After a day of brainstorming ideas for the roommate app (yet to be named), I have finally begun to create it. I begin all new projects by writing out all the things I expect it to do. This helps me remember the scope and functionality of the application. It's always challenging to judge if your scope is too large at the start of the project, but that will become apparent very soon.
Next, I sketch out designs on a whiteboard using a thick marker. If you don't have a whiteboard, just use a notebook with a large sharpie. The thickness of the pen will prevent you from adding unnecessary details. Just focus on the structure of the application. The details will be added soon and reworked many times over!. Moving the sketches to the computer isn't all that difficult thanks in part to Balsamiq. If you haven't heard of it, definitely check it out. Compared to Photoshop, the time it takes to flesh out a mockup is laughable.
Now that I have a good idea of the overall design, it's time to get the dev server setup before any HTML is written. I'd rather build the templates within my framework (Django in this case) so that I don't have to move everything over later. The time saved is negligible, but it allows me to start structuring the application right away.
More updates soon.
Monday, March 22, 2010
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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
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