theory

If you need to do icon design this book is a must! Horton comes from the old school where you have to show the most in only a few pixels - and there is some very smart thinking here to pick up on. This book is great if you are just starting to learn about interactive design or an old pro looking for inspiration.

This book is laid out nicely, with exercises and thought processes on how to develop effective icons. The author includes examples of icons he has developed for applications in the past, along with his workflow. For example, one section lists the name of each icon (Edit, Delete, Add quotation) and then has sketches of 5 different ideas a piece. This book also discusses why people associate certain symbols with certain phrases, as well as outlining when to use graying, broken lines, arrows, etc. to add meaning.

One shipment of this book did not include the disks, I had to call back and get the disk shipped to me seperately.

This book is a great reference tool for people who have to design toolbar icons. I wouldn't try to design an icon without it.

One note for people who may have seen the book before - only the book is available from Amazon - not the diskette with the set of starter icons. This leaves you with pictures of the starter icons in an appendix - which you can try to duplicate by hand in your icon editor of choice. Great reference book, too bad the disk isn't included. It's almost as valuable as the book itself.