Most programmers' fear of user interface (UI) programming comes from their fear of doing UI design. They think that UI design is like graphic design—the mysterious process by which creative, latte-drinking, all-black-wearing people produce cool-looking, artistic pieces. Most programmers see themselves as analytic, logical thinkers instead—strong at reasoning, weak on artistic judgment, and incapable of doing UI design. In this brilliantly readable book, author Joel Spolsky proposes simple, logical rules that can be applied without any artistic talent to improve any user interface, from traditional GUI applications to websites to consumer electronics. Spolsky's primary axiom, the importance of bringing the program model in line with the user model, is both rational and simple. In a fun and entertaining way, Spolky makes user interface design easy for programmers to grasp. After reading User Interface Design for Programmers, you'll know how to design interfaces with the user in mind. You'll learn the important principles that underlie all good UI design, and you'll learn how to perform usability testing that works.

Corey Barker, Executive Producer of PlanetPhotoshop.com and one of the Photoshop Guys of Photoshop User TV, brings you this handy and inspiring volume in the Down & Dirty Tricks series. Yes, this book is an insane collection of some of the most mind-blowing Photoshop effects you’ve ever seen in one place. Ever wonder how that movie poster was created, or how they created that cool magazine ad, or maybe even how to take a seemingly mundane photo and give it the Hollywood treatment? Or maybe you just want to know how to do some really awesome stuff in Photoshop. Well, then, this book is for you! Whether you’re a designer, artist, or even a photographer, there’s something here for everyone. Moving through these projects, you’ll start to see the potential of Photoshop’s most powerful features and how, with a little experimentation, you can open up a whole new world of dazzling effects. You’ll learn how to: • Create custom brush effects from scratch • See type as a design element • Create Hollywood-style effects that actually look like Hollywood-style effects • Take mundane photos and turn them into something mind-blowing • Create eye-popping commercial effects that clients will drool over • Get creative with 3D in Photoshop CS5 Extended • Create popular advertising effects you’ve seen in movies, on TV, and on the Web • Master dazzling photo effects for designers and photographers alike Plus, there are so many other things throughout the book that you’ll be bursting with new ideas!

With Dreamweaver CC, you can go from staring at a blank screen to launching your first website...without writing any code and without ever leaving the program! All the tools you need are there. But face it, any program that's so comprehensive is going to be complex. So the trick is mastering what all of the program's windows, panels, toolbars, and web technologies do, and how they're interrelated. That's where this book comes in. In contrast to other Dreamweaver books, it integrates all of the skills that you need to build inviting, easy-to-navigate, standards-based websites, using a proven instructional approach that makes all the pieces manageable.

The fastest route to true HTML/CSS mastery! Need to build a web site? Or update one? Or just create some effective new web content? Maybe you just need to update your skills, do the job better. Welcome. This book's for you. We'll leverage what you already know about the web, so you'll go further, faster than you ever expected. You'll master today's best practices: the real nuts and bolts, not theory or hooey. You'll learn through dozens of focused HTML, XHTML, and CSS examples: crafted for simplicity and easy to adapt for your own projects. Need specific solutions? This book's modular, visual, high-efficiency format delivers them instantly. Molly E. Holzschlag draws on her unparalleled experience teaching Web design and development. No other HTML/CSS guide covers this much, this well, this quickly. Dig in, get started, get results! All you need to succeed with HTML, XHTML, and CSS in real-world projects Learn how to build web pages that'll work in any environment, on virtually any contemporary browser Construct templates that simplify every page you develop Structure and tag text so it's easy to work with and manage Add images, media, and scripts–quickly and reliably Discover the right ways to use HTML tables Build easy-to-use forms and validate your users' input Use CSS to take total control over your site's look and feel Master core CSS techniques: color, images, text styles, link effects, lists, navigation, and more Control margins, borders, padding, positioning, floats, even Z-index Design efficient, compatible, easy-to-manage CSS layouts Includes concise XHTML and CSS annotated references: quick help for every language element Spring Into... is a new series of fast-paced tutorials from Addison-Wesley. Each book in the series is designed to bring you up to speed quickly. Complex topics and technologies are reduced to their core components, and each component is treated with remarkable efficiency in one- or two-page spreads. Just the information you need to begin working...now! And because the books are example-rich and easy to navigate, you'll find that they make great on-the-job references after you've mastered the basics. © Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.