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The Software Design Handbook

nathanbarry.com

42 pointsnathanbarry28 comments

I'm thrilled to announce my latest book focused on designing web applications. After the success of my last book, The App Design Handbook, I had a lot of people asking me to write something specific to web applications. I actually started writing the outline for this book back in 2009, but it wasn't until a few months ago that I actually started writing.

Happy to answer any questions about it!

Congrats. I see this book comes out on December 12th. How were you able to write it so quickly after the last one?

I made a commitment to write 1,000 words per day. So after I finished the first book, I just kept writing. I wrote more about that here: http://nathanbarry.com/commitment-changed-career/

First, good job! I hope to add "authored a book" to my resume some day.

Question, though: if this book is specifically geared towards web apps, why did you give it such an ambiguous name that mentions nothing at all about web apps?

Is your book about architecting applications (on a code level), or is the "design" relating more to the artistic definition of design? Judging by the sample content, it looks to have little-to-nothing to do with actual code, and mostly focused on UI/UX.

As-is, the title just seems really inaccurate; "software design", at least for me, is a very specific area which deals exclusively with UML and other code-level architectural concerns.

I guess we are using the same words to mean different things. I'll see if I can come up with a title that is more clear.

The book is focused on designing software from a user's perspective. That includes how the application flow works, making sure it is intuitive, and adding a layer of polish with colors, textures, and animations.

Isn't the correct term "web apps"? I've never heard anyone refer to them as "software".

I was trying to name it using "Handbook" like my last book, but "The Web Application Design Handbook" was already taken.

I would love better ideas!

Why not The Web App Design Handbook? It matches your branding...

There is already a book with that exact name :(

"App" or "Application"? I searched for "App" and nothing showed in Google...

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22The+Web+App+Design+Handbo...

The Webapp Design Handbook?

"Web design" and "web application design" are virtually the same thing, so I might even drop application from it.

"The Web Design Handbook" "Web Designs Handbook" "The Handbook of Web Design"

Also, you might be able to get away with just giving it a subtitle, which would add context. Maybe include UI, UX, graphic design, usability, etc.

This is specifically about web application design, which I see as being quite different from web design. Many concepts are the same, but web applications require a different style of design.

So mentioning applications or software is important.

Software design has a very specific meaning to us programmers which is about the background architecture. It's a very confusing title.

Looks to be an excellent and interesting book though, I'm just doing the Human Computer Interaction course on coursera and I can see it being a nice addition to fleshing out some of the topics.

Cool, then it's not too late. I think with the current title you would miss much of your intended audience, while at the same time there would probably be complaints from CS-types.

Good luck!

Yep, based on this feedback the title is going to change. I think I'll spend a couple weeks to settle on the right name before launching. Thanks!

Indeed. Please, change the name, I'm very interested in the book, but at first I thought it was about software design patterns or something like that.

Okay. I'll work on the name. Any ideas?

Designing Web Applications

It seemed to generic at first, but I may just go with it.

Structure and design of web applications.

I was actually hoping that it would be a book about software design for web applications. Oh well..

Hi Nathan, perhaps this book isn't for me as a designer as much as it is for developers to ensure everything that needs to be there is there, but the modal popup having the action buttons before the messaging doesn't seem to make any sense from a UX perspective.

It looks really cool. Sorry to nitpick, but I think you should say "DESIGNING WEB SOFTWARE IS DIFFERENT from DESIGNING WEBSITES" (it might at least help with the British crowd)

Where's your definition of 'site' vs 'app' coming from? How does, e.g, Amazon, fit into this?

Discount for people who bought previous book? :)

I'll do a 25% (ish) discount on launch day and will be sure to let everyone who bought the previous book know about it.

Great, thanks! Can't wait for this book.

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