The Hidden Frameworks Behind Effective Software Design
25 Apr 2025
The Architecture Behind Good Design
When you walk through a well-designed building — a skyscraper, a university campus, or a public library — you notice its design and beauty. What you don’t immediately see are the architectural aspects that make these structures work: strategies for managing weight, making movement easy within them, and ensuring longevity. Behind every effective structure are solutions developed through years of experience and refinement.
In software engineering, design patterns serve a similar purpose. They are not lines of code to be copied, but general, reusable solutions to common design problems. A design pattern is a proven method for organizing code to solve specific kinds of challenges. Patterns help developers manage how complex a project is, promote code reuse, and make systems easier to maintain as they grow.
Unknowingly Applying Design Patterns
Before formally learning about design patterns, I’ve instinctively been applying similar ideas without knowing there were names for them. When working on projects, I’d naturally enforce a single instance of a database connection, or create systems where new types of objects could be introduced without rewriting large sections of code. I structured communication between components so that they weren’t directly dependent on one another because I sort of knew that tightly coupled code would eventually become a problem.
Looking back, I’m realizing that I was unknowingly following the logic behind patterns like Singleton, Factory, and Observer. I was solving practical problems in ways that many developers have also found effective. The difference is that now, after learning about design patterns more formally, I have a better understanding of why these solutions work, and how to apply them more deliberately.
Moving Forward with More Intentional Design
Recognizing design patterns in my work, I think, will allow for a major shift. Instead of approaching every new project with ad hoc solutions, I can now think in terms of established strategies. Having this mental framework will speed up development and also make it easier to collaborate with other developers, as they will be able to immediately understand the choices I’ve made.
This is essay was written with the help of AI.