Designing Web Interfaces

Preface

What Happened

My (Bill’s) first personal computer was a Radio Shack Color Computer (circa 1981)—complete with a chiclet-style keyboard. The first few months the main user interface was the command line, typing in COLOR BASIC code.

Later, an upgrade to an Apple IIe brought a nicer keyboard with lots of games. But the interface was basically the same. The command-line and text-driven menu systems ruled the day. When the IBM PC came on the scene it brought more of the same. Lotus 123, which was the state-of-the-art spreadsheet application at the time, was controlled by a set of cryptic keystrokes. Not much of a user experience.

Then an interface revolution started. The Macintosh arrived in 1984, and shortly after its introduction, I brought one home. The mouse opened the door to a brand-new world of interaction. Instead of having to learn archaic commands to navigate through text-based menus, interaction in this new environment happened naturally in a direct, intuitive manner.

OK, you are probably thinking, so what? That was 1984. This is now. What does this have to do with a book about designing web interfaces?

Everything.

For most of the history of the Web, sites and applications were marked by primitive interfaces—just like the early desktop era. Most sites were built from two events:

• Clicking hyperlinks

• Submitting forms

Try to create an interesting user experience from just those two events. And, to add insult to injury, every click and every submit was punctuated with a page refresh. ...