An analysis of books on UI design

A lot of (but not all) UI/UX books are a lot more like industrial/product design books than graphic design books, in that their visual designs are are more amateur in appearance and their overall look and feel. They're cluttered, too dramatic with type, and often seem to have quite odd illustrations. Often they'll look and feel like an old textbook, which is fair considering its potential usage scenario - a tool used by many students or designers on a regular occurrence. A designer creating a book with a purpose like that has to take into consideration durability, cost (cheap to produce in bulk) and longevity. "Form follows function" would dictate that no matter the beauty of the book, if it fell apart after repeated use then it's no good, and no longer beautiful. This is no argument for the front covers, which just seem to be odd and unattractive for the sake of it. 

Maybe it was nice in the early 2000s. 

The books above are home to a trove of infinitely useful information, advice and guidelines, but like most publications which offer such a mass amount of information they're often visually cluttered and difficult to navigate with ease. With my publication I aim to transfer an interesting and helpful amount of information to the reader without overwhelming or boring them. 

Unlike the standard interface book, which has a relatively large target audience (graphic designers, UI/UX designers, webmasters, students, developers etc.) and therefore has to be easy to produce, manufacturer and disseminate, my publication will probably be targeted more surgically at those with an interest in the past, presence and future of beautiful user interface design in many different environments, especially emerging forms and future-thinking ideas. So whilst not an exclusive book of sorts, it's not necessarily universal either. This will give me more room to make it look and feel more like a designer publication. Medium cost, medium target audience.

With this in mind there's no point in making a book which is going to fall apart either. It must have a feeling of durability, and whilst not heft, substance. I could base the proportions off digital aspect ratios to make it feel more natural to those used to digital environments and to hammer home the metaphor, but perhaps there's a reason screens and paper have their own ratios. 

  

I'm yet to explore and decide on binding methods, but perfect binding seems natural for this kind of publication. It's relatively strong and very easy to interact with (unless laying the pages flat is a necessity). I'd be very interested to explore sandwich binding in order to allow the pages to lie flat, however. It must be a perfect hybrid of aesthetics and usability. Often sandwich bound publications encounter durability issues.