“Dan Saffer’s book, Microinteractions, is the best book I’ve read about design in ages. I’ve been working in design for 20 years and often have younger designers ask me for advice, or how to achieve their grand design dreams. Most books about design are similarly grand and presume that everyone knows the basics well enough to do the little things well. The world proves this not to be true. Spend an afternoon strolling around town with a gaggle of caffeinated interaction designers and you’ll hear an endless commentary on the details the designers of the world have gotten wrong.

The book itself is wonderfully self-consistent: it’s short, concise, well designed and brilliant. The fun and salient examples nail Saffer’s points, and his writing is sharp, incisive, and with just enough comedic curmudgeonry to keep you smiling most of the way through.”

—Scott Berkun

“Microinteractions is a book I’ve wanted for a very long time. I’ve needed a thoughtful, insightful, and concise understanding of how to look at interaction design at the atomic level. Dan’s delivered that in spades.”

—Jared Spool, User Interface Engineering

“Microinteractions is an essential guide to designing in today’s world where a typical person touches a hundred different user experiences each day, and only the clearest interactions will turn a new user experience into a cherished product.

“In this book, Dan Saffer turns the Cognitive Walkthrough on its head and takes it to the next level, creating a new model for defining interactions and illustrating the strength of designing for moments rather than systems.

“An easy, jargon-free read and an invaluable reference, Microinteractions is packed with vital principles backed up by a wide spectrum of useful real-world examples of what to do and what not to do. You’ll get something out of reading any two pages and even more out of reading them again. The book is an example of its own teachings. Approachable, but with deeper insights as needed.”

—Kevin Fox, designer, Gmail

“Saffer has written an excellent, compact, and eminently readable volume on a subject under-valued and under-discussed in our industry: the art and science of creating small, delightful moments in our daily interactions with technology. I recommend it to any designer or programmer looking to enhance the desirability and polish the utility of their apps, sites, or services, one interaction at a time.”

—Robert Reimann, Founding President, Interaction Design Association (IxDA); Principal Interaction Designer, PatientsLikeMe; co-author, About Face 3 (Wiley)

“Dariel Fitzkee, the famous magician’s magician, once stated, ‘Magic is both in the details and in the performance.’ Interaction design is just like that. It is in reality creating a user illusion out of many tiny, nuanced, interesting moments. Dan’s book, Microinteractions, shines a magnifying glass on these moments and teases out how to go from a good to a great ‘user illusion.’ I highly recommend this book to every designer and implementer of user experiences in any medium.”

—Bill Scott, Senior Director UIE, Paypal

“I have never before seen a book drill down to this level of detail into how interactions (let alone microinteractions) actually work. It is one of the better books on interaction design I’ve read. I’m going to give copies to my designers and product managers and require that they read it and explain it back to me.”

—Christian Crumlish, Director of Product, CloudOn