Every walk of life has its stars, there are Hollywood stars, rock stars, stars of politics and of peace. Even technology has its stars. Most tech savvy people have heard of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates but one name which is less well known but is equally destined to be remembered in the annals of history is Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
Way back when computers where very large and very specialist, Fred Brooks worked for IBM and was responsible for the writing of the world's first big computer program (in fact it was an operating system) and the program ended up being late, slow and over budget. But in the aftermath two important things happened: 1) writing computer programs turned into software engineering and 2) Fred wrote a book about why it all went wrong. From this book (The Mythical Man-Month) several different software engineering laws emerged known as Brooks laws of which the most famous is that 'adding more people to a late project makes it later'.
Well now, 35 years later, Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. has written another book, this time not about software but about design. Design affects all of us. If design is defined as 'make a plan for later execution' then we all do it all the time. From kitchen remodelling to design software, there are lessons to be learnt and used from across the whole spectrum of design disciplines.
Fred's new book is 442 delightful pages of insights into design. Starting with the simple questions about what is design, it moves quickly to look at Collaboration and Telecollaboration and then Design Perspectives. The later half of the book takes a trip through a series of case studies from kitchen remodelling to the design of an operating system.
The case studies section of the book starts with this great quote: 'In retrospect, most of the case studies have a striking common attribute: the boldest design decisions, whoever made them, have accounted for much of the goodness of the outcome. These bold decisions were due sometimes to vision, sometimes to desperation. They were always gambles, requiring extra investment in hopes of getting a much better result.' Of course the latest craze in the gadget world is the iPad and I couldn't help but think of the iPad (and in fact several of Apple products) when I read the quote. Since Apple announced the device in January there have been lots of naysayers who have mocked the bold design decisions of the iPad. But those bold design decisions have accounted for much of the goodness in the final products. It was the same when the iMac was launched, what no floppy? Do you use a floppy today?
Obviously Mr Brook's book isn't for everyone, it is a technical book in many ways, but if you are involved in any kind of design, in any field, then mark my words, this book is an essential read.
The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist is available from Amazon.co.uk and InformIT for less than £20.