How to Use This Guide

This guide is intended for those who are designing and developing Windows-based software. It may also be appropriate for those interested in a better understanding of the Windows environment and the human-computer interface principles it supports. The content of the guide covers the following areas:

• Basic design principles and process — fundamental design philosophy, assumptions about human behavior, design methodology, and concepts embodied in the interface.
• Interface elements — descriptive information about the various components in the interface as well as when and how to use them.
• Design details — specific information about the details of effective design and style when using the elements of the interface.
• Additional information — summary and quick reference information, a bibliography, a comprehensive word list in numerous languages to assist in product localization, and a glossary.

This guide focuses on the design and elements of an application's user interface. Although an occasional technical reference is included, this guide does not generally cover detailed information about technical implementation or application programming interfaces (APIs), because there are many different types of development tools that you can use to develop software for Windows. The documentation included with the Microsoft® Win32® Software Development Kit (SDK) is one source of information about specific APIs.