Design – Build – Run: Applied Practices and Principles for Production-Ready Software Development

4.2. Considering the Design

It was a very long time ago when I first started having thoughts about writing a book about software development. I finally decided what I wanted to say by simply having a picture in my head similar to the one shown in Figure 4-2.

Figure 4.2. Figure 4-2

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and it is true. The picture in Figure 4-2 took me approximately 20 minutes to produce. Trin Tragula, a character in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, extrapolated the whole of creation from one small piece of fairy cake and created the "Total Perspective Vortex." In a similar way, it is possible to extrapolate and complete an entire membership design from the one simple picture presented. However, it is a totally different scenario to actually develop and implement the final solution.

Presenting the picture is similar to saying the actual words "membership system." The concept of a membership system is pretty common, and most seasoned web users, designers, and developers could easily list the general features and functions, as well as provide a series of handmade mockups like the one shown. Similarly if I were to say the words "online store," a team of users, designers and developers could take just these two words and start shaping something out. Every online store has very similar features — product browsing and searching, shopping ...