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If you want to turn your program idea into some reality, you need to model the data you will work with first. It doesn’t matter how you are going to implement the system — the limitations are pretty similar, no matter if we:
- build classes in any programming languages out there
- design database for storing the data
- describe schemas for APIs
- put the data into some no-code/low-code solution — such as google sheet or airtable
We will have to organize our data into a logical structure that allows the use cases we want to support in all those cases.
How to learn data modeling then?
It’s a practical skill, and you learn it best by doing. This article will walk you quickly through the challenges you face here and propose a simple exercise to get you started. You can even pick it as homework if you want:)
How to go about design
Start light. Pen and paper are the easiest or any application that allows you to sketch. You want to keep your form as light as possible — make circles, squares & arrows as you feel them fit. It should make sense to you, and in the given moment only — you are expected to recreate it as your understanding of the problem improves. Example of my design:
