Tog on software design
by Bruce Tognazzini · first published 1996
8mentions
4recommended by
5HN commenters
2013–2026first – last mentioned
80% recommend20% neutral
The author forecasts the evolution of computers in the coming decade.
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…that has apparently been mostly lost. Two books I remember, perhaps not the best, but definitely with information that transcends specific technical details, are Bruce Tognazzini's Tog on Interface (or Tog on Software Design), and Charles Petzold's Programming Windows 95. The original "Inside Macintosh" series also comes to mind.
on “Why do we create modern Desktop GUI apps using HTML/CSS/JavaScript?” ↗You must be too young to remember because a lot of the early user interface design principles, based on actual research, were pioneered by Bruce Tognazzini and Jef Raskin at Apple. Tog on Interface and Tog on Software Design were THE bibles back in the day and Apple's Human Interface Guidelines showed how a company could and should adopt consistent user experience across all of their products. It honestly saddens me how…
on “Apple introduces a universal design across platforms” ↗…mostly just tech demos or tutorials with dry writing. I do think about the very deep unmet potential for technology often. A 1995 book that somehow ended up in my old home town's public library called Tog On Software Design, describing a project at Sun to build a desktop of the future, was one influence as a kid. Definitely check out the celebrity endorsements on Amazon.
on “SerenityOS – a graphical Unix-like OS for x86, with 90s aesthetics” ↗…wrote in with lots of interesting UI design problems, which he discussed. These columns continue to this day on his web site. They’ve also been collected and embellished in a couple of great books, like Tog on Software Design, which is a lot of fun and a great introduction to UI design. (Tog on Interface was even better, but it’s out of print.) >Tog invented the concept of the mile high menu bar to explain why the menu bar…
on “Gurus of 90s Web Design: Zeldman, Siegel, Nielsen” ↗…wrote in with lots of interesting UI design problems, which he discussed. These columns continue to this day on his web site. They’ve also been collected and embellished in a couple of great books, like Tog on Software Design, which is a lot of fun and a great introduction to UI design. (Tog on Interface was even better, but it’s out of print.) >Tog invented the concept of the mile high menu bar to explain why the menu bar…
on “No more icons in every menu by default” ↗Bruce Tognazzini described a similar idea from research at Sun in his book Tog On Software Design from 1995: future computers would have print-quality DPIs, and would blur or scramble areas of the screen that were far enough outside the fovea for privacy.
on “ASUS PQ321Q 4k 32" Monitor first look” ↗Most people opposed the very idea of a TV remote control when wireless remotes were first introduced (Tog on Software Design by Tognazzini). Given the right system, features, and sales pitch, consumer attitudes can change.
on “Apple said to be prepping smart home software platform for WWDC” ↗…Everything is a "coincidence", and it seems to me that any coincidence involves an interface, so I conclude that interfaces being sources of lethality is sort of tautological... But anyway, I used to own Tog On Software Design, seemed like a good book. Some of the writing here seems sloppy - "The aviation community, on the contrary, from the beginning made safety their primary goal" - well, no, this very article is about general…
on “When Interfaces Kill: What Really Happened to John Denver” ↗