Form Follows Function

F.F.F. or Form Follows Function is an acronym that should be familiar in the field of architecture. While "Form Follows Function" was kind of the Motto for anyone who was a student at either the Bauhaus School of Architecture or the Illinois Institute of Technology studying in that field, it also applies to building a program too.

Just like a building has structures, so does programming. Only we call our structures data structures.

The logic is simply this: The functionality of the program must have a higher precedence than the appearance (or form) of the program. In other words: Function before Style.

You can have a minimalistic looking piece of crap that works perfectly then sculpt it into a thing of beauty later or you can waste time making mockup and not have a program that does anything. This is important if you are at an event like a hackathon. You're there to make a program, not market it!

The bottom line is this: Given a deadline to create something, you must put aside any marketing strategy and focus on just building something. It won't matter if you have three guys who can code [iOS](Oh you have a Mac how cute) what you need three guy who know how to write code in [Python].

See Also

• [DRY](Don't Repeat Yourself)
• [KISS](Keep It Simple Stupid)