Technology & society
The Essence of Software: Why Concepts Matter for Great Design
By Daniel Jackson, professor of electrical engineering and computer science
Princeton University Press · 2021
Software matters more than ever before. Why, then, is so much software flawed? Why isn't there a straightforward way to create software that is easy to use, robust, and secure? This book gives new answers to old questions, offering a fresh perspective on software design, with examples from over 100 familiar apps. It's accessible to anyone - strategist, marketer, manager, designer, or programmer - who wants software that is more empowering, dependable, and delightful to use.
From Summer 2022 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News). Cover image via Google Books.
More in Technology & society →
- Auditing AI · Karrie G. Karahalios, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution · Dwaipayan Banerjee, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Priority Technologies: Ensuring US Security and Shared Prosperity · Elisabeth B. Reynolds, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Rubrique Technologie / Tech Section · Nick Montfort, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Shape Computation: Fifty Years, 1972-2022 · Sotirios Kotsopoulos SM '00, 2025 · Summer 2026
- Shared Wisdom: Cultural Evolution in the Age of AI · Alex "Sandy" Pentland, 2025 · Summer 2026
- The Comedy of Computation: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Obsolescence · Benjamin Mangrum, 2025 · Summer 2026
- The Remote Revolution: Drones and Modern Statecraft · Erik Lin-Greenberg, 2025 · Summer 2026
More from Princeton University Press →
- Computing in the Age of Decolonization: India's Lost Technological Revolution · Dwaipayan Banerjee, 2026 · Summer 2026
- The Colony and the Company: Haiti after the Mississippi Bubble · Malick W. Ghachem, 2025 · Summer 2026
- Attention, Shoppers! American Retail Capitalism and the Origins of the Amazon Economy · Kathleen Thelen, 2025 · Summer 2025
- Taxation and Resentment: Race, Party, and Class in American Tax Attitudes · Andrea Campbell, 2025 · Summer 2025
- Code Work: Hacking Across the U.S./México Techno-Borderlands · Héctor Beltrán, 2023 · Summer 2024
- Laws of the Land: Fengshui and the State in Qing Dynasty China · Tristan Brown, 2023 · Summer 2024
- Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It · Adam Berinsky, 2023 · Summer 2024
- Seeking the Bomb: Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation · Vipin Narang, 2022