You're not alone. At any given moment, somewhere in the world someone struggles with the same software design problems you have. You know you don't want to reinvent the wheel (or worse, a flat tire), so you look to Design Patterns--the lessons learned by those who've faced the same problems. With Design Patterns, you get to take advantage of the best practices and experience of others, so that you can spend your time on...something else. Something more challenging. Something more complex. Something more fun. You want to learn about the patterns that matter--why to use them, when to use them, how to use them (and when NOT to use them). But you don't just want to see how patterns look in a book, you want to know how they look "in the wild". In their native environment. In other words, in real world applications. You also want to learn how patterns are used in the Java API, and how to exploit Java's built-in pattern support in your own code. You want to learn the real OO design principles and why everything your boss told you about inheritance might be wrong (and what to do instead). You want to learn how those principles will help the next time you're up a creek without a design pattern. Most importantly, you want to learn the "secret language" of Design Patterns so that you can hold your own with your co-worker (and impress cocktail party guests) when he casually mentions his stunningly clever use of Command, Facade, Proxy, and Factory in between sips of a martini. You'll easily counter with your deep understanding of why Singleton isn't as simple as it sounds, how the Factory is so often misunderstood, or on the real relationship between Decorator, Facade and Adapter. With Head First Design Patterns, you'll avoid the embarrassment of thinking Decorator is something from the "Trading Spaces" show. Best of all, in a way that won't put you to sleep! We think your time is too important (and too short) to spend it struggling with academic texts. If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect--a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory, Head First Design Patterns will load patterns into your brain in a way that sticks. In a way that lets you put them to work immediately. In a way that makes you better at solving software design problems, and better at speaking the language of patterns with others on your team.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 283 Ratings

No need to think, buy it!!! - 2009-11-20
Reviewer Rating:
I tried reading other books on the same topic before but I gave up finally after sometime. Their presentation is either boring, too brief, without much explanation, lack of proper example or simply too difficult to read. That book is totally different. I read it quickly and found it very interesting to read. The idea is clearly presented in a comprehensivable way with short text, many graphics and illustration. Example is easy to understand. Highly recommend. No need to think, buy it!!!

A must have for those wanting to learn Design Patterns - 2009-10-17
Reviewer Rating:
I believe this book is a must have for those people that are new to Design Patterns or want to refresh themselves with the concepts of the most used Design Patterns. This book uses pictures and easy to understand terminology that helps you get a grasp of key concepts quickly, and retain them. This book is so much more fun to read and easier to understand than some of the other books out there on the topic. Give this book a chance. I think you'll be happy with it.

Good first book on Design Patterns - 2009-11-14
Reviewer Rating:
First, this is a Design Patterns book which takes a different approach to teaching ideas from the original GOF book, Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software.
Although I never read the original book, I looked at it enough times to know that it would be a difficult read. That book is a better reference book after you've read the Head First book to learn the concepts.

What I really like about this book is the emphasis on helping the reader to learn and understand the material. Head First Labs put serious thought into how people learn and they apply this knowledge to existing topics like Design Patterns.

Most of the code examples were in JAVA but they are simple enough to translate to C# without any trouble. There are a few design patterns, such as the iterator pattern, that can be accomplished in C# in a better way (ie. yield statement). I still found it helpful to know the iterator pattern by name and what it solves so I really understand what the yield statement does. So learn the concepts but expect to apply them in C# differently.

Great book to learn Design Patterns - 2009-11-08
Reviewer Rating:
I have been looking for a Design Patterns book for awhile, and have read a few sample chapters from a few books out there, including the GOF's, and Design patterns in C#. Honestly, although GOF book is the bible of Design Patterns, it was hard to understand... When I grabbed the Head First Design Patterns book - the first thought that came to my mind was - this cant be serious... and surprisingly, the authors knew the readers would get that feeling at first, as explained in the introduction section. I read a sample chapter, and finally it was making sense to me. The language is common conversational style, and with lots of diagrams and most importantly I like the way it gradually introduces you to the problem and how a specific design pattern can be used to solve it...

Excellent book on design patterns - 2009-10-20
Reviewer Rating:
This is an excellent book on design patterns. The book really helps to understand various design patterns, oo principles. I would definitely recommend this book. A must read.

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