Doing a big peice of UI design again at the moment. While avoiding writing documentation, found a couple of books that are pretty good, however the titles will certainly not help improve my wife's opinion of my job.
First up with have Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman. This is rapidly becoming a standard text on the subject like Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity by Jakob Nielsen. However, unlike Nielsen's book Designing with Web Standards is well laid out, up to date and an interesting read.
Next up is Defensive Design for the Web or to give the book its full title; "Defensive Design for the Web: How to Improve Error Messages, Help, Forms, and Other Online Crisis Points" - proof positive that search engines are ruing the art of a good title. Despite the rather uninspiring title, this is a good read with helpful comparisons that really make you think about design. If I could only get as far as generating error messages from my current project... At least they will give me something to read on the train.
