Chapter 14

Design VIII –The Four Elements of Simple Design

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

– Generally attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci

I personally love the four elements of simple design. It is the highest-level set of principles, more like a set of goals to pursue with a defined priority than rigid rules to apply or break. This meshes well with my personality, but it also works really well when you have to make trade-off decisions while refactoring the design.

In my opinion, the key element of the set is the focus on expressivity, considered one of the fundamental properties of good design. While the other three elements are very important, and we have seen many practices and principles that support them, I feel that there is generally not enough consideration about code expressing its intentions.

Working on a very clean and expressive code base is the most satisfying technical experience for me as a developer. Knowing that I can...