
programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood

August 16, 2004

GUI patterns

With all this talk of high-falutin' coding design patterns, I'm surprised we haven't seen more sites that cover GUI design patterns, like welie.com*. What a great site!

Consider the iPod: it's a 2.5" hard drive, strapped to a battery and a LCD, that plays MP3 files. Dozens of other taiwanese manufacturers make products exactly like this, but Apple is the only company making a fortune at it, and inspiring fanatical product loyalty. Why? It has the most usable interface.

The mechanical things (coding patterns) are actually quite easy. It's the soft GUI stuff that is difficult, and that's ultimately what makes your product sexy, desirable-- and a success. We may think coding patterns are sexy, but they're invisible to users.

* via HMK's very cool blog

Posted by Jeff Atwood    View blog reactions
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Comments

HMK is german. So since you read his blog there might be a possibility that you are german, too?
If yes, than let me know...I'm just curious...

Hermann Klinke on August 18, 2004 3:11 AM

No, I'm not german, but HMK's blog is excellent!

Jeff Atwood on August 18, 2004 4:38 AM






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