It’s easy for interactive design reference books to seem obsolete very quickly, but I don’t think this will happen with Jenifer Tidwell’s book Designing Interfaces. This book does a great job of presenting examples along with the rational and the theory behind how key design principles can be used effectively.
The book covers both web and desktop style interfaces and many of the basic design patterns used to create them. Also covered are form design, page layout, content organization, navigation, visual style, information graphics, error handling and much more. Not only can this book be inspiration for creating better interfaces, it will enable you to better understand and present the rational behind design decisions.
