“Design” is one of those concepts that seems easy to define until you actually try. When you do, it turns out to be quite elusive. With software, it’s even harder, because to build anything, you have to design it. But what is design, beyond stating the obvious?
In software, good design can help everywhere, from planning and envisioning, to architecture, functionality and user interfaces. It can improve efficiency at all levels, and - crucially - make people better at using the software, and feel better about using it!
We are a software company. We design and create software for our clients. We have successfully done this for several years. But recently, we’ve decided to set out on a journey to put design at the forefront of what we do. We believe that by focusing on design, we can make everything better, from software functionality and efficiency to improving the lives of the people (our clients and their employees) who use it.
We’re not doing this to win awards or to make ourselves feel good. We’re doing it because when you get design “right”, it is the start of a virtuous circle, where every aspect of your work informs and improves every other aspect. Good design doesn’t “just happen”. It requires work. It takes organisation, thoughtfulness, meticulousness, and buy-in. Most of all, it needs communication. Ideally, good designs will reach a point where they speak for themselves.
Let’s try to pin some of this down. First, what is and isn’t designed? (And bear with us if we get a bit abstract here!) If you take everything in the world, you could say it falls into four categories:
Looking at these in turn:
Random stuff This is all around us. White noise, for example, which is like static on the radio. It has no hidden structure or signal, and on mathematical or statistical analysis, would turn out to be completely random.
Things with an emergent structure Crystals, minerals, geological formations, snowflakes. Nobody designed these, even though they sometimes appear to have been designed. They form as a result of chemical or physical laws, which you could call “natural laws”. Sometimes, we can learn from nature and apply what we observe to our designs. The slippery, smooth, curved forms of beach pebbles, for example, resemble the aerodynamic surfaces of modern cars.
Things that have evolved All forms of life. We won’t get into defining life itself here, but it’s typically pretty clear, apart from a few edge cases, what is alive or not. Evolution, “the survival of the fittest”, gradually improves the survivability of a species through increased functionality and suitability for its environment. Note that there is no sense of “intention” or “foresight” in the evolutionary process - it is purely a process of gradual, multi-generational adaptation. Things that are designed
This includes everything that is human-made, and some things that are animal-made, such as birds’ nests and very simple tools. (Calling birds’ nests “designed” may be a form of anthropomorphism. We don’t know whether birds build their nests with intent or purpose.)
It’s tempting to think that design is all about aesthetics, but it’s not, although some of it is. Nor is it always about what is visible. Steve Jobs, whose company was often seen as being at the pinnacle of technology design, insisted that the logic boards of his computers be as beautiful to look at as the external design. Software is generally visible only through its user interface, and its design is critical to whether it is liked and accepted by users; it is also about functionality. Computer code can be “elegant”, just as E=MC squared is considered to be beautiful, because four characters explain the behaviour of the entire universe.
And of course, famously, “form follows function”, a phrase coined in 1896 by the American architect, Louis Sullivan. It means that if you design a highly functional product, its appearance will likely reflect that functionality. Probably the best example of this is Concord: widely considered the most beautiful aircraft ever, almost exclusively because every aspect of its design is subordinate to the primary goal of building a supersonic airliner. But there are many more high-profile examples: the Golden Gate Bridge, the Post Office Tower (now known as the BT Tower), and the iPhone. Design is not something you can add later to software. You can’t just spray it on the surface; it has to be intrinsic, meaning that it has to be built in from the start. Even at the earliest stages, designers should consider:
How will its users perceive the software, and what will they tell other potential users about the product? Design is a philosophy and a way of life
Yes, there are rules, but knowing the rules of chess doesn’t make you a master player. And design isn’t just about appearances. It’s about intention, structure, and empathy. In software, that means thinking about the people who use it from the very first decisions, not as an afterthought. That’s why we’re reshaping the way we approach writing software: putting design at the centre of our process so the software we build doesn’t just “work” - it genuinely improves people’s lives.
Contact us today to create software that truly works for your users
We're software development specialists boosting our client's business with bespoke systems. We're practical, pragmatic and commercially minded, which means we do the right thing for you when it comes to building software.
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