# Working alone on a webapp **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 25, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/working-alone-on-a-webapp/64384 "2006-06-25T04:47:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hazmatt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@hazmatt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hazmatt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/working-alone-on-a-webapp/64384/1 "2006-06-25T04:47:27Z")
Do you design first the develop? Develop first then design? Do both simultaneously? Just curious, because I’m working on a site right now doing a little of both at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![hazmatt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@hazmatt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hazmatt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2006, 6:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/working-alone-on-a-webapp/64384/2 "2006-06-25T06:27:12Z")
On Sat Jun 24, 2006 at 10:46:43PM -0400, Matt R. wrote: > Do you design first the develop? Develop first then design? Do both > simultaneously? anectodal evidence, based on my one (three) rails project(s) design first, in the structural sense (schema), so first i write a crazy migration. then develop/design in the order of one controller then one view, since a view without some data to display is pretty pointless. controller development is basically writing stuff in irb then pasting it into a file in emacs when it works. im sure a proper IDE could unify this (ive been meaning to write one in rails). design of the view mainly consists of mindless tweaking of the CSS file (no sliced images harmed) which is a diversion after "damn i just rewrote the model so the query wasnt ass slow or “just learned 3 more gotchas”… then refactor it slightly so i can reuse it for 2 other projects. theres a bit of a fine line between too much user reconfigurability and indirection and optimized rigidity, but what i settled on tends to be pretty much RDF, so for 2.0 im going to get rid of SQL entirely and replace it with Kowari… > Just curious, because I’m working on a site right now doing a little of both > at the same time. > > – > Matt ---
**Author:** ![hazmatt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@hazmatt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hazmatt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2006, 8:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/working-alone-on-a-webapp/64384/3 "2006-06-25T08:16:02Z")
Matt R. wrote: > * * * > > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) I wrote up how I do things a few days ago. Check it out at [http://blog.mattmargolis.net/articles/2006/06/17/how-i-design-web-applications](http://blog.mattmargolis.net/articles/2006/06/17/how-i-design-web-applications) There are a lot of different ways to approach web application design, some will work better for you than others. There is some discussion of this on the wiki at [http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowtoDesignYourRailApplication](http://wiki.rubyonrails.com/rails/pages/HowtoDesignYourRailApplication) Best of luck, Matthew M. [blog.mattmargolis.net](http://blog.mattmargolis.net) ---
**Author:** ![hazmatt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@hazmatt](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/hazmatt)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/working-alone-on-a-webapp/64384/4 "2006-06-25T19:50:53Z")
I find data design always comes first, but you always end up missing a few things (which makes Migrations rock). 1. DB Model a piece of functionality 2. Scaffold it (generate or otherwise) 3. Play with the application flow, designing, testing with users (if you can), and iterating. Detail of this step: a. Diagram your routes b. Find out the navigation elements that are _needed_ c. Tinker with Ajax/non features 4. Clean up the XHTML 5. Detailed visual design, iconography, etc. I find that staying in step 3 the longest yields the best applications. This is where your usability hangs. Of course if it is client work, they always want to see you work backwards from step 5 (not ALL clients). 🙂 * * * Timothy J. [www.foundinteractive.com](http://www.foundinteractive.com)