Architecture design thinking model

With the " Architectural Design Thinking Principles ", there will be directions and guidelines for architectural design, which will not deviate and do a bad job, but it is still too theoretical after all. Therefore, we need to build a bridge between theory and practice-architecture design thinking mode.

There are four architectural design thinking modes: understanding, exploration, display, and evaluation.

• Understand the problem: understand all the people involved in the system and their needs.
• Explore ideas: In order to find the best design, a large number of models, technologies, and solutions need to be studied.
• Show ideas: The design concepts in your mind are transformed into tangible objects, such as making models, drawing prototypes, writing documents, etc.
• Evaluate applicability: verify whether the design decision can solve the problem and whether the work results meet the needs.

The above four thinking modes all follow the " Architectural Design Thinking Principles ", the following is my personal understanding to interpret the thinking mode of architectural design.

Understand the problem

Understanding the problem is the embodiment of the "people-oriented" design thinking principle. The so-called "If you want to solve the problem, you have to ask the problem." It is difficult to solve the problem when the cause of the problem is not clear. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the problem.

Most of the causes of problems come from people themselves, so we have to actively communicate the problems, understand the needs of stakeholders, and think about the problems in a different way. Only in this way can we grasp the degree of architecture design and make an appropriate design. For example, the business goals and quality attributes (non-functional attributes) of stakeholders, and the technology stack mastered by team members. To understand these in depth, it is easier to find the cause of the problem, and finally find the best solution.

Explore ideas

Don't simply think that exploring ideas is brainstorming, this is just one way. I believe readers who are familiar with the principles of design thinking already know that this should follow the principle of "good at learning from". Therefore, exploring ideas should be based on the knowledge accumulation and continuous improvement of ideas. Otherwise, your own ideas may be just a "wheel" of others and repeat the same mistakes.

Exploring ideas means trying a variety of solutions, and doing a good job of accumulating knowledge, allowing ideas to continuously correct the direction and achieve the goal efficiently.

Show ideas

As emphasized by "turning fictitious into reality" in " Architectural Design Thinking Principles ", if you can't let others understand and accept your design intent and decision, then the architectural design will not be able to play its due value, and software development will not be able to proceed smoothly. Go down. Showing ideas is not only for others to understand and accept, but also for testing the rationality of ideas.

Demonstrating ideas is very useful for project definitions and negotiating plans. Such sharing is conducive to everyone forming a consensus so that the work can be carried out in a more reasonable manner.

Assess suitability

Evaluating applicability can help us better follow the "delayed decision" principle of the " Architectural Design Thinking Principles ", because we can evaluate the priority of decision-making and the risk of not making a decision based on the project situation.

There are many evaluation methods, the most commonly used is scenario applicability evaluation, which verifies that the quality attributes of the architecture design and business objectives are met according to different scenarios, and can also be evaluated through risk, and so on.

to sum up

The application of design thinking mode gives us a reference template for architectural design, which can be more clearly designed according to the template. However, a flexible process is needed to use these thinking modes. The next article will explain the practical process of thinking mode.