Posts in design Category

I relived an intense past discussion while reading Uche Ogbuji’s nice introduction to XML elements and attributes design. We had discussed exactly the same issue, with the exact same examples of date and name to justify our decisions. What we ended up with was a lot different than what any of us had devised, because our examples were comletely out of context. [Continue]

I came across a case where a programmer, to design the epitome of flexibility and user control, gave an interface to the user who could change the information schema on the fly. This automatically made corresponding changes to the backend storage and the system model, and the application just worked. However, it failed to remain usable, as the ease of modifying the information schema only helped the user in creating a lot of cruft and in the end corrupting the data. [Continue]

There is a certain hatred for design patterns in a certain class of programmers. I am inno position to judge these reactions. However, I myself have gone through a cycle, where I worshipped them, then realized that they too had pitfalls, got confused, and now I realize that perhaps I completely misunderstood them. [Continue]

Don Norman has an interesting article saying simplicity is not the answer. Quite true, especially because nowadays simplicity is getting dangerously trendy. I believe the right balance of functionality and simplicity also depends on the user’s profile and needs. [Continue]