Creating clean, intuitive interfaces is a complex task using any set of tools. It is further complicated by the significant differences between the tools, both in appearance and performance, where a significant difference can be a rather small thing. The Java Swing toolkit and supporting classes differs from others and if it is your platform, then you should take a look at this book. Written by the interface experts at Sun Microsystems, this is as good as it gets.  At the meta-level, the guidelines are no different from those in any other language. The best designs are patterns that should be followed independent of the platform and some of the book is devoted to following those "universal" designs. From that perspective, the book is just another description of interfaces. However, the real value is at the specific level, where the reader is taken down to the point where Java differs from other platforms. All of the examples are demonstrated using a combination of point-by-point descriptions with supporting color figures.     I teach corporate training courses in Java, including one about designing interfaces and I write my own material for the classes. As I was reading the book, I went back through those lessons and made some alterations based on the guidelines. After following this up with a series of before and after contrast examinations, it was clear that the after was better than the before. I am confident that your experience will be the same.

Java(TM) Look and Feel Design Guidelines: Advanced Topics (Java Series) PDF

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