Software design is like drawing a map for a computer program. It’s a very important part for people who create programs. It helps them with the hard parts and keeps them from making mistakes. In this article, we’ll answer some usual questions about how this all works.
Why We Design Software
First, software design is about making and changing computer programs. This includes making new software, updating it, setting up networks, and testing.
How to Become a Software Designer
Then, if you learn software engineering, you get to know how to program. You learn to make, take care of, and check different computer programs.
How to Design Software
Next, you organize the design in steps and make sure everything works well together. The goal is to break the program into smaller parts, with each part doing its own job.
Different Ways to Design Software
User-Centered Design
- This way, you think about the people who will use the software while making it.
Accessible Design
- This follows special rules to make sure everyone can use the software easily.
Interface Design
- This is about how the software looks and feels when you use it.
Information Design
- This arranges the information inside the software.
Object-Oriented Design
- This uses pictures to show how the software is put together.
Iterative Design
- This makes the software better by getting people’s opinions regularly.
Process Design
- This connects how the software looks with how it is made.
Visual/Graphic Design
- This focuses on making the software look good according to what the client wants.
Parallel Design
- This tries to improve how the software design turns out.
How Much Do Software Designers Make?
The average yearly pay for someone who makes software is $90,000. They also might get extra money, about $9,500, and this can be between $2,000 and $24,000.
How much they earn can depend on where they live. In places where people use US dollars, they usually get paid more.
It also matters how well they speak English. If they speak English really well, they can earn more money anywhere in the world. This is because they can work from home, no matter where they live.
Points To Consider When Developing Software
Software design is a bit like making a plan for a computer program or system. It’s important and has four main parts:
- First, you take the ideas from the beginning and turn them into a shape that can be used to build the software.
- Then, there’s data design. This part figures out how different pieces of the program connect and work together.
- Next is architectural design. This part tells us how the software talks to itself, other systems, and the people who use it.
- After that, there’s interface design. It’s about how the software looks and how people use it.
- Finally, there’s the design of procedures. This part makes a plan for the steps the software will follow to do its tasks.
Software Design: The Process
When making a computer program, you first decide what kind of information the program will keep. This could be things like sales details, old info, or reference stuff. Then, you make some choices:
- Start by picking what info will go into the program’s records.
- Next, decide how long each piece of info should be. This depends on what kind of info it is.
- After that, think about how to arrange this info in order. It can be in a line, sorted in a special way, or arranged differently.
But remember, not every new program needs to make all new records. Sometimes, you can just use old records from a previous system. Just connect the new program to the main place where all the records are kept.
The last thing to plan is how the program will work with the database.
It’s important to plan a computer program well. This means using basic steps, checking everything carefully, and making plans with drawings or models.
Output Design
Output means the stuff that the computer system shows or gives us. It’s like the answers and things we see on the computer screen. For most people, this is why we make computer systems, to get the answers we need. When the computer experts are making the system, they need to:
- Choose what information to show. They decide if it should be seen on the screen, heard from the computer, or printed on paper, and they pick how to show it.
- Make sure the information looks good.
- Decide how to give the information to others who need it.
So, output is like the computer’s way of talking to us and telling us what we want to know.
File Design
First, think about what goes into the file. This could be things like details of sales, old information, or reference stuff. Then, decide on a few things while making this file:
- What kind of data will you put in the file?
- How long each piece of information should be. This depends on what the data is about.
- How to arrange the data in the file. It can be in order, sorted by some rule, or arranged in a special way.
But remember, not every new system needs to make all new files. Often, you can just use the files from the old system. Just connect the new system to the main file where all the records are.
Lastly, think about how this file will work with the database.
Design For Interaction With The Database
You know those big systems that store a lot of information? Well, they have special places called databases where they keep all that stuff. These databases are like treasure chests of information.
Now, here’s the cool part: There are people called database administrators, kind of like the guardians of these treasure chests. They make sure the treasure (which is all the data) is safe and used correctly.
So, when someone wants to make a new system, they don’t have to build a new treasure chest (database) from scratch. Nope! They just chat with the database administrator and figure out how to use the existing treasure chest for their new stuff. It’s teamwork!
Software Design Tools
When we make a computer program, we want to make sure it does exactly what we planned from the start.
Here are some helpful tools:
- Specification Tools: These help us decide what the program should do. They help us choose what information the program will use, what it will give back, how it works, and how we control it. They even help us pick the right kind of information.
- Presentation Tools: These tools help us decide where to put information on the computer screen, in reports, and in other places where we give or get information.
- Systems Development Tools: These are like helpers that turn our designs into real, working programs.
- Software Engineering Tools: These tools support the whole process of making a program, from following the steps and rules to doing the paperwork.
- Code Generator: This creates the actual code and parts of the program based on what we want the program to do.
- Test Tools: These tools check if parts of the program are working just right, as we planned. They have special ways to test if everything in the program is doing its job well.
To do all this, you need to know a lot about computers and how to work with people. It’s like solving puzzles!
Examples of Software Design
Design examples are like the blueprints for things that work with computers, like the software that runs our computers, websites, phone apps, and places where we keep lots of information. There are also new and cool ways to use the internet to store and use information.
Today, technology is a part of everything we do. So, you can create software for many different things, like programs for learning, running a business, keeping track of stuff, and much more.
When you think about all of this, making software is a great job if you enjoy using a computer at home. It might take some time, but you can earn good money by doing it.
What Is the Best Software Design Training Option?
One of the best ways to learn how to be a programmer is to go to a university or a special school for technology. They teach you all about programming, either all kinds of programming or just one special kind.
You can also learn online. There are lots of places on the internet where you can learn how to program.
Sometimes, these online places have newer stuff to learn than universities or tech schools. It’s easier for them to change and add new things to learn than it is for big schools.
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