start doing sketch first development

I still think this is the best way to do Web or GUI apps, but I just don’t do enough work in this space to justify keeping this as a goal. There are too many other things that are closer to my domain.

I use OmniGraffle to ‘sketch’ out my ideas nowadays, though I used pen-and-paper before (and occasionally revert to this method). It is definitely a great way to get the ball rolling on the creation process, as well as outlining the things to be done and revealing how to do things in themselves.

M.T.

I work remote from the rest of my team. Anyone know of good collaborative tools for sketching? Sort of a SubEthaEdit plus Writeboard plus OmniGiraffe?

This has worked out nicely for me. I’ll generally work out some very rough sketches for each page to help solidify my ideas on the placement of each element, etc. From there, I generally go to Photoshop and from there to XHTML/CSS.

Sketching any type of web design out on paper before doing it is the best way to get it organized. It helps you to optimize because the tendency is to just do it and then tweak it to get it where you want. The less tweaking, the more forethought, the better the end result.

So, I’ve moved to the next stage: HTML mockups. The way things progress using this technique is fascinating—I’m already understanding the requirements and interface much better than I had before (in any of my other attempts to implement this beast).

I’m going to drop back to paper and pencil now, though, and start sketching out the pages for some of the more “core” functionality of the application. Great fun!

As I’m nearing the end of the sketches, I wonder what I should do about the back-end process I need to deal with. I could sketch the data flow, then build stories to implement from that. I’d love to hear what other people do though.

I’ve just about sketched out all the screens for the first version of my new app. I’ve noticed three things:

1) Sketching out the screens has made the app’s design and (future) implementation very clear. I’m really looking forward to starting to write some tests and get coding.

2) The sketches have also made me realize where I’d skipped important functionality in my mental doodling. Making the changes now while things are ‘just pictures’ has lowered the cost of change dramatically.

3) It’s really hard to keep from sitting down laying out the DB tables and writing code—everything just looks so easy at this point.

Now I just need to talk to someone with some real design skills to walk through the design sketches with so that I don’t end up with angry fruit salad.

After listening to DHH talk about his preferred development model at about a Seattle.rb meeting and reading about Jamis Buck’s experiences trying to follow DHH’s lead, I’m ready to start.

On the bus ride in to work this morning, I sketched out several screens for an app I’ll be writing (with Rails). I’m pretty psyched.