Why are there no "standard texts" on designing software interfaces? (or tell me I'm wrong?)
If you want to learn to *build* software, there are excellent and complete texts on the subject. It's not just a tech-vs-art thing: there are standard texts on type, drawing, color, etc.
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Eager to have holes poked in this, but as a former architect+architectural historian turned interface designer-dev, I would argue that all of the other types of design that you mention -- type, color, etc,...
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Have far fewer functional dependencies, and therefore are easier to isolate and theorize in their totality.
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Like architecture (the building kind), which also (notoriously) has no "how to do this" text, the number of external dependencies for UI design (do this for this situation, that for a different case) make it difficult to condense design prescriptions in a single tome? Maybe?
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You may be right! Interestingly, I feel the external dependencies are actually pretty well handled by some combination of About Face (requirements gathering, persona/workflow definition, etc) and tech/platform-specific guides like the HIG.
I think what's missing has more to do with practical strategies around visual and structural hierarchy, layout, and other more presentational considerations.
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