Making the Web Work: Designing Effective Web Applications

Bringing Design To Software

With at least some illumination shed on the question of Web applications as a medium, another room in need of sunlight is the relationship between the activities of design and software development. Unfortunately, the word design is about as nebulous as words like love, faith, and reason. A definition, therefore, seems in order. Unfortunately, the obligatory dictionary definition is surprisingly content-free: “v. intend, plan or propose.” Thank you, Mr. Webster. Two other alternatives come closer to the point.

In his book Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life, John Heskett offered the following: “…design, stripped to its essence, can be defined as the human capacity to shape and make our environment in ways ...