Workflow: Design up front.
From day one we decided we would design the user experience of Fireside Ember first and then begin development around it. We made this decision based on a few things: past experience, efficiency and ultimately because the design is your product.
Past experience.
As a team, we have the luxury of a work history together. Prior to Overcommitted we worked (and still do) as part of a Information Technology group for a Bioscience-based company. That shared experience has given us a high level of trust and respect of each other’s abilities and opinions. Pragmatically our experience has taught us if we design the UI up front in the end we have a much more pleasing application for our users.
Efficiency.
Pen and paper are fairly inexpensive both in cost of goods as well as time. By designing up front (with sketches and then rendered mockups) we can work through a lot of iterations before writing a single line of code. Sketching out designs up front also gives you the ability spec out your project a little better. In this phase of the project we were able to more clearly express how we wanted Fireside Ember to interact with users. Words are great, but sketches are better.
Design as the Product.
In Getting Real, 37signals coined the idea that the design is your product. The premise behind this isn’t to place a value on form over function, but instead to emphasize the reality that users don’t see the code. What they do see is the user experience, if its a good experience the overall impression is the product is good, if its bad, well the product is crap. Regardless of how well the Objective -C is under the hood, most of the time a user will judge an app by its cover..
Below are a few samples from our early sketches of Fireside Ember.
