A Method for Program Design
IT, Høgskolen i Østfold
IT, Høgskolen i Østfold
Børre Stenseth,Dec. 1999.
This is a short presentation of a method for program design. The word design must be understood in a wider sense than user interface design. The design process as defined by Websters Dictionary [3] covers a wide approach and seems appropriate:
The approach that engineering (and some other) disciplines use to specify how to create or do something. A successful design must satisfies a (perhaps informal) functional specification (do what it was designed to do); conforms to the limitations of the target medium (it is possible to implement); meets implicit or explicit requirements on performance and resource usage (it is efficient enough).
A design may also have to satisfy restrictions on the design process itself, such as its length or cost, or the tools available for doing the design.
The method covers the process from idea to program. The focus is on "tools for thinking" in the process rather than rules for designing the user interface or the technical design of the program. The tools have a form that gives priority to simplicity and communication, rather than precision and formality. That means that participation, from different kinds of knowledge, experience and expertise, is given high priority.
The method has been developed and used mainly as a tool for designing computer programs for educational purposes. The method has a wider applicability. The techniques are fairly general and easily adaptable to programs of other categories. Design of computer programs in general is in my experience to a large extent a pedagogical endeavour.
The method as it is presented here is the result of a long cooperation with my "brother in arms" Ivar Minken [8], and it is the result of a large number of projects and design courses. The background of the method is described in references [1].
The article: Pedagogy and Technology [2] gives a historical perspective to the method.
PDF-version: pall.pdf.
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