What is Design?

• Design is a creative activity of making artifacts that are usable for a specific purpose.

• Software Engineer

• Software is reliable, robust, and maintainable

• Software Designer

• Software fits the user’s overall activities, enhances productivity, and produces a satisfying experience (Enjoyable!)

Slide Comments:

Students are likely to view design from the traditional program design. Contrast the two different design activities (software engineering & software designer).

While the Software Engineering field does recognize the need for design, most Software Engineering books state that a project should start with a listing of requirements. Designer’s go beyond this by starting a project with finding out what people are doing and how do they think about the things they are doing even before listing requirements. The idea is not to just automate the systems that are in place, but to improve them by making them more like the way we think.