Most of the hard core C++ programmers I know hate user interface programming. This surprises me, because I find UI programming to be quintessentially easy, straightforward, and fun.

It's easy because you usually don't need algorithms more sophisticated than how to center one rectangle in another. It's straightforward because when you make a mistake, you immediately see it and can correct it. It's fun, because the results of your work are immediately visible. You feel like you are sculpting the program directly.

I think most programmers' fear of UI programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. They think that UI design is like graphics design: the mysterious process by which creative, latte-drinking, all-dressed-in-black people with interesting piercings produce cool looking artistic stuff. Programmers see themselves as analytic, logical thinkers: strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment. So they think they can't do UI design.

Actually, I’ve found UI design to be quite easy and quite rational. It’s not a mysterious matter that requires a degree from an art school and a penchant for neon-purple hair. There is a rational way to think about user interfaces with some simple, logical rules that you can apply anywhere to improve the interfaces of the programs you work on.

I'm not going to give you "Zen and the Art of UI Design". It's not art, it's not Buddhism, it's just a set of rules. A way of thinking rationally and methodically. This book is designed for programmers. I assume you don't need instructions for how to make a menu bar; rather, you need to think about what to put in your menu bar (or whether to have one at all). There is one primary axiom I'll teach you which guides all good UI design, and it's not hard to understand at all.

On websites that have a lot of pages, breadcrumb navigation can greatly enhance the way users find their way around. In terms of usability, breadcrumbs reduce the number of actions a website visitor needs to take in order to get to a higher-level page, and they improve the findability of website sections and pages. They are also an effective visual aid that indicates the location of the user within the website’s hierarchy, making it a great source of contextual information for landing pages.

We have put together a great compilation of beautiful web application interfaces.

The web applications that were selected to be part of this showcase are based on usability, simplicity, colors and overall layout.

Despite what many people will tell you, there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to call-to-action buttons. Yes, it’s true that large, colorful buttons, surrounded by plenty of space are usually the most successful, but it’s important that you tailor each button to the primary task of the web page in question, whether it’s to Signup, Checkout, Register or anything else. As a designer, it’s your job to make it as easy as possible for visitors to achieve these tasks and call-to-action buttons are the most powerful tools at your disposal, so use them wisely.

Generally speaking, call-to-action buttons should be simple and clear. They must stand out and grab a user’s attention. Everything must be carefully considered, from the trigger words used to colors, sizes, shapes and positioning. These buttons must be highly visible, but not so garish that they render your site ugly or unbalanced.

The other day I was chatting with some of the designers at work about secondary navigation and the subject of breadcrumb trails came up. Breadcrumb trails are those bits of navigation summed up by Jakob Nielsen as:

a single line of text to show a page’s location in the site hierarchy. While secondary, this navigation technique is increasingly beneficial to users.

and illustrated on Wikipedia by:

Home page > Section page > Subsection page

For reasons which will hopefully become clear the whole subject of breadcrumb trails vexes me and rather than shout into Twitter I thought I’d type up some thoughts so here goes.

User Interface Design Pattern Library. UI patterns for web designers. See examples and read rationale, solutions, and implementations for each pattern.