I am riding a train from Munich to Paris (we just rolled through Stuttgart), after attending the Convergence EMEA conference for a couple of days.  Since my heritage is German, Bavarian to be exact and German-Swiss, rolling through these hills feels pretty comfy.  Now, I am an engineer by training and by nature (it’s pretty obvious if you have ever met me), and with my travels, one thing that I notice consistently is how the design of things differs from place to place. 

Having spent the last few days in Germany, I must say that everything here is well built.  Just take doors on the buildings.  They are like vault doors – no flex, perfect hinges, well balanced.  Well designed and well built.  And I am talking about every single door, the hotel, restaurant, quick-mart, bathroom, every door.  A friend of mine liked the doors and windows in Germany, so he custom ordered them for his new, “I just sold my company”, house.  He pointed out that the windows and doors were air tight and had higher insulation ratings than anything ever imported into the United States, which did not surprise me.  Not only did the windows and doors cost a fortune, but the “not designed and built in Germany” house had to be extensively modified so that the German quality doors and windows would fit.

I have been to Denmark quite a few times as well.  Again, everything is very well designed, and usually well built (if it was built in Scandinavia or Germany).  But in Denmark, design and aesthetic appeal is a larger part of the mix.  So everything in Denmark not only works, but looks good too.  Of course, some function compromise must be made to make it look good, but that is OK as long as the balance is maintained.  I always think of Bang and Olufsen as the classic example of Scandinavian design.

In England you have great design and craftsman focused manufacturing, but there is a traditional styling undercurrent that permeates everything.  A Land Rover is a well engineered piece of equipment (owned by the Germans now), but it does not look like a Hummer.  I own a Jaguar, and I really like it.  I also own a Dodge truck.  But when you want to rev it up, be comfortable and look presentable all at the same time?  Go with the Jaguar.  Most of the goods designed and manufactured in England are that way.  Comfortable, solid, useful but not too complex, in a word, clever.

I have been in Japan a few times and it is fascinating.  There are gadgets for everything.  The attention to detail is tremendous.  From the choreographed sequence of serving a noodle dish to conveniently placed vending machines.   Similar to the Danish everything has a balance of design, aesthetic appeal and function, but there is a minimalist element that is thrown, i.e., only use the materials necessary.  Note that I said minimalist, not simple.  If there is a problem to be solved, then there is always a solution, no matter how complex (the park-it-self Lexus would be a good example).  So, although everything is clean and functional, but cost half as much and uses fewer materials than the German “stout” equivalent.

And then there is America.  The ultimate cultural Mash-Up.  Americans are so inventive because we do not have any inherent culture, we borrow from all of our cultural influences.  Thus, when attacking a collection of problems, we normally have an eclectic combination of skills and cultural influences from most of the cultures in the world (with a heavy bent on northern Europe).  DNA may work in here somewhere, but I am not educated in hereditary genetics.  So we get the problems solved, but we may need to get some German, Danish or Russian influence.   Ingenuity is the key driver and the tenacity to create, borrow, or make-up whatever is needed to get ‘er done.  So you get some nice designs, like a ’57 Chevy Belair coupe, and some nasty anomalies, like the Ford Edsel.

So, what does that have to do with software?  Well, in my role, I see lots of software.  I have been building, using, implementing, and marketing ERP software in some form for more than 20 years.  I have a global portfolio, so I get to see products from all over the world.  The design characteristics by culture that I described above would be somewhat consistent.  At Convergence I went through a dozen demos and reviews of functionality.  In our agile, “cool”, Web 2.0 world, I crave well designed, well built, purpose targeted solutions.  Many, unfortunately, are not.  When I see a product that really impresses me it is because they understood and solved the business problem.  The really good ones invested in designing  a solution first, and applied the proper balance of user interface design, algorithmic execution, data management and deep, deep domain knowledge (yeah, real deep).  With our evolving world of Web 2.0, SOA, SaaS, .NET and now WPF, the resources to build the best business applications are better than they have ever been.  I look forward to seeing my next batch of well designed, purpose built, market matching business solutions.  In some future entries I will describe some of the latest good ones I have seen.