Design…on the fly, or up front?

Whether you’re starting afresh, you’ve already started and have a good functioning solution, or you’re contemplating your next project, don’t sacrifice the wisdom of good design in order to start having fun creating forms and reports. Top 3 reasons why:

1) Good Form. If you’ve ever played piano, golf, or even used a pencil, you know it’s important to practice good form…it reduces future physical or mental pain.

2) Minimize re-work. If you start a project without enough consideration for design, you’re likely to pay for it later in re-work or lack of functionality.

3) Create happy users, avoid extensive training. If your application will be used by anyone other than yourself, the last thing you want to do is spend a great deal of time training each new users on the idiosyncrasies of your solution. From making sure the field names are well labeled, creating intuitive forms with field arrangements that map to how a user thinks, to capturing all the data needed for someone to carry out their duties, doing a bit of design up front can save time, energy, and frustration in the long-term.

So what is the secret to good design? Well, I won’t pretend to be the expert, there are hundreds of books written on the topic. But for me, it is the same as creating a good presentation or letter…think like your audience. In this case, not you as the user, but someone who will wasn’t involved in the thought process for the design, but needs to understand how to use your application nonetheless.

How much time you actually spend designing is very subjective and dependent on how complex your project is going to be. But do put the horse before the cart when it comes to design.