Artful engineering

In the 80’s and 90’s software development was viewed as 80% engineering and 20% design. This has changed, and someone recently described it to me as ‘artful engineering’, which I think is a great way of putting it.

We’ve seen this change as a response to opportunity but also out of necessity. The web has matured, and there has been rapid (r)evolution in online products and markets. The relative ease in duplicating online software products and services means there is an increasing need for software houses and product developers to learn, innovate and change.

The consumerization of technology has also played its part, where market-defining innovations in smartphones and tablets have democratised powerful technology, and made it accessible and available to many. As a result, consumers (users) have ever higher expectations of how technology and applications should behave.

Today, developing intuitive, usable and sophisticated applications, that make clever use of interoperable technologies and languages, demands creative thought and logical engineering in equal measure.