in

WPF Design and Development

IdentityMine Team Blogs

Paul_Alexander

July 2007 - Posts

  • You got cool UI, but did you assure that the client gets it before shuffling it down in the list?

    Your visual designer has created a unique UI concept, and most importantly, it seems to fit the client's needs, but how do you promote this UI to the client? I've run into this several times since many of the common UI paradigms that folks are comfortable with are out the window...it's tough to convince and push a new concept that seems foreign to some. Be sure that you get the client on a phone call, at least, and allow plenty of time to review the concepts visually over some interactive web tool. More importantly, this UI concept design review will surface vital errors in the design. Engage the entire team and make good use of an hour slot. Don’t depart the meeting without an internal review of the outcome to assure that the design moves forward correctly and the next set of mockups are delivered quickly to avoid losing the momentum of that heated meeting. Be sure to continue iterating on them via email immediately. The PM's goal is to get locked on a design concept.

    On the flip side, it’s vital to assure that the developers can pull off the design given the estimate that they provided for the project. If not, your budget is in jeopardy, assuming you're doing a fixed bid project with an estimated cost structure from the developers. Going too deep in your design, without a team lead and/or integrator validating the design along the way, is a critical error for a PM on this technology. Ideally, the visual designer should be free to explore UI, and the client should reel in the team if it’s gone too far. Just don’t bite off too much is my point. Don't forget about your QA team, too. They need to be just as engaged. It keeps the PM's job minimal here, too, since the test plan is fed from this information and the handoff is self evident.

  • Doing a WPF project? Got an Integrator? Cool. Do you know what to do with him?

    Microsoft .Net 3.0 projects provide opportunities to build awesome UI, right? And surely you've got a developer who can construct WPF controls necessary to support the UI. So you've got a visual designer providing xaml assets to support his cool new UI concept, and your developer is quickly at work providing prototypes for the controls, and perhaps a test harness for the designers...but how does the visual designer's xaml get fully realized in the WPF app? First off, it's clear that the implementation of the UI is rarely done to the designer's full intentions. Enter the Integrator role. The Integrator understands the needs of the developer while also supporting the needs of the designer to assure that the app's UI is as compelling as it was designed, while also validating that the concepts can be realized in code from the developer. The integrator also needs to be able to implement animations and interactivity provided by the interactive designer. He speaks the language of both parties and should be a good negotiator, in my opinion. It also seems clearer these days that some face time with your visual designer and your integrator will assure that the hotness of the UI is realized - it seems less clostly to get the two of them on a box, and tweak the UI as needed. There is quite a lot of diversity in what this integrator role does, and I must say, I don't have all of the answers yet.

More Posts
© 2007 IdentityMine, Inc.
Powered by Community Server (Commercial Edition), by Telligent Systems