Hi Gus,
Steve Gustafson wrote, On 11/8/2006 8:21 AM:
For me the application dictates whether I build from the front-end or
back-end.
As the complexity of the back-end increases, I am more likely to begin
there. The reason for this is it is very easy to build a UI that does
not match the requirements of the back-end. For a simple application
this is not the case, but if you are building an online banking
system, you better nail down the back-end before you think about the UI.
I haven't experienced that. I can certainly see how, if you are letting
the UI drive your database design, that would be the case. But here, my
understanding was that we are simply getting feedback from the users
before doing the database design, to help inform us of the requirements.
Of course, I have heard a horror story from a close friend
(incidentally, the app was for banking), where two separate teams
designed UI and db, and the UI team's design "won out" but it didn't
make sense from a data perspective. I wouldn't say you need the db
nailed down, but certainly you would come up with prototypes based on
some (albeit incomplete) knowledge of how the system should work. At
this banking company, the UI designers were clueless, as I was led to
believe.
With all that being said, I would think the best way to do this learning
process is to not heavily couple the UI or DB designs to anything in
particular at this point (or ever). You ought to be able to reuse your
database among different UIs, should you choose to do so.
-Sam
That being said… for a very high percentage of applications building
around the UI is fine.
Gus
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] *On
Behalf Of *Brian Klaas
*Sent:* Wednesday, November 08, 2006 8:27 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: [CFCDEV] Application design ideas
I always tell my staff that “The interface /is/ the application” for
the users. Building the interface first will save you countless hours
down the line by removing a large number (but not all) of the “Oh, I
thought the application would...[insert name of feature here]” and
“Couldn’t you just change this to...[insert description of new feature
here]” conversations that you’re likely to have.
brian
on 11/8/06 7:14 AM, Hal Helms at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Yes, I would, Stephen. Here’s why: only users can tell us both exactly
what they want the system to do and, very importantly, what the system
should look and feel like. (I’ve seen many times when a perfectly
functional system is never used because the fit between system and
user is a poor match.) We would LIKE for users to be able to tell us
what they want, but experience shows us they’re much better doing this
AFTER the fact (which is why so many requirements come out at
deployment in the guise of “You know what would be nice…” comments).
Doing the UI first allows all this discovery to be done before the
cost of code and database work is paid.
*From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *On Behalf Of *Stephen Adams
*Sent:* Wednesday, November 08, 2006 7:07 AM
*To:* [email protected]
*Subject:* Re: [CFCDEV] Application design ideas
Hi Hal,
Thanks for the reply, the application I'm building is a Flex front-end
based application, do you think it's a good idea to build a demo
front-end in Flex first?
On 08/11/06, *Hal Helms* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Stephen,
Here's how I approach things. After I have a decent idea of what the
system needs to do (the features of the system in your list), I begin
creating the user interface. Designing the UI first is the best way I
have found to fully capture all the nuances of the system. Because
there is (almost) no code and no database involved, I remain very
flexible as I iterate over many versions with the client. My goal is
to capture all of the requirements within the context of a very usable
system. If you've not done "UI First", I can't recommend it highly
enough.
Once this is done, I'll create the UML and, finally, the
persistence/DB layer.
HTH,
Hal
*From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *On Behalf Of *Stephen Adams
*Sent:* Wednesday, November 08, 2006 6:23 AM
*To:* cfcdev
*Subject:* [CFCDEV] Application design ideas
Hi,
I'm thinking about how I go about designing an application from
scratch. I've got a wireframe diagram of how the system should look,
all the pages and what they will contain, but I trying to think what
to do next. Do I:
* Create the database
* Create UML diagram
* List the features of the system
I'm building this system with a Flex front end so its got to be very
OO orientated, but where to start. Does anyone have any ideas,
thoughts, what do other do?
Stephen
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