Sunday, January 18, 2009

The Designful Company

The Designful Company by Marty Neumeier



I have to confess that when it comes to reading books related to work I have a short attention span. For technical books I tend to skim through the text and examples until I get a 'feel' for the content. Most of the time this is sufficient, after all if I need more details I can come back to the book and dig into them. The most important thing for me is to have a high level view of the technology and to know were to get more information.


So when it came to reading 'The Designful Company' by Marty Neumeier I kicked off with my usual skimming approach - but quickly found myself changing tack and putting my novel hat on - reading every word!


Quoting Thomas Aquinas "Ad pulcritudenum tria requiruntur integritas, consonantia, claritas". Design requires 3 qualities



  • integrity

  • harmoney

  • radiance


Reading this I was struck by the thought that these are the things I am looking for in the architecture and design of a software system.


In fact many of the ideas presented by the book (intended for a wide variety of companies) resonate with current agile software development trends.


The bit on agility (p21) brought a smile to my face


'The Designful Company' is an easy thought provoking read. Presenting a strong argument for corporate adoption of design to drive growth in the 21 century.


Given my reading habbits it also helps that the book is small and layed out well with large print.


It may be just me but I am seeing a convergence in thinking across many different disciplines - or maybe software development practitioners are still learning from others.