Design
Even if you feel great about knowing the architecture of your target platform without a good design you are going to be sunk. Try not to fall into the trap though of over-designing the application. The two basic principles are to "Keep it Simple" and to utilize information hiding (Don't show the user more than they need to see). Often this is where object-oriented analysis and UML come in. Do an internet search on UML and you'll find dozens of articles on using it.
Read more about this topic: Best Coding Practices
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“We find that Good and Evil happen alike to all Men on this Side of the Grave; and as the principle Design of Tragedy is to raise Commiseration and Terror in the Minds of the Audience, we shall defeat this great End, if we always make Virtue and Innocence happy and successful.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)
“Teaching is the perpetual end and office of all things. Teaching, instruction is the main design that shines through the sky and earth.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)