Rethinking Software Design | Daniel Jackson | Design@Large

Daniel Jackson
Associate Director
Computer Science & AI Lab
MIT

Rethinking Software Design
May 4, 2016
CSE 1202, UC San Diego

Abstract
How does design thinking apply to software? Until now, most work on software design has focused on the design of the internal structure -- not on the design that the user experiences. We've made a lot of progress in making software more usable with better design processes and heuristic guidelines, but we still lack a fundamental theory that could provide a more focused and constructive way to design software.

In this talk, I'll explain the elements of a candidate theory that I've been working on. The behavior of a software app is structured as a collection of "concepts", each of which is a state machine with its own motivating purpose. By examining the mapping between concepts and purposes, subtle design flaws are exposed that can have major impacts on usability.

Biography
Daniel Jackson is Professor of Computer Science at MIT, a MacVicar teaching fellow, and an Associate Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he leads the Software Design Group. He is the lead designer of the Alloy modelling language, and author of "Software Abstractions: Logic, Language, and Analysis" (MIT Press; second ed. 2012). His research currently focuses on a new approach to software design, on new programming paradigms, and on cybersecurity. He is also a photographer, whose most recent project can be found at http://soulstrong.mit.edu.