UI is Communication

Acknowledgments

My name is the one on the cover, but writing a book is a surprisingly complex affair that involves the contribution of many people. Without their help, this book wouldn’t be what it is—or might not have happened at all.

I must start by acknowledging the people who have influenced my user experience design thinking the most over the years. Jan Miksovsky has been the most influential by far. His inductive user interface work at Microsoft is what started me down this long road of communication-focused design. Jan’s key insights were that tasks ought to be designed to be self-explanatory and that focusing on the purpose of each step in a task is the best way to make them so. Without Jan’s influence, the core principles behind this ...