Book review: Michael J. Hernandez, ‘Database design for mere mortals’

Book review: Michael J. Hernandez, ‘Database design for mere mortals’. Many software manuals and help-functions are written in the format ‘If you want to do X, you need to click this button. If you want to do Y, you need to select option this-or-that’. This is why software manuals can be useless to beginners: they don’t explain why you would want to do X or Y. This book tells you all about that. It teaches you how to design a relational database, rather than how some database software package works. … More Book review: Michael J. Hernandez, ‘Database design for mere mortals’

Book review: Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington, ‘Universal methods of design’

If you are designing software, database systems, websites or other digital stuff, this book deserves your attention. The book indeed describes ‘100 Ways to research complex problems, develop innovative ideas, and design effective solutions.’ as it’s subtitle claims. Organized alphabetically, each method receives two pages of attention. More tagging and indexing to make the book better accessible would be nice extras, but that does not take away that, as it is, it already is a good read and a treasure trove of design methods. Perhaps not all methods apply to your needs, wishes and circumstances as a designer, but those may change and as long as they don’t, I am sure there will be some interesting methods for you left worth exploring. … More Book review: Bella Martin and Bruce Hanington, ‘Universal methods of design’