This is an old revision of the document!
Back to proposals-2013
Title: Design is a Joke
Proposer: chris_simons
Type: Interactive Workshop
Duration: 90 minutes
Description:
Christmas Cracker jokes are corny but fun. But I heard a different take on Christmas Cracker jokes on
a local radio station phone-in last year. Instead of asking the Christmas Cracker question, the
contestant is given the punch-line, and they have to guess the build-up question. It’s great fun, not
least because, of course, there are many possible build-up questions. Afterwards, I began to think:
isn’t this like software design? The designer is given the requirements (the punch line), has to come
up with a design (the build-up) and then has to evaluate the design (finding the best among the
possibilities). So design’s a joke, because you’re given the punch line of the joke, yet you have to
think up a design. This simple idea tells us a great deal about how we design and develop software.
Attendees take away two learning outcomes:
(1) design and development is all about generating possibilities and evaluating them, and
(2) this can be supported by evolutionary computing.