A) - Usually in our projects or in my projects, I try go with the design first, starting with describing what we are doing, why, for who and how.(The Five W’s Of http://52weeksofux.com/post/890288783/the-five-ws-of-ux). The concept, being 5 lines or 5 pages, sets the background for the whole project.
From there I try to go with sketches, or wireframes to iterate the views or the interaction flows. Then start doing the ui in Photsohop. When I'm quite set with the UI I start implementing that and iterating the interface along the way. After that, or about in the same time we start coding the features.
B) - I'm not sure how much wisdom we have accumulated. About some things sure, but natural multitouch interfaces or multimillion user web services are still quite new. If we would have followed Jacob Nielsens advice on everything, we woudn't have sites we have today.
I think the best way is to keep updated what's out there and from there you can get inspired to find your own solutions. That's why I have iPads & iPhones, try to use most of the new services to understand how they work and how they're built.
C) - In our company we usually have 2-3 person teams, where one of them is a designer, which is something I would recommend. Personally I think the best is if the designer can also implement the design, because Photoshop mockup is not the actual design, the app or it's interface is. For best result, you need to be charge of the whole interaction.
D) - I'm not that sure which way around I got started, I had some classical arts education as a kid, and later started making websites and developed some web services. I'm quite bad programmer, altough in addition to html&css I can handle javascript, rails and php.
I think the first step is to know what's is great and what isn't so you know how well you're doing in your own projects. So develope your taste by surrounding yourself with great design. And like in any other learning, the key is just practice. If you have coded hundreds of features, then by the same time I might have done dozen of designs.
For me the hardest part still finding the right process for some cases. Sometimes I'm able to see the whole thing right way, and sometimes I'm just stuck or feel that something is wrong with the design without knowing what.
A) - Usually in our projects or in my projects, I try go with the design first, starting with describing what we are doing, why, for who and how.(The Five W’s Of http://52weeksofux.com/post/890288783/the-five-ws-of-ux). The concept, being 5 lines or 5 pages, sets the background for the whole project.
From there I try to go with sketches, or wireframes to iterate the views or the interaction flows. Then start doing the ui in Photsohop. When I'm quite set with the UI I start implementing that and iterating the interface along the way. After that, or about in the same time we start coding the features.
B) - I'm not sure how much wisdom we have accumulated. About some things sure, but natural multitouch interfaces or multimillion user web services are still quite new. If we would have followed Jacob Nielsens advice on everything, we woudn't have sites we have today.
I think the best way is to keep updated what's out there and from there you can get inspired to find your own solutions. That's why I have iPads & iPhones, try to use most of the new services to understand how they work and how they're built.
I try to learn from other people and their process (like with simple todo app, Cultured Code produces a lot of sketches and mockups http://culturedcode.com/things/iphone/makingof/ and one of other Rails Rumble attendees described their process: http://www.thevisualclick.com/notebook/2010/10/2010-rails-ru...
C) - In our company we usually have 2-3 person teams, where one of them is a designer, which is something I would recommend. Personally I think the best is if the designer can also implement the design, because Photoshop mockup is not the actual design, the app or it's interface is. For best result, you need to be charge of the whole interaction.
D) - I'm not that sure which way around I got started, I had some classical arts education as a kid, and later started making websites and developed some web services. I'm quite bad programmer, altough in addition to html&css I can handle javascript, rails and php.
I think the first step is to know what's is great and what isn't so you know how well you're doing in your own projects. So develope your taste by surrounding yourself with great design. And like in any other learning, the key is just practice. If you have coded hundreds of features, then by the same time I might have done dozen of designs.
For me the hardest part still finding the right process for some cases. Sometimes I'm able to see the whole thing right way, and sometimes I'm just stuck or feel that something is wrong with the design without knowing what.