Refers to beauty, grace, harmony, beautiful simplicity, restraint, clarity, and precision.
Published in Chapter:
Aesthetics in Software Engineering
Bruce MacLennan (University of Tennessee, USA)
Copyright: © 2009
|Pages: 6
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-026-4.ch013
Abstract
It is commonly supposed that software engineering is—and should be—focused on technical and scientific issues, such as correctness, efficiency, reliability, testability, and maintainability. Within this constellation of important technological concerns, it might seem that design aesthetics should hold a secondary, marginal role, and that aesthetic considerations might enter the design process, if at all, only after the bulk of the engineering is done. This article discusses the important role that aesthetics can play in engineering, and in particular in software engineering, and how it can contribute to achieving engineering objectives.