Introduction · Requirements to trade-offs

How the course is structured-style app

Illustrative system design for a requirements to trade-offs app like How the course is structured: 3 topics to read, from requirements to deep dives.

Illustrative design, not How the course is structured’s actual implementation. Arrowbox is not affiliated with How the course is structured’s owner. Disclaimer

Start with The method Sign in to start readingUpdated 2 Oct 2026

Core

One method for every designBeginner · 29 min read · Sign in to read
Every frontend design here moves through the same six stations, each producing one artefact the next one needs; the loop back is expected, and the board is organised the same way.
Requirements, architecture and data modelBeginner · 29 min read · Sign in to read
The first half of the method on Hearthly's chore board: questions that shrink the problem, a requirement list, boxes with owners, and entities split into server data and client-only state.
Interfaces, optimizations and trade-offsIntermediate · 31 min read · Sign in to read
The second half on the same chore board: the contracts between client and server and between components, picking the two deep dives that matter most, and writing decisions down with what you gave up.