This book discusses some of the more common problems with modern user interfaces. It takes the approach that the user interface is arguably the most important aspect of an application (or Web site) and shouldn't take a back seat to the business logic therein.
The book begins with a treatise on what a GUI should be like and serves as a good set of things to keep in mind when designing an application's front-end. The bloopers themselves are arranged by category, one category to each chapter. There are 82 bloopers in all, so the book contains quite a decent amount of information.
The individual bloopers themselves are laid out quite well: there is a description of the blooper and the common variations thereof (usually with a picture from a real or sample application demonstrating the problem); this is followed by guidelines on how to avoid the particular blooper (often with a fixed version of the original pictures).
There weren't any real problems with the book; the only thing that irked me was the author's habit of pointing out something that was a problem and following it up with, "Bzzzt. Blooper!" It was cute the first time but quickly became something that grated on me.
Recommendation: for someone who knows how a GUI component works, but doesn't know how to make it look professional, this is a great book. Everybody who does GUI work could learn something here, though.
(8 of 10)
