Foundations for Architecting Data Solutions

Chapter 4. Interface Design

Building data projects with large volumes of multistructured data is complex. In addition, there’s the potential complexity of integrating various components and technologies into a solution, supporting large numbers of concurrent users and different processing patterns, plus the need to be flexible in order to adapt to changing requirements and technologies.

So, how can we address these challenges when designing our systems? Well-designed interfaces can help build solutions that are maintainable, scalable, and resilient to change. In this chapter, we focus on what makes a good interface design, some nonfunctional considerations, and some common interface examples.

The Human Body

Before going into technology, let’s reflect on a system that’s far more complex than any we’re likely to ever build. This system also uses interfaces and very focused subsystems to reduce dependencies and adapt to changing conditions over time (although somewhat larger time spans than our systems will have to deal with). The system we’re referring to is the human body; if we think of it as a collection of high-level parts connected by interfaces, we can identify parallels to our own systems.

The Human Body Versus a Data Architecture

If we look at the main systems in the human body, we can begin to note some interesting parallels to a modern data architecture. Let’s take a look at some of these parallels, starting with the body’s peripheral nervous system and central nervous ...