The Devils in the detail!

If there's one thing our designers and developers disagree on it's planning.

We all agree that every project needs some form of planning, even if it's simply scoping out costs so that you can ensure you make a profit. At the very least you should also make sure you have a good idea of what your client wants; to avoid any disagreements later when you do the big reveal. I mean you don't want your TAH-DAH moment to go all ERR-UHM do you?

If our developers had their way they would plan everything down to the last XHTML div and it's CSS style attribute. If our designers had their way they would grab the brief and and fire up Photoshop.

So who is right? Here at GeekyCreative we appreciate both approaches and therefore we try and feel our way through a project with our designers, developers and clients all involved. Some clients understand the technical side of a web development and some are more interested in the brand and style, for the latter; making it work is often the development teams responsibility and therefore they don't care 'how' you do it. Just that you do it!

To bridge the gap and make sure our designers and developers can work together, we do one bit of planning as soon as we receive an order. We make a very simple wire frame, or rather, we make two wire frames. Our designers will sketch out a wire frame layout, deciding roughly on the sizing and positioning of the branding, the number of columns and placement of navigation etc. They will work closely with a developer who will then take the sketch and produce a working wire frame from the brief, to do this we use MS Sketchflow. Once our developer is happy the wire frame goes back to the design desk and a full blown Photoshop visual is produced ready for the client.

We then sit down with the client and show them the visual and the wire frames at the same time. Clients can then see colours, sizing, positions and scale alongside a click able wire frame that demonstrates user journey and functionality.

This early planning allows our designers to 'place' their ideas inside an agreed framework, freeing them up to concentrate on smaller details, the things that make a visual difference. It also allows our developers to build a site quicker, there's no open ended functionality or going back to the client for clarification on what links go where. This allows our developers to concentrate on the intricies of their code and ensuring that the UI is the best that it can be.

Thus proving that for both developers and designers a little planning can go a long way. The Devil really is in the detail and a web development project can be a devil to get right if you don't have your creative designer and your geeky developer working towards the same goal.

Here at GeekyCreative we've been building websites this way for over 10 years... and we think we're not bad at it.

For more information please contact sales@geekycreative.com