Seeing Data: Designing User Interfaces for Database Systems Using .NET

Nowadays, users and clients demand exceptionally usable software. But few developers are trained to create high-quality user interfaces, and few .NET books offer much help—until now.

In Seeing Data, Microsoft MVP Rebecca M. Riordan shows how to use .NET’s advanced UI tools to build applications that reflect today’s interface design best practices. She offers visual examples, code, and techniques for every .NET project.

Writing for experienced .NET developers, Riordan introduces core principles of effective interface design—including focus, flow, alignment, proximity, contrast, and consistency. She demonstrates how to architect databases for better usability, and how to build more effective form layouts. Next, she systematically tackles user interaction, showing how to:

Help users navigate DataSets, manipulate data, and generate reports
Utilize menus, toolbars, buttons, and Help systems
Enforce data integrity
Simplify installation and customization
Riordan covers essential technical underpinnings ranging from GDI+ Managed Classes to ADO.NET data binding. She presents dozens of Visual Basic .NET examples—all designed for easy, quick reuse, and downloadable from the book’s companion Web site, along with C# equivalents.